The Habsburg Mobility Control of Ottoman Migrants

During the eighteenth century, the Habsburg Monarchy introduced a series of measures to control the mobility of Ottoman migrants. These measures triggered the development of more comprehensive mobility control policies, sharing many characteristics (centralized, systematic, uniform, individualized) with practices introduced by nation states in the nineteenth century. This suggests that the introduction of modern statewide mobility control policies should be placed further back in time. This project examines how and why the Habsburg authorities targeted Ottoman migrants so early. It argues that the Habsburg-Ottoman border differed from other early modern borders in two respects: firstly, the long tradition and particularly the eighteenth-century transformation of the Military Border (Militärgrenze), secondly the establishment of a permanent Sanitary Cordon. Both institutions provided the basis for the emergence of modern mobility control measures and the concomitant advancement of a linear boundary. The immediate jurisdiction of the Habsburg Court over the Ottoman migrants encouraged the supervision of their residence and travel inside the Monarchy. The project is organized around three research areas. First, it follows the advance of a sacrosanct linear border after the pacification in the Habsburg-Ottoman relations. With the permanent Sanitary Cordon, a strict control of mobility was introduced on the borders. The analysis of records from the border quarantine stations demonstrates how the mobility control practices developed from the ad hoc starting point of epidemics control to more planned and systematic economic and immigration measures. Second, the project examines the mobility control measures introduced to supervise the Ottoman migrants inside the Monarchy, such as the mandatory possession of passports, as well as the creation of special registers of Ottomans. The evolution of travel documents and identification techniques indicates the creation of a modern comprehensive mobility control policy. Finally, the project analyzes the place of policies toward Ottoman migrants in the Habsburg general population policy. It examines surveys and censuses of Ottomans, as well as laws and decrees that regulated their foreign status and encouraged naturalization. Through interaction with local and provincial authorities the central government expanded its authority to set guidelines for a statewide Habsburg immigration policy. The project is primarily based on the research of central, provincial and local records of Habsburg administration in Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia and Romania. It will complement this with the investigation of unpublished eighteenth-century reports and descriptions of the Sanitary Cordon. The analysis suggests that Habsburg mobility control measures toward Ottoman migrants encouraged the formulation of more general and centralized Habsburg policies. This specific background explains the arrival of a modern statewide immigration policy predating the nation state and outside of the typical nation state model.

Our research on the Habsburg-Ottoman border in the eighteenth century suggests that the Habsburg Monarchy started controlling migration at external borders during early eighteenth century. The history of modern border controls should, therefore, be placed further back in time, from the late nineteenth century, to the early eighteenth century. In addition, our research has shown that Habsburg officials used border controls to facilitate rather than to curb migration. Finally, we concluded that the border separating the Habsburg and Ottoman empires was one of the first modern linear borders in Europe. The project focused on two major research areas: border delimitations and the control of migrants at external borders. The first linear borders between the Habsburg and the Ottoman empires were clearly demarcated by a joint Habsburg-Ottoman commission after 1699. From that moment, the two empires abolished competing claims and overlapping jurisdictions, introducing instead clear territorial separation of jurisdictions. The border was pacified and partially demilitarized, which increased security for border inhabitants and migrants. Comparing Habsburg-Ottoman border delimitations with other eighteenth-century European and particularly Ottoman-Venetian and Polish-Ottoman borders suggests that the practice of linear boundaries was probably originally an Ottoman administrative practice, used first for internal and later for external borders. The Habsburg Monarchy adopted this practice, while at the same time using mapping and triangulation to improve delimitation procedures. Further, our research has shown that border controls, established in the form of a land sanitary cordon and border quarantine stations in the 1720s and lasting until the 1850s, were introduced to facilitate migrations. These procedures help to control and or prevent epidemic diseases, particularly the plague, which usually brought travel and trade to a halt. Through border controls it was possible to continue migrations and trade even in pestilent times. By deploying border troops as border guards, by closely cooperating with Ottoman border authorities, local Habsburg population and migrants, the Habsburg Monarchy was able to redirect migrations to official border crossings and border quarantine stations, thus controlling all activities at the at the delimitation zone. Finally, our research suggests that the Habsburg officials used border controls as wider demographic policy aimed at increasing the population, by promoting immigration, and suppressing emigration. Our project findings show that despite time-consuming and expensive border procedures, border controls had few, if any, significant negative impact on migrations, since it tripled between the 1750s and the 1770s.