Page 199 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

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Frontier. It brought about a reorganization of the administration with the separation of mili-
tary and administrative affairs, and an equal taxation. Repeated efforts of the administra-
32
tion authorities to improve the economic situation brought unsatisfactory results, because
mostly orders were issued which neglected the individual local and geographic situations
at the Frontier and the prerequisites of their economic basis. The inhabitants of the Frontier
often lacked the understanding for innovations and refused to try out modern technical aids
for agriculture or better methods of cultivation and cattle breeding. And they were indiffer-
ent or distrustful with respect to the authorities and their proposals for improvement. Even
some officers tried to resist the district system as they feared that the fighting spirit and the
discipline of the Frontier men could suffer from it.
33
Another war against the Ottomans from 1788 to 1791 and the death of Joseph II in 1790
brought an end to this system; it was finally abolished by Emperor Francis I on 1 November
1800. The administration was again entrusted to the commanders of each regiment.
34
During the Napoleonic Wars the Military-Frontier system reached its heyday due to the
reforms of archduke Charles, who declared the land property of the Frontier men to “genuine
military feuds” in the so-called “Grenz-Grundgesetze” (basic laws of the Frontier) of 1807
and granted the Frontier men a perpetual hereditary property and usufructuary right “with
reservation of the supreme property of his Majesty”.
The results of these reforms manifested themselves in the War of 1809, when more than
100.000 men were to serve in the imperial army so that for the defence of their own territory
even young and old men had to be called upon to complete the “Landesdefensionsdivisionen”
raised at home. However, they could hardly put up any resistance against the campaign of the
French marshal Marmont, which started in Dalmatia.
35
The defeat at Wagram and the following peace treaty of Schönbrunn in 1809 had far-
reaching consequences for the Military Frontier territory: The part of Croatia lying west of
the Save River towards the adriatic Sea had to be ceded to Napoleon together with the Carl-
stadt and Banal Frontiers. Together with parts of Carniola, Carinthia, Istria, and Dalmatia
they formed the so-called “Illyrian provinces”, and Marmont became their governor general.
Marmont, who in contrary to Napoleon and most of the generals viewed the institution of
the Military Frontier quite positively, adhered to the organization. The Viennese Court, who
always thought that in the long run Napoleon would not be able to hold this territory due to
its exposed position, was right. In the summer of 1813 the French armies which had remained
in the country could quickly be forced out. The retreat was speeded up by the fact that the
Frontier men of the area rebelled, unanimously joined the ranks of their comrades from the
Varazdin and Slavonian regiments and actively participated in the persecution of the retreat-
ing enemy.
During the following three decades the territory of the Military Frontier experienced an
apparent economic heyday. The losses in the population during the Napoleonic wars were
already compensated around 1815, and the population growth continued so that in 1821 the

32 Krajasich, Die Militärgrenze in Kroatien, 45.
33 Schindler, Militärgrenzverwaltung, 78 – 80.
34 Österreichisches Staatsarchiv/Kriegsarchiv, Vienna, HKR 1800 B 1796, 31 Dec 1800.
35 Amstadt, Die k. k. Militärgrenze, vol. 1, 195 – 212; quote: 205.