Salzburg belonged at one time to the Duchy of Bavaria, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire. Following independence in the late 14th century it was controlled by prince–bishops of the Holy Roman Empire, and this was the case throughout Mozart's life (1756–91).
In 1803 the archbishopric was secularised by Emperor Napoleon, who transferred the territory to Ferdinando III of Tuscany, former Grand Duke of Tuscany, as the Electorate of Salzburg. Two years later the city and its territory were annexed to the Austrian Empire, and four years after that – following Austria's defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Wagram – they were transferred to the Kingdom of Bavaria.
In 1816, under the terms of the Congress of Vienna and the Treaty of Munich, Salzburg itself was definitively returned to Austria (but without parts of its territory, including the Berchtesgaden). Then in 1850, Salzburg was made a crownland (i.e. a territory belonging directly to the monarch) of the Austrian Empire.
Following World War I and the dissolution of the Austro–Hungarian Empire, Salzburg became part of the short–lived country of German Austria, which was replaced in the following year (1919) by the First Austrian Republic. Except for its annexation by Germany in the period leading up to the Second World War, Austria has been an independent nation ever since.
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