Blaski i cienie polityki Habsburgów wobec Galicji
Lights and Shadows of Habsburg Policy towards Galicia

Summary/Abstract: Galicia was treated by the Austrian authorities as an internal colony, but the degree of colonial subordination varied. The balance of the first, roughly eighty-year period of Austrian rule in Galicia was negative. This region was not covered by the reforms of enlightened absolutism implemented in Austria, Czech and Hungary; it was relegated to the Danube basin countries, where it remained a peripheral province, condemned to economic and social stagnation and cut off from traditional markets. It suffered the colonial politics of Vienna and was ignored in investments. However, the connection with the Habsburg Empire made it possible, especially for Eastern Galicia, to adopt the first pro-Western orientation. The Autonomous Era (from 1867) brought about significant changes in Galicia and the political system was an important factor in economic and civil progress. The import of culture was a phenomenon that brought numerous western European approaches to issues in public utilities, insurance and management. However, the colonial relationship between the metropolis and the province can be seen, for example, in the arrangement of the rail network built in Galicia, or the Vienna government’s economic policy towards the region. The colonial relationship of Galicia and the Habsburg Monarchy, still in evidence today, was manifest in the military sphere.

• Details
• Contents