Only in the year 15 BC the Romans occupied almost every part of today´s Styria
and that without any resistance. A big number of roads and villages were
founded in this period. Slavic peoples penetrated into the bleeded land after
the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD and the mass migration ended.
In 788 the land was under the reign of Charles the Great (settlement of
Franconian, Bavarian and Saxonian farmers and noblemen). After the Hungarians
were defeated near Augsburg (955), marches were founded at the
Eastern border which were under the rule of the Traungauer dynasty.
In 1180 the March "Stiria" was made a Duchy by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa and in 1192 it came under the rule of the Babenberger dynasty and became therefore a part of Austria. After 1278 the Habsburg dynasty ruled the land (until 1918). The city of Graz was the Inner Austrian capital (until 1619) and for a short time also residential town of the Emperor. During the 15th century several regions became deserted because of serious plagues, Turkish
invasions and plague epidemics. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Thirty Years´ War, Hungarian and Turkish invasions impoverished the country.
The economic progress had been stopped in the 18th century due to the Napoleonic Wars, but continued during the 19th century when new industries were founded and the railway network was created (railway track between Vienna-Graz-Triest in 1857).
After World War I Styria had to cede to Yugoslavia the - economically - very important hinterland of
Upper Styria, in the South of the river Mur (Peace Treatment of St.Germain).
In 1955, after World War II, when the occupying forces (the English) left the country, recovery and economic upturn began.
