Military border

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The military border (outdated spelling military border , Latin confinium militare , Bosnian / Croatian / Serbian  Војна крајина / Vojna Krajina ) was the name for the border area between the Habsburg Empire and the Ottoman Empire in southeastern Europe, which was organized militarily from the 16th to the 19th century . At the time of its greatest expansion in 1850, the military border covered an area of ​​50,000 square kilometers and last extended over a length of 1850 km.

It consisted of the four generalates of the Croatian (1538–1878), Slavonian (1702–1878) and Banat (1742–1872) and Transylvanian border (1764–1851) with the associated border regiments . These regiments were numbered in 1769 and were considered regular infantry . Border infantry and cavalry therefore also fought outside the military border, for example in the Seven Years' War .

Map with the western section of the military border in the 19th century (Croatian border = brown border)

history

Establishment

With the advance of the Ottomans in south-eastern Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries, the Kingdom of Hungary was forced to reorganize its territory militarily, which included the border areas in particular. Even earlier, Hungarian border areas had a special position in the administration as Banats . In 1435 King Sigismund had the so-called Tabor , a military defense system, built in Croatia, Slavonia and Usora . In 1463 King Matthias Corvinus founded the Banovina of Jajce and Srebrenica , and in 1469 the military unit of Senj . The border marks in today's Banat also played an important role in the defensive battle against the Ottomans . So it happened that actually the entire Hungarian border area to the Ottoman Empire was in a military state of emergency, guarded by regular troops and irregular units.

These measures were taken to improve the defense of the empire, but did not bring the desired result. After the lost battle on the Krbava field in 1493, the Croatian nobility was no longer able to stop the Ottoman advance without the military assistance of the Hungarian and Austrian troops. In the 16th century, politically was personal union to the Kingdom of Hungary belonging Croatia to vorderster front of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans devastated and conquered large parts of Croatia in several campaigns. In the battle for the Hungarian crown between Ferdinand I and Johann Zápolya in 1526, parts of the Hungarian nobility and the Croatian Sabor elected Ferdinand I king of Hungary. In return, Ferdinand promised military and financial support against the Ottomans; such as the Croatian Sabor that he would send them 200 cavalrymen and 200 infantrymen and pay a further 800 cavalrymen who would be under the command of the Croats. A little later, the Habsburgs founded the military unit in Bihać . In the short term, however, these measures were ineffective as the Ottoman troops broke through the defensive lines in 1529, captured Buda and besieged Vienna .

In 1553 the border region was reformed for the first time under the command of Ivan Lenković . The border area was divided into the Croatian border ( Krabati Gränitz ) and the upper Slavonian border ( Windische, Oberslawonische Gränitz ).

Čardak Museum in Županja . Former border post on the Save

Along the border with the Ottoman Empire, several smaller fortifications were built on the line Senj - Otočac - Slunj - Glina - Hrastovica - Sisak - Ivanić-Grad - Križevci - Đurđevac . Larger fortresses were built in Ogulin , Hrastovica, Žumberak , Koprivnica and Križevci. German and Croatian infantrymen were in the smaller fortresses. Heavy German and light Croatian cavalry were in the larger fortresses. Serbian and Wallachian fortified farmers were specifically settled in the border region.

The
Sisak fortress

The most important office of the general was mostly in the hands of the Croatian nobility, the Frankopan , Zrinski and Erdödy families .

Armories were built in Graz ( Landeszeughaus ) and Ljubljana . Since Inner Austria and the Croatian estates were unable to bear the costs of defense alone, the Reich came to their aid with extensive payments, the so-called Reichstürkenhilfe .

The Brod Fortress , entrance area

Turkish Wars

During the Turkish wars , large parts of Croatia were temporarily conquered by the Ottomans and their aid peoples. During the inner-Austrian assembly in Bruck an der Mur in 1578, it was decided that all countries had to participate in military spending and the development of a military strategy to defend the Habsburg Empire. The nobles of Styria financed the Slavonian military border, while Upper Austria , Lower Austria , Carniola , Carinthia and Salzburg had to pay for the Croatian military border . At the end of the 16th century the Croatian Krajina was renamed Generalate Karlstadt , and around 1630 the Slavonian Krajina became Generalate Varaždin .

