SVIBOR - Project code: 6-02-100

MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Strossmayerov trg 4, HR - 10000 ZAGREB
tel.: +385 1 459 44 44, fax: +385 1 459 44 69
E-mail: ured@znanost.hr

SVIBOR

SVIBOR - Collecting Data on Projects in Croatia

Project code: 6-02-100


The Military Frontier - sources and monographs


Main researcher: VALENTIĆ, MIRKO (51473)


Assistants
Type of research: basic
Duration from: 01/01/91. to 01/01/01.
Papers on project (total): 78
Papers on project quoted in Current Contents: 1
Institution name: Institut za suvremenu povijest, Zagreb (19)
Department/Institute: The Military frontier
Address: Opatička 10; soba 42, 43.
City: 10000 - Zagreb, Croatia
Communication
Phone: 385 (1) 428-199
Fax: 385 (1) 428-243
E-mail: aambuc¦misp.isp.hr
Summary: The Croatian-Slavonian Military Frontier originated in the 16th century as a defense area against the Ottomans, only to turn into an enormous Habsburg warprovince two centuries later. The Viennese court and military authorities succeeded in maintaining it as such until the end of the 19th century. The Military Frontier isn't only a military and political phenomenon of European history, but also a enonomical and social one. The frontier territory was almost as large as the civilian part of the Croatian Kingdom and it consisted of almost half of the entire Croat population. Eventhough the Frontier legally never ceased to be an inseperable part of the Kingdom, in reality it became governed more and more by the Viennese court. Excepting the Frontier from the authority of the Croatian parliament and banus afflicted the infrastructural, territorial and national integration of the Croatian people in a very harmful manner. The population of the Frontier was mostly preoccupied with agriculture (98%). The frontiersmen served in the imperial army from their 16th until their 60th year and while in the rest of the Habsburg Monarchy every 62nd inhabitant served as a soldier, in the Frontier that applied to every 12th inhabitant. Life in the Military Frontier had to evaporate order and discipline in even the smallest segments of frontier society. In it arose a mixed population of nativ Croats and fugitive Croat serfs from the nort as a national majority (always more than 50% of the entire frontier population), and numerous Vlach and later Serbian refugees from the south. In the military communities lived crafts- and tradesmen of Austro-German, Slovene, Czech and Italian origine. The colonized Vlachs of the Ottoman empire were almost exclusively members of the Othodox church. This Church, together with a part of the population affected the process of serbanizing the Vlach frontiersmen during the 18th century.

Keywords: Military Frontier, Croatia, Ottoman expansion, Hauptmannschaften, fortresses, Generalat, Croat diaspora, frontiersmen, Vlach colonization, regiments, military communities, religious communities, demilitarization, sanitary cordon.

Research goals: The primary research directive of this project is focused on collecting and publishing archival documents and writing larger monographs. The intended publication of 20 source-books with a focus on the older periods (15th, 16th and 17th century) represents the first expected result of this project. Along with the editing of sources, this project is concerned also with specific aspects of frontier history and the publishing of a larger amount of monographs in order to make new perceptions and results available to the general public. The main objective of this research is to cover as best as possible the development of the Military Frontier in an all-embracing path of development beginning in the 16th century and ending with its reunion in 1881, in order to eliminate many dilemma's that have become part of our science-research.
Other information about the project.
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