The Causes and Conditions of the Croatian Colonist Settlement

After an economic crisis in the Middle Ages, countless epidemics and the Turkish crusades from 1529 to 1532, a large part of the, at that time, West-Hungarian land area was desolate and devastated. This created the necessary conditions for the settlement of Croatian colonists. The settlement actions were organized by the manorial lords (noble families Nádasdy, Erdödy und Batthyány), who had estate in Central Croatia as well as Western Hungary. Because of the advancement of the Ottoman Empire to the Balkan peninsula, the lords thought it safer to move their bondsmen from their southern properties to West Hungary. Military strategies also played a roll. For provisional and defense reasons, a rural infrastructure was to be maintained southeast of the capital Vienna.

In the 16th century, after careful estimates 20,000-60,000 Croatian settlers migrated to what is now Burgenland, the eastern part of Lower Austria, parts of Western Hungary, Southern Moravia and Southwestern Slovakia. In multiple waves, streams of refugees and organized settlers mixed together, as preserved documents by Count Batthyány from 1532 report. The first traces of Croatian settlers appear in rental accounts (Property and Fee reports) from 1515 in a district in Eisenstadt. In the 16th century Croatian settlers made up around 30% of the population. The majority of settlers were farmers, but there were also priests, craftsmen, merchants, minor noblemen and lords.

The “Vlahi” or Walachians enjoyed a special legal status. They settled on the southern edge of the Günser mountains in the Oberwart district in 13 market towns and spoke their own dialect. They only had to pay small fees, were free from the Robot, and were consulted by the Batthyány und Erdödy families regarding military and police matters. Unlike the other farmers, they ran an intensive pasture economy and a flourishing cattle and wool trade between Steiermark, Lower Austria, Hungary and Bosnia until the 19th century.

Opposition, Consolidation, Reformation

by Johannes Graf
courtesy by http://www.hrvatskicentar.at/

2010.12.17