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the military high command of the Croatian Ban and Sabor was withdrawn and instead handed over to the high command of Archduke Karl and the council of war in Graz . Despite the financial support of the inner Austrian nobility, the financing of the military border was not very effective. The military leadership in Graz made the decision to test other solutions than the previous use of mercenaries . In 1630, the Imperial Council decided to grant land and certain privileges to settlers in the border area. The local population was also encouraged to stay by granting privileges. In November 1630, the emperor proclaimed the so-called Statuta Wallachorum , which established the status of settlers from the Ottoman Empire (Serbs, Croats, Wallachians). The Wallachian status was based on the administration of the Ottoman Empire, in which it was free, i.e. H. Landlords were not obliged to give Christian peasants; these were called Wallachians, in contrast to the taxable Reâyâ .

After the Peace of Karlowitz

The 17th century was relatively peaceful on the military border. After the Battle of Kahlenberg in 1683, the Turkish Wars subsided and a large part of Croatia was liberated. The course and location of the military border was adapted to the changeable fortunes of war after the respective border course. Parts of the Banat and the strategically important city of Belgrade were repeatedly conquered and then recaptured by the Ottomans.

With the dissolution or relocation of the Tisza-Maroscher military border ( Potiska i Pomoriska vojna granica ) from 1702 to 1741, the Austrian military border was finally expanded from the Croatian coast via the Banat to Transylvania from 1742. The previous Tisza-Marosch border was pushed forward to the Danube and to the Banat border with 4 senior captains and 22 companies, some on foot, some on horseback, a total of 4200 men - the "Temeschvarer Landmilit".

In 1881 the military border was finally dissolved and subordinated to the civil authorities of Hungary and the autonomous kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia , which belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary .

As a military facility, the border had already outlived itself in the absence of a persistent Ottoman threat, but its transfer without a trace to Hungarian or Croatian-Slavonian structures once again deprived Vienna of the previously existing access rights. The kingdom of Dalmatia , which belongs to the western half of the Austrian Empire, was of considerable strategic value in the eyes of the central government in view of its long coastline.

population

ethnicities

The population on the military border was largely made up of Serbs , Croats , Romanians and other Orthodox Christians . Another part of the population were Germans and Hungarians , as well as Wallachians , Bulgarians , Morlaks , Albanians , Macedonians , Bosniaks , Montenegrins and Slovenes .

Mainly Serbs and Croats settled in the military border. They were exempt from taxes, lived with the extended family and performed guard and military service. German-speaking settlers only began to settle here after the military border was dissolved.

Denominations

Censuses from the 18th and 19th centuries produced the following results:

According to the census of 1790, the population of the then military border consisted of 51.7% Orthodox Christians, 45.2% Catholics and 3.1% Calvinists as well as 42.4% Serbs, 35.5% Croats, 9.7% Romanians, 7 , 5% Hungarians and 4.8% Germans.

According to the census of October 31, 1857, 675,817 people lived on the Croatian and Slavonian military frontiers, of whom 58.8% were Catholics, 40.3% Orthodox Christians, and 0.8% Protestant Christians . Later population censuses gave a similar picture.

In the areas around

According to the predominantly prevailing opinion of international historical scholarship at the moment , the formation of nations in the South Slavic states took place largely according to denominational affiliation. The languages ​​and national customs only played a more important role later in the phase of ethnic-denominational differentiation. Because of this, the Serbian and Croatian nations did not appear on the territory of the Croatian and Slavonian military border until the second half of the 19th century.

particularities

In return for compulsory military service, border guards were granted tax and religious freedom. The civil authorities were bound by the instructions of the military commander, who was directly subordinate to the ruler. Compulsory schooling was only introduced here in 1826, after it was introduced in civil Croatia in 1774 by Maria Theresa .

