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2 results

  • 1 - Historical States, Imperialism, and Development

  • Bogdan G. Popescu, John Cabot University, Rome
  • Book:
    Imperial Borderlands
    Published online:
    09 November 2023
    Print publication:
    23 November 2023, pp 1-26

  • Summary

    In the introductory chapter, I develop the question that inspired my research: Why certain manifestations of historical imperialism are associated with positive developmental outcomes while others are blamed for persistent underdevelopment. I introduce the concepts of extractive institutions and military colonialism: the forceful recruitment in the military of borderland peoples to defend the territorial integrity of the state. Chapter 1 also presents the empirical puzzle that motivates the focus of the three main empirical chapters (4–6). It reveals that modern-day access to public goods changes precisely at the line of demarcation between the formerly civilian and military administered areas along the southern borders of the Habsburg Empire, a line that stretched for over three centuries through the territory of modern-day Croatia, Serbia, and Romania.

Imperial Borderlands
  • Institutions and Legacies of the Habsburg Military Frontier
  • Bogdan G. Popescu
  • Published online:
    09 November 2023
    Print publication:
    23 November 2023
  • What are the institutions which govern border spaces and how do they impact long-term economic and social development? This book focuses on the Habsburg military frontier zone which originated in the sixteenth century as an instrument for protecting the empire's southern border against the threat of the Ottoman Empire and which lasted until the 1880s. The book outlines the conditions under which this extractive institution affected development, showing how locals were forced to work as soldiers and exposed to rigid communal property rights, an inflexible labor market, and discrimination when it came to the provision of public infrastructure. While the formal institutions set up during the military colony disappeared, their legacy can be traced in political attitudes and social norms even today with the violence and abuses exercised by the imperial government transformed into distrust in public authorities, limited political involvement, and low social capital.