Austria occupied the Republic of Ragusa on 24 August 1798.

Italian armies, led by General Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora, were to engage the Austrians on the southern front.

During the First World War, major battles were fought high in the Alps and Dolomites between Austro Hungarian Kaiserjäger and Italian Alpini, for whom control of the region was a key strategic objective.

This caused Sardinia to seek allies against Austria and ultimately only with French (1859) and Prussian (1866) help would Sardinia be able to drive out the Austrians from Northern Italy.

Thousands of Austrians had taken part in serious Nazi crimes (hundreds of thousands died in Mauthausen Gusen concentration camp alone), a fact officially recognised by Chancellor Franz Vranitzky in 1992.

In 1699 the island came under Turkish control but in 1716 it was recaptured by the Austrians, and the Fortress of New Orșova was built by Nicolaus Doxat de Démoret, an Austrian colonel of Swiss origin.

In early July 1914, after the murder of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Wilhelm egged on the Austrians, but by the end of the month he couldn t restrain his own subordinates from starting a war, following the dictates of military strategy the famed Schlieffen Plan.