Structure and meaning

organization

The border area was divided into different fiefs, for infantry , for soldiers , for officers . The Grenzlehen were awarded for free use. In the event of an alarm, men aged 17 and over had to go to the alarm stations. The individual fiefs could neither be divided nor enlarged. Fiefs were not inherited or given to those unfit for war. The income from the free use of the fiefdom took the place of military wages .

Under Maria Theresa the military border achieved perfect organization. The border guards were grouped into regiments . A regiment comprised a precisely defined area. The border guards were peasant soldiers. A third of the military farmers worked 135 days of work for pay on watch or in maneuvers, the remaining time was free to cultivate the fields. Two thirds were completely free to work in the fields in peacetime. Each border house enjoyed a tax reduction . In the event of an alarm and in times of war, all gun carriers from the age of 17 were at the alarm stations within a few hours.

The officers of the military border were not only commanders but also administrative officials. The command and administrative language was German. The school system included every place on the military border. Every border child also learned German in addition to their mother tongue. The number of Magyars and Szeklers , Croats and Serbs, as well as the Romanians who served in the border regiments, was considerable.

administration

The military border was self-administered and had its own jurisdiction. It was first subordinate to the Habsburg central Austrian authorities in Graz, and from 1705 to the Court War Council in Vienna. After 1849 the border, which was divided into four generalates, was temporarily a separate crown land , which was gradually dissolved until 1881. Elsewhere, the military border was not expressly referred to as crown land, but as an area "endowed with sovereign rights that are only peculiar to a politically independent territorial area". However, after the defeat of the Hungarian Revolution in 1848, the Serbs who immigrated to southern Hungary from the Turkish threat and who fled there after the reconquest of Belgrade in 1690 received their own crown land of the Voivodeship of Serbia and the Temesian Banat . This voivodeship of Serbia ( Vojvodina ) corresponded to the area of ​​the Banat military border . The Banat retained the status of a crown land until 1860, Vojvodina until 1872.

Military importance

At the time of its greatest expansion from 1764 to 1851, the border was constantly manned by up to 17 regiments (each consisting of four battalions) with around 17,000 men. However, the role of the border garrison and the fortified farmers from the area of ​​the military border in major battles in which the Ottomans were stopped, repulsed or pushed back is considered by historians of international relevance to be of little or no importance. The military border served rather as a region of local settlements with Haidukism without any real impact on the military balance of power in the Christian-Turkish wars.

The military frontier was of great importance as an inexpensive reservoir of soldiers who were mainly used in the service of the Habsburgs on other European battlefields than to defend the empire from the Ottomans.

  • During the Thirty Years War , the Croatian Horsemen were mercenaries of the imperial troops on numerous European battlefields.
  • The military power and thus the danger emanating from the Ottoman Empire ended after the great battles at the end of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Here, the troops from the military border had only a minor military significance, an assessment that is not universally shared.
  • The main burden and main earnings in the defense of Austria-Hungary carried the well-equipped imperial armies. These consisted mainly of mercenaries from many parts of Europe and thus from completely different ethnic backgrounds.

In addition to a military limit, there was also a health policy limit: there were quarantine stations at regular intervals, primarily to protect against the spread of the plague .

Croatian border

The Croatian military border ( Croatian Hrvatska Vojna krajina ) was formed during the personal union of Croatia with the Kingdom of Hungary on the original initiative of Ferdinand I in 1538 .

It consisted of the Varaždin borderland ( Bilogora and Podravina ), the borderland of Karlovac ( Lika and Kordun ) and the Zagreb borderland (Banija / Banovina).

The Croatian military border existed in various forms until 1878 and 1882 , when the area was incorporated into the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia .

geography

This part of the military border included the historical regions of the Lika , Kordun and Banija (Banovina) and bordered on the Adriatic Sea with the Republic of Venice in the south, Habsburg Croatia in the west, and the Ottoman Empire in the east.

It bordered the Slavonian military border near the confluence of the Una and the Save . Like the rest of the military border, it existed as a political entity until the late 19th century.

