History of Military Border: 1500-1740

Rothenberg's The Military Border in Croatia, 1740-1881

Period: 1500-1740

Chapter 1: The Development of the Croatian Military Border to 1740

Key Family History Connections / Information of Interest:

• The military frontier was created (in the 1500s) as zone to protect against the Ottoman empire.  
• Later (in 1700s) the frontier became a source of cheap soldiers for the military.
• Colonists were provided several privileges if they agreed to settle in frontier and be reserve soldiers who could be called up. 
• Privileges included: Land, Freedom from serfdom, Ability to elect own local leaders, Freedom of religion (important for Orthodox Serbs).
• The extended family was the key organization for economic and social organization in the area.

[NOTE: The Udbina area is located in Lika which was located in the Karlstadt generalcy.  Any references to these larger units provides insights into life in the Udbina area.]

Quotes from Chapter:

"Meanwhile the Austrian Military Border - Militargrenze or Vojna Krajina - underwent considerable expansion and change. After the middle of the eighteenth century the institution extended along the entire boundary with the Ottoman Empire, occupying an area a thousand miles long and from twenty to sixty miles wide. In this region from the Adriatic coast to the northern end of the Moldavian Carpathians, there was no civil authority. The land was owned by the crown and assigned to military colonists, governed by military law and military officials. All men capable of bearing arms - Grenzer or graničari - were part of an ever-ready military force. The original purpose of this organization had been to ward off Turkish raids, but after the decline of the Turks, the function of the board change: it became a source of cheap and reliable manpower in the wars of the Hapsburgs.  No longer militia, but an important component of the imperial army, the Grenzer showed their colors on almost all the battlefields of Europe, gaining the reputation of being tough and resourceful, if brutal and rapacious, fighting men."   (Pages 6-7)

[SIDE NOTE: Here's a map of the military frontier.]

"The Turkish advance on the Balkans had driven thousands of refugees, generally of the Orthodox faith, into northern Croatia. These warlike and hardy men were assigned land, abundantly available in the devastated frontier regions, on condition that they be ready for service in time of need. At first these arrangements were informal, but after his election as king of Hungary and Croatia in 1527 Ferdinand took steps to make these settlers a permanent and basic element of frontier defense...  These military colonists received substantial privileges. They were endowed with small grants of land and relieved from the usual manorial obligations. They were to retain a share in all booty taken from the enemy and were authorized, subject to the ultimate control of appointed Habsburg officials, to elect their own leaders: Captains (vojvode) and magistrates (knezovi).  Most important, all settlers of the Orthodox faith were promised freedom of worship.  The privileges attracted additional settlers, and by 1550 the Hapsburg possessions in Croatia... were protected by a chain of fortified villages, blockhouses, and watchtowers, manned by some five thousand Grenzer, with only a small mercenaries to support them.  This was the modest beginning of the military border." (Page 8)

[SIDE NOTE 1: Kurjak was built around the watchtower (Gradina).  (Also see this post.)  ]
[SIDE NOTE 2: Todor Klaich, was the local, elected magistrate for Kurjak.]

"On the military border he [Ferdinand II] consolidated the various statutes, regulations, and privileges into one comprehensive administrative document. In October, 1630, he issued the Statute Valachorum, which emphasized and confirmed the military character of the border establishment. All Grenzer between the ages of sixteen and sixty were declared subject to military service not only against the Turks but against all enemies of the emperor.  The statute made the zadruga - the large, joint-family household common among the southern Slavic peoples - the basis of the social and economic organization. The zadruga, not the individual, became the recipient of the land grant and was responsible for the families of men on military service.  Under the circumstances then prevailing on the border, the zadruga enjoyed real advantages. Although a single-family farm might well be ruined by the death of one adult male, the zadruga could more easily absorb such a loss." (Pages 10-11)

[SIDE NOTE: Some of the maps named different areas based on the family living there.  Some of those areas retain the family areas to this day.]

"In the last decade of the seventeenth century a large number of immigrants arrive from Serbia.... From the point of view of this study, the importance of this massive migration is that it greatly strengthened the Serbian element of the Grenzer. Although there would be slight fluctuations, Orthodox Serbs now predominated in the Karlstadt Generalcy and in the Slavonian military districts." (Page 12)

Links to the posts for the various time periods (each covered in a chapter of the book):
1500-1740
1740-1756
1756-1780
1780-1790
1790-1809
1804-1814
1815-1847
1848-1859
1859-1871
1871-1881