Habsburg Battlefield Medicine in 18th Century

The adversarial relationship between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy is well known and has been documented in various facets. The differences in interests were reflected in a series of military conflicts primarily for religious and territorial predominance in southeastern Europe. Usually, the Ottoman Wars are connected with remarkable violence, injury and death. Of course, war not only brings death, but also illness and disability. Simultaneously hunger and epidemic disease were the conflicts constant companions. In early modern Europe, the experience of battle and the confrontation with death and injury evokes emotions that civilians often do not comprehend, and memories that veterans can only try to cope with psychologically. This project investigates Habsburg battlefield medicine during the 18th century on the basis of the three Ottoman Wars; 17161718, 17361739 and 17871791. The research project will be the first to investigate how the Habsburg Monarchy tried to organize medical care for soldiers on the battlefield and offers a new understanding of the battlefield as a multi-dimensional system of processes. The project investigates the role of healthcare professionals and military personnel. Concerning the staff surgeons and physicians, the project analyzes whether they had gained new knowledge about medical technics and healing, and if yes, how they utilized and passed on their new knowledge. On the basis of letters from the battlefield and personal reports by high-ranking military men, the study examines how the soldiers perceived and dealt with disease, injury and invalidity among their own ranks as well as their Ottoman enemies. In addition, the project offers new insights concerning the functioning of field hospitals, facets of disease management, the supply of sustenance and clothing, the ensuring of hygiene, funeral practices and support for those disabled by war. The proposed project will find answers in unpublished source material. The material consists of imperial decrees, instructions, contracts, maps, paintings, architectural and construction plans, marching plans, official letters and correspondence, muster rolls as well as reports, textbooks, diaries and drill books.

The project analyses the Habsburg military medical efforts during the 18th century. The three Habsburg-Ottoman Wars (1716-1718, 1736-1739 and 1787-1791) serve as a case study in this period. The project reveals a new understanding of the importance of the nexus of military administration, medical welfare and the population involved in warfare. It shows how military medicine expanded its efficiency behind the backdrop of a solidifying state-building process. Fresh insights are gained by focusing on the consequences of war, which contributes to an advanced understanding of "caring" for war participants. The project uses the "medical space" as analytical category and included the war regions as important mainstay for medical welfare, which allows new insights into the management of medical infrastructures. The sinister entanglement of "medicine" and "war" had deadly consequences on military and civil societies, that mustered the willingness of the early modern state to develop new ways to optimize the military medical health system. Especially the constant threat of infectious diseases and more and more venereal diseases forced the Monarchy to act. The project offers cutting edge insights of how coming from the medical necessities of the standing army the Viennese court started to develop new modes of care, based on professionalization and institutionalization as supportive components of the ongoing state building process. The most important development can be named by the idea of "prevention". Prophylactic concepts - like the practice of quarantine and isolation prominent medical techniques to this day, ventilation or healthy nutrition - are perceived as new gateway to problematize the military-medicine-state nexus. From that derives a novel assessment of health issues which paved the way for consistent further developments of what today is commonly known as public health. The project results broaden our knowledge on modes of health care during the 18th century and the dimension of social welfare in the Habsburg Monarchy. It contributes to the rather new field of health humanities, and advances the history of military welfare and the history of public health.