Frontier Infantry Regiments

Szekler, Broder, Ottochaner, Warasdiner, Likaner and Karlstädter Grenzregiment around 1756
  • Karlstädter Grenzland ( Karlovac )
    • I. Likaner Regiment ( Lika ) (from 1769: No. 60)
    • II Ottochan Regiment ( Otočac ) (No. 61)
    • III. Ogulin Regiment ( Ogulin ) (No. 62)
    • IV.Szluin Regiment ( Slunj ) (No. 63)
  • Warasdin borderland ( Varaždin )
  • Banal borderland ( Banska krajina ) ( Banovina )
    • X. First Banat Regiment ( Glina ) (No. 69)
    • XI. Second Banat Regiment ( Petrinja ) (No. 70)

Slavonian border

Slavonian military border in 1751
Slavonian military border in 1849

The Slavonian Military Frontier ( Croatian Slavonska Vojna krajina ) was established in 1702 on the areas that the Habsburgs had recaptured from the Ottomans , including southern Slavonia and Syrmia . It was mostly located in eastern Croatia and partly in Vojvodina . It existed in different forms until 1878 and 1882, when the area was incorporated into the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia .

Geography and population

In 1849 this part of the military border bordered the Principality of Serbia and Ottoman Bosnia in the south, the Banat military border in the east, Slavonia and Vojvodina in the north, and the Croatian military border and civil Croatia in the west.

Vinkovci , Nova Gradiška , Slavonski Brod , Petrovaradin , Sremski Karlovci , Stara Pazova , Zemun and Sremska Mitrovica were among the most important places in the Slavonian military border .

At the census of 1820, a total of 117,933 Catholics and 117,274 Orthodox Christians lived in the Slavonian military border .

Frontier Infantry Regiments

The Slavonian border was divided into the Gradiška , Brod , and Petrovaradin regiments . The administrative seat of the Broder regiment was in Vinkovci .

Banat border

The Banat military border (Croat. And Serb. Banatska vojna krajina ) existed from 1742 to 1872 in the region of Banat (today in Romania ) and Vojvodina (today in Serbia ).

Geography and population

Map of the Banat Military Frontier in 1849

The Banat military border was an area inhabited by Serbs ( Illyrian population or also called Raizen ) , Germans and Romanians ( Wallachians ) . The south-eastern part of the Batschka also belonged to the Banat military border .

The military border area bordered on the Ottoman Empire in the south (from 1833 on the Principality of Serbia ), in the north on the Timisoara Banat (from 1849 to 1860 on the Voivodeship of Serbia and Timisoara Banat , from 1860 on the Counties Torontál and Temes ), in the northeast the Transylvanian military border, to the Grand Duchy of Transylvania ( Hunyad County ) and the Krassó and Szöreny counties , to the south-east to the Principality of Wallachia (from 1859 Principality of Romania ) and to the west to the Slavonian military border .

Pančevo , Bela Crkva , Titel , Žabalj , Alibunar , Kovin , Caransebeş were among the most important places on the Banat military border .

history

The area of ​​the military border was divided into the Wallachian, Illyrian and German regimental districts, each of which provided a border infantry regiment of the imperial-royal army (German-Banat border regiment No. 12, Romanen-Banat border regiment No. 13, Serbian- Banat Border Regiment No. 14).

As early as May 1764, on imperial instructions, advertising began in the invalids' houses in Vienna , Pest , Prague and Pettau . At the same time, the settlement commission, headed by Count Villars, wrote a report on the places to be settled. The proposed district was in the extreme southwest of the Banat on the Danube and Temesch . Initially, no new settlements should be built for them next to or instead of the existing Serbian places. For this purpose, most of the resident Serbs had to be resettled in the interior of the country , because one of the most important goals of the builders of the Banat military border was to colonize the border towns with Catholic veterans . Although the state administration objected, the court war council prevailed and the Serbs were resettled, partly in the interior of the Panchova district , partly in the areas of the military border reserved for the Wallachian-Illyrian regiment . One of the main reasons for the transfer of the Serbs were not only security but also fiscal considerations. In this way, the settlement commission was able to settle the veterans in the existing locations without extensive preparation and substantial preliminary work.

