Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Habsburg monarchy traces its origins to Rudolf I's election as King of Germany in 1273 and his acquisition of the Duchy of Austria in 1282. It ended in late 1918 with the proclamation of successor states including the Republic of German-Austria and the First Hungarian Republic following defeat in World War I.
Charles V was the grandson of Maximilian I and the ruler who brought the Habsburg Empire to its greatest territorial extent. He inherited the Habsburg Netherlands in 1506, Habsburg Spain and its territories in 1516, and Habsburg Austria in 1519. In 1556 he abdicated and divided the empire between his son Philip II, who received Spain, and his brother Ferdinand I, who received Austria and the Imperial crown.
The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 created the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Under it, the Kingdom of Hungary became an equal sovereign connected to the other Habsburg lands only by a personal union and a shared foreign and military policy. The non-Hungarian lands received their own parliament, the Reichsrat or Imperial Council.
Rudolf I of Germany, the first Habsburg king, assigned the Duchy of Austria to his sons at the Diet of Augsburg in 1282, establishing the Austrian hereditary lands. The family name itself derives from Habsburg Castle in present-day Switzerland, built by Radbot of Klettgau in the late 10th century.
The monarchy disbanded in late 1918 as ethnic independence movements came to the fore with military defeat. The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, the Republic of German-Austria, and the First Hungarian Republic were proclaimed. In the peace settlement, territories were ceded to Romania, Italy, Poland, the Kingdom of Serbs Croats and Slovenes, and Czechoslovakia.
Vienna served as the dynastic capital for most of the monarchy's history. The exception was the period between 1583 and 1611, when the capital was Prague.