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Fortress and free military community in Brod na Savi, the example of military-civilian relations in the Habsburg military border
Damir Matanović
; Hrvatski institut za povijest, Zagreb, Republika Hrvatska
Sažetak
During the 18th century the importance of army in the Habsburg empire increased. During that period the strength of the standing army grew to 200.000 men and officers were mainly recruited among the most influential aristocratic families. In the Military border region the influence of the army was especially strong, because it was almost completely administred by the military authorities. The only exception were free military communities. It is interesting and important to research and understand the level of military influence over free communities. Brod na Savi was one of such communities, and it was surrounded by three military institutions - Brod regiment, fortress Brod and Brod quarantine. It could be expected that fortress
Brod had a particularly strong influence over the development and life of the Brod free community, because the fortress was located in its immediate vicinity. Relations between fortress and free community are indeed comlex and multi-layered. They can be researched through the relations between two institutions, relations between fortress and citizens of free community, relations between the institutions of the free community and crew of the fortress, and through personal contacts between citizens and crewmen od the fortress. The urban expansion of the free community depended on the approval of the fortress’ construction office, because the army did not permit the constrution of objects and houses which could have weaken the defence capabilities of the fortress. In connection with the construction of new houses, fortress’ construction office imposed three limitations on the citizens and community authorities - streets had to run vertically toward the fortress, only the constrution
of single-story houses were allowed and houses built within the range of rifle shot had to be made of wood. The last restriction caused the widespread opposition of the free community citizens, because houses made of wood were liable to fire and their market price was smaller in comparison with the houses made of solid materials. The fortress command wanted to enlarge the free area around the fortress, and it made several attempts to resettle the free community
to the pasture grounds which were located to the east of the free community. Only the lack of financial funds made these military plans unachievable. The archival sources testify that only low key personal relations between fortress crew and civilians developed. According to the documents, there were only several incidents (fights, quarells) and litigations concerning the debts. Therefore it is highly unlikely that relations between army and civilians were orderly
and the military clearly dominated over the civilians. Unfortunately, the documents of the Court’s war council and Military border administration are lapidary concerning these issues.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
28661
URI
Datum izdavanja:
17.3.2003.
Posjeta: 1.815 *