Each colonist was assigned their own houses and farms. However, these were not unpaid assignments, but were made within the framework of the same anticipation system as in the cameral Banat . The land that the settlers received was assigned to them as a military frontier loan. Until the end of the settlement, the disabled and those released from the army received their pay as before. They built the house themselves, but received additional remuneration. The building materials were assigned to the settlers free of charge, as was the first sowing and disused cavalry horses for agriculture. It was not until 1769 that the settlers in the German-Banat military border district were used for regular cordon service. Despite extensive planning by the Court War Council , no places in the settlement area were fundamentally changed or rebuilt until 1770. These tasks were reserved for the late Heresian and Josephine settlement periods . Between 1765 and 1770, within the first period of the establishment of the Banat military border, twelve places were occupied by German veterans, invalids and those released from the army.

The Banat military border was dissolved in 1871/72. The regiments were disbanded in November 1872 and their regimental districts were assigned to the supplementary districts of infantry regiments No. 29 (District Command in Groß-Betschkerek ), No. 61 (District Command in Temesvár ) and No. 43 (District Command in Caransebesch ).

Frontier Infantry Regiments

  • XII. German Banat Regiment (1769: No. 71)
  • XIII. Wallachian-Illyrian Regiment (No. 72)

Transylvanian border

Frontier Infantry Regiments

  • XIV. First Szekler Regiment (No. 73)
  • XV. Second Szekler Regiment (No. 74)
  • XVI. First Wallachian Regiment (No. 75)
  • XVII. Second Wallachian Regiment (No. 76)

There was also the Tschaikist Battalion (Titler Grenzbataillon).

Cavalry regiments

See also

literature

  • Karl Kaser : military border . In: Konrad Clewing, Holm Sundhaussen (Ed.): Lexicon for the history of Southeast Europe . Böhlau, Vienna et al. 2016, ISBN 978-3-205-78667-2 , p. 601-603 .
  • Norbert Hierl-Deronco: From Urstein to Urstein, thoughts on the Salzburg Rupert knight Franz Joseph Dücker Freiherr von Haslau on Urstein and Winkl and the Austrian military border. Hierl-Deronco, Krailling 2006, ISBN 3-929884-10-0 .
  • Drago Roksandić: Etnos, konfesija, tolerancija. SKD Prosvjeta, Zagreb 2004.
  • Potiska i pomoriška vojna granica (1702–1751). Muzej Vojvodine, Novi Sad 2003.
  • Franz Marschang: The Banat and the Banat Germans through the ages. Heinz W. Holler, Karlsruhe 2002, ISBN 3-929431-15-7 .
  • Alexander Buczynski: Gradovi Vojne krajine 1–2. HIP, Zagreb 1997.
  • Milan Kruhek: Krajiške utvrde Hrvatskog kraljevstva. HIP, Zagreb 1995.
  • Drago Roksandić: Vojna Hrvatska (1809-1813). Parts 1 and 2. ŠK, Zagreb 1988.
  • Dragutin Pavličević (ed.): Vojna krajina: povijesni pregled-historiografija-rasprave. SN Liber, Zagreb 1984.
  • Walter Berger: Build a wall for the empire. The book about the emergence of the military border against the Turks. Stocker, Graz 1979, ISBN 3-7020-0342-8 .
  • Jakob Amstadt: The kk military frontier 1522–1881 (with a complete bibliography). Dissertation. Wuerzburg 1969.
  • Vojin S. Dabić: migrations of the Serbs to Croatia and Slavonia from the beginning of the 16th to the end of the 17th century . In: Историјски часопис . No. 38 (1991) , 1992, pp. 43-76 ( google.com ).
  • Mirko Valentić: Vojna krajina i pitanje njezina sjedinjenja s Hrvatskom 1849–1881. CHP, Zagreb 1981.
  • Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Ed.): The Imperial and Royal Military Border (contributions to its history). Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-215-73302-1 . ( Writings of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum. 6).
  • Gunther E. Rothenberg : The Austrian Military Frontier in Croatia 1522–1881 . Herold, Vienna 1970.
  • Nikolaus von Preradovich : The emperor's border guards. 300 years of defense against the Turks. Molden, Vienna, Munich, Zurich 1970.
  • Hans Bleckwenn : The regiments of the Empress: Thoughts on the Albertina manuscript 1762 of the Army History Museum Vienna. In: Writings of the Army History Museum in Vienna. Volume 3: Maria Theresia - Contributions to the history of the army of her time. Graz, Vienna, Cologne 1967, pp. 25–53.
  • Milan Turković: Antemurale Christianitatis: The former Croatian-Slavonian military border . 2nd Edition. Self-published, Sušak 1937.
  • Franz Vaníček: Special history of the military border . Taken from original sources and source works . Imperial Court and State Printing Office , Vienna 1875. 4 volumes. (Digital copies: Volume 1 , Volume 3 , Volume 4 )

