Period: 1815-1847
Chapter 7: The Military Border in the Era of Metternich: 1815-47
Key Family History Connections / Information of Interest:
- Land in Lika was poor and no industry was encouraged. Still during the peace times the population saw substantial growth.
- Guarding the border was their biggest responsibility during the peace years.
- Nationalism had not been big among the people of the Border because they enjoyed more freedom than serfs in the non-military portion of Croatia. Nationalism started to grow in this period, however, because of a shifted emphasis on language, traditions, and customs. (When serfs become free, the growth of nationalism got even stronger)
[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:
"In the years between the fall of Napoleon and the Revolution of 1841, Austrian military policy was primarily directed toward maintaining the status established by the treaties of 1815." (Page 122)
"They maintained their guard along the Turkish frontier, and through with the patent decline in Ottoman power emphasis had changed to the control of the plague and the prevention of smuggling, there still were frequent incursions from Bosnia, which on occasion flared up into full-scale battles." (Page 122)
"[D]espite efforts to keep the Grenzer 'uncontaminated,' new ideas, especially the spirit of nationalism, were slowly filtering through the civil Croatia into the military border." (Page 11)
"At the close of the Naploeonic wars the Croatian Military Border was not a happy place. Almost every household had lost at least one member; one-ninth of the male population of the eight Croatian regiments never came back from the wars." (Page 123)
"[I]nstructions were issued in 1814 for a detailed census, a conscription, to be taken every five years and revised annually. Heads of all zadruge were to appear before a special commissions to give anaccount of their land holdings, the number of persons in the household and other such details. The enter male population was enumerated and classified into three major categories: active duty (dienend), liable for duty (dienstbar), and exempt or unfit for duty (undienstbar)...
The census of 1815 revealed that the population of Karlstadt regiments was 193,607; the banal regiments, 96281; and the Warasdin regiments, 107,589. Of these totals more than one-half were men, and of these about one-quarter were fit for field service, and about one-half were classified fit for limited service. The census also revealed that the regious composition of the regiments had remained substantially unchanged. The Orthodox prevailed in the Banala regiments, while the Catholics formed a two to one majority in the Warasdin units. In the Karlstadt reiments the Ottoschatz and Ogulin units and the most Catholics; the Lika regiment was almost solidly Orthodox." (Pages 124-125)
"In times of peace cordon guard was the most burdensome obligation of the Grenzer. Duty here was usually for a week at a time, every six or seven weeks." (Page 127)
"Even as the Grenzer assumed greater importance within the Austrian military establishment, the economy of the Croatian regiments continued to stagnate. Accounts by both native and foreign observers... all agree that government continued to be directed toward one end: to maintain the greatest possible number of troops at the least expense. ... But improvements in public security, prolonged periods of peace, and advances in public health all contributed to a rapid population increase matched neighter by increased land allotments or by an proportionate rise in productivitiy." (Page 131)
"[T]he result was considerable deprivation and often acute want, especially in the Karlstadt regiments that farmed the poorest soil. Here the margin of existence was paper thin and crop failure, or even a bad harvest, meant hunger and near famine. After the crop failure in 1816, there were a few fair years, but harvests were poor in 1825, 1830, 1834, 1836, and 1840...
At the same time the authorities continued to oppose any expansion of trade and industry that might diminish the hold of the zadruge on the Grenzer... This description, of course, was too severe. There were some cottage industries and a few artisans. But during the first half of the nineteenth century there was but one craftsman to every 173 inhabitants in the Croatian Military Border, compared to one to every 79 inhabitants in civil Croatia." (Pages 132-133)
"At this time Croatian aspirations had very little appeal for the Grenzer. Recruited for generations from eh same families and the same communities and endowed with privileges that raised them well above the serfs of civil Croatia, the Grenzer opposed all Croatian suggests to end the separate military administration. Within the new few decades Grenzer attitudes were modified by changes in the nature of Croatian nationalism. Traditionally Croatian claims had been based on the historic-political unity of the kingdom and on the special rights of the privileged estates. But in the wake of the French occupation groups of novels, clergy, and even the small bourgeoisie began to taken an interest in the Slavic tongues and to develop a new Croatian nationalism on the basis of common language, customs, and traditions." (Page 138)
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
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