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386 General History of Europe IV. THE AUSTRIAN REALM; MARIA THERESA 666. The Hapsburgs in Austria. While the Hohenzolleras of Prussia from their capital at Berlin had been extending their power over northern Germany, the great House of Hapsburg, es- tablished in the southeastern corner of Germany, with its capital at Vienna, had been grouping together, by conquest or inheritance, the vast realm over much of which it ruled down to the end of the World War, in 1918. It will be remembered that Charles V, shortly after his accession, ceded to his brother, Ferdinand I, the German or Austrian possessions of the House of Hapsburg (558), while he himself retained the Spanish, Burgundian, and Italian dominions. Ferdinand, by a fortunate marriage with the heiress of the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary, greatly augmented his territory. Hungary was, however, almost completely conquered by the Turks at that time, and till the end of the seventeenth century the energies of the Austrian rulers were largely absorbed in a long struggle against the Mohammedans who threatened central Europe for many years. 667. Conquests of the Turks in Europe. A Turkish people from western Asia had, at the opening of the fourteenth century, established themselves in western Asia Minor under their leader, Othman (d. 1326). It was from him that they derived their name of Ottoman Turks, to distinguish them from the Seljuk Turks, with whom the crusaders had come into contact. The leaders of the Ottoman Turks showed great energy. They not only extended their Asiatic territory far toward the east, and later into Africa, but they gained a footing in Europe as early as 1353. They gradually occupied the territory about Constantinople, and a hundred years later succeeded in capturing the ancient capital of the Eastern Empire, which came under their sway in the year 1453. This advance of the Turks naturally aroused grave fears in the states of western Europe lest they too might be deprived of their independence. The brunt of the defense against the com- mon foe devolved upon Venice and the German Hapsburgs, who