Historical monographs

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Konrad Clewing, Oliver Jens Schmitt: Geschichte Südosteuropas. Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2012, p. 302
  2. ^ Anton Friedrich Büsching: Große Erdbeschreibung Vol. 6: The Kingdom of Hungary with the incorporated countries and the Grand Duchy of Transylvania , Opava 1785, p. 350
    or Siegfried Becher: Statistical overview of the population of the Austrian monarchy based on the results of the years 1834 to 1840 , Cotta , Stuttgart 1841, p. 121
  3. Walter Engel (Ed.): Banat cultural area. German culture in a European multiethnic region. The Banat. A European cultural area - German culture in the context of a multi-ethnic region. Interdisciplinary symposium, Timişoara, 23. – 25. September 2004. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2007, ISBN 3-89861-722-X , p. 16.
  4. Otto Kumm : Forward Prince Eugene! History of the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division “Prinz Eugen”. Munin-Verlag , Osnabrück 1978, p. 12ff. (Chapter: The empire's yard fence. History of the Austro-Hungarian military border. PDF )
  5. ^ Konrad Clewing, Oliver Jens Schmitt: Geschichte Südosteuropas. Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2012, p. 465
  6. Thomas Casagrande: The Volksdeutsche SS Division "Prinz Eugen". The Banat Swabians and the National Socialist war crimes . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 2003, ISBN 3-593-37234-7 , p. 368, here p. 147, note 8. (cf. Wehler 1980, p. 12 and 106, note 9 and Senz 1987, p . 90f).
  7. ^ Edgar Hösch: History of the Balkan countries. From the early days to the present , CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 3-406-57299-5 , p. 91.
  8. ^ Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Ed.), Franz Kaindl , Johann Christoph Allmayer-Beck : The Imperial and Royal Military Border , Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna, 1973, ISBN 3-215-73302-1 , p. 327; see. also Johann Heinrich Schwicker : History of the Austrian Military Border , Teschen, Vienna, 1883, pp. 343–346.
  9. Bleckwenn speaks of an "inexhaustible performance of the military border". He explains the bad reputation of the border guards with the attempt of the "disapproving line" (regular troops) to qualify them as "light troops". Cf. Hans Bleckwenn : The Empress Hayduken, Hussars and Border Guards - Image and Being 1740–1769 . In: Joachim Niemeyer (Hrsg.): Hans Bleckwenn: To the military system of the Ancien Régime: Three basic essays. Reprint in honor of the author on the occasion of his 75th birthday on December 15, 1987. Biblio, Osnabrück 1987, p. 23–42, here: 34 ff .
  10. a b Swantje Volkmann: The architecture of the 18th century in the Temescher Banat. Dissertation, Heidelberg 2001 (PDF 32 MB),
  11. Franz Vaníček: Special history of military border. Volume 2. Verlag der kuk Hof-u. Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1875, p. 183; Military Science Institute of the Military History Museum Vienna (Ed.): The Imperial and Royal Military Border. Writings of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Volume 6. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-215-73302-1 , p. 26.