7 - Beyond the Habsburgs

Summary

Chapter 7 discusses the scope conditions of the theory proposed in Chapter 2. It describes the specific characteristics of the Habsburg military frontier that make it a unique case. To illustrate the ways in which other states managed their peripheries, I examine the contemporaneous case of the Russian colonies which were created to defend the Russian empire against attacks by Poland-Lithuania and the Ottoman Empires. The oldest colonies are the Cossacks who lived in their self-governing lands. They had well-defined rights and duties and were known for their loyalty to the tsar and their brutality in battle. The Habsburgs and the Russians constituted a model that the French Empire tried to emulate in their territories in Africa in the early nineteenth century. Similar to the European colonies, the French also forced military colonists to live in designated areas, recruited additional indigenous forces, and created specific laws defining their obligations, their property, and the types of activities they could be involved in. The French military colonies consisted of both French and indigenous people and represented the main way of ensuring the security of their civilian settlements.