!!!Militärgrenze

Military Border, former security zone against the Ottoman Empire, 
first established around 1522. On June 5, 1535 Ferdinand I 
permitted 3,000 Serbian refugees to settle in the border area and 
invested them with a piece of land as hereditary feudal tenure in 
return for permanent military service. Later refugees from territories 
occupied by the Turks (mainly Greek Orthodox) were settled there. 
Until the end of the 17%%sup th/%  century the military border ran 
from the Adriatic Sea to the River Drau/Drava and was further extended 
after the end of the Turkish wars (1683-1699, 1716-1717, 1737-1739). 
At that time the 1,750-km-long border line consisted of the Croatian 
(from 1578), the Slavonian (from 1702), the Banat or Hungarian (from 
1742) and the Transylvanian military border (from 1764). The entire 
male population (Croatians, Serbians, Romanians) from the age of 20 
had to enroll for military service in the border regiments, their land 
remained military feudal tenure, but was largely exempt from tax; the 
municipalities were autonomous. In 1807 the border was divided into 4 
generalcies, in 1850 the farms were transferred into private property. 
In times of peace the guarding of the cordon (against the introduction 
of diseases and smuggling) was its main task.

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The border soldiers were among the best soldiers of the Monarchy; 
during the 1848/49 revolution they were on the imperial 
government´s side, a third of the troops was killed in the 
Hungarian battles. From 1849 to 1866 the military border was a 
separate crownland (area 200,000 km%%sup 2/%, pop. 1,010,000, 12 
towns, 9 market towns, 1,760 villages), under the command of the 
Ministry of War, the border soldiers forming 5 line regiments.

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At the same time the dissolution of the military border began: in 1851 
the Transylvanian military border, in 1873, after the Hungarian 
Compromise, the Banat, in 1878 the Croatian, and by 1881 the Slavonian 
military border had all been abolished, the territories being 
incorporated into Hungary.

!Literature
H. Kerchnawe, Die alte k. k. Militaergrenze, 
1939; G. E. Rothenberg, Die oesterreichische Militaergrenze 
in Kroatien 1522-1881, 1970 (English: The Austrian military Border in 
Croatia, 1522-1747. 1960 and The military Border in Croatia. 
1740-1881. A study of an imperial institution. 1966; J. Amstadt, Die 
k. k. Militaergrenze, 2 vols., doctoral thesis, 
Wuerzburg 1969; N. v. Preradović, Des Kaisers Grenzer, 300 
Jahre Tuerkenabwehr, 1970; Die k. k. Militaergrenze, 
Schriften des Heeresgeschichtlichen Museums 6, 1973; W. Wagner, 
Die Militaergrenze, in: Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848-1918, vol. 5 
(Die bewaffnete Macht), 1987.


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