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Austria: Countrys
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Austria is a small country (84,000 km²) located in the center of Europe. Its faunal diversity is comparatively high due to the country’s varied geological, altitudinal (114 - 3,797 m) and climatic structure. The Alpine region of Austria (Flysch zone, Northern Calcareous and Central Alps, and a narrow strip of the Southern Alps) adjoins the Continental region, which includes the Bohemian Massif, Alpine forelands and the Pannonian lowland. The native ant fauna of Austria comprises 4 subfamilies, 29 genera and 127 species. Additionally, three genera and eight species of introduced ants have been recorded, but are not known to establish outdoor populations. Fortunately, Austria has ... far remained free of introduced, free-living species that already infest outdoor habitats in neighbouring countries (e.g., Linepithema humile, Lasius neglectus).
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Austria has not always been a small, landlocked European country with eight million inhabitants. Austria's cultural and historical influence reflects its imperial past, the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the Habsburg dynasty that once ruled it. Austria's long history begins with the Celtic tribes who were later conquered by the Romans. After the Romans, Austria was controlled by the barbarians, the Bavarians, and later (788) became part of Charlemagne's empire, only to fall into feudal disarray in the following centuries.
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Austria has a strong labor movement. The Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) comprises constituent unions with a total membership of about 1.2 million--about 31% of the country's wage and salary earners. Since 1945, the ÖGB has pursued a moderate, consensus-oriented wage policy, cooperating with industry, agriculture, and the government on a broad range of social and economic issues in what is known as Austria's "social partnership." The ÖGB opposed the Schüssel government's program for budget consolidation, social reform, and fiscal measures that favor entrepreneurs. However, because of a scandal involving a bank the ÖGB owned, the ÖGB lost much of its political influence in the SPÖ.
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Since World War II, Austria has enjoyed political stability. A Socialist elder statesman, Dr. Karl Renner, organized an Austrian administration in the aftermath of the war, and the country held general elections in November 1945. All three major parties--the conservative People’s Party (OVP), the Socialists (later Social Democratic Party or SPO), and Communists--governed until 1947, when the Communists left the government. The OVP then led a governing coalition with the SPO that governed until 1966.
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Austria is predominantly a mountainous country, with an average elevation of about 910 m (about 3,000 ft). Most of the land falls within the eastern division of the Alps. In general the major mountain ranges of Austria run in an east-west direction and are separated from one another by rather broad valleys. The northernmost line of ranges includes the North Tirol (Tyrol) Alps and the Salzburg Alps. Among the central ranges is the Hohe Tauern, which culminates in the Grossglockner, the highest elevation (3,797 m/12,457 ft) in the country; the Pasterze Glacier, one of Europe’s largest, descends from the Grossglockner peak. The southernmost ranges include the Ötztal Alps, the Zillertaler Alps, the Carnic Alps, and the Karawanken Mountains.
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Austria possesses a fairly great number of rivers, pretty equally distributed amongst its crown lands, with the exception of Istria and the Karst region, where there is a great scarcity of even the smallest rivers. The principal rivers are: the Danube, the Dniester, the Vistula, the Oder, the Elbe, the Rhine and the Adige or Etsch. As the highlands of Austria form part of the great watershed of Europe, which divides the waters flowing northward into the North Sea or the Baltic from those flowing southward or eastward into the Mediterranean or the Black Sea, its rivers flow in three different directions - northward, southward and eastward. With the exception of the small streams belonging to it which fall into the Adriatic, all its rivers have their mouths in other countries, and its principal river, the Danube, has ... its source in another country. When it enters Austria at the gorge of Passau, where it receives the Inn, a river which has as large a body of water as itself, the Danube is already navigable. Till it leaves the country at Hainburg, just before Pressburg, its banks are pretty closely hemmed by the Alps, and the river passes through a succession of narrow defiles.
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