Austro-Hungarian Colonial Ventures: The Case of Albania

Author(s): Krisztián Csaplár-Degovics / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

In his unpublished 1955 doctoral dissertation, Johann Wagner persuasively argued that certain members of the leading political, economic, and military circles in Austria-Hungary were very interested in the possibility of global colonization.1 Furthermore, as the data gathered by Evelyn Kolm clearly shows, in the last decades of the nineteenth century, joint Ministers of Foreign Affairs Gusztáv Kálnoky and Agenor Gołuchowski and joint Minister of Finance Benjámin Kállay promoted the idea of creating a competitive military fleet, and they were ready to offer political support for the economic interest groups that insisted on the necessity of colonialism.2 Two out of these three people initiated and played a crucial role in the 1896 Vienna Conference, where they decided to adopt and implement a new Albanian policy. This Austro-Hungarian Albanian policy was shaped in part by new colonial ambitions and was not merely the result of a one-time decision made in response to singular circumstances. The new Albanian policy harmonized with the general aspirations of the 1890s: Gustav Kálnoky and Agenor Gołuchowski, as heads of Ballhausplatz, made political and institutional attempts to include, in some form or another, the practice of global colonization as part of the foreign policy profile of Austria-Hungary. One of their allies in these efforts was Benjámin Kállay, who, as the governor of Bosnia-Herzegovina, was well-versed in both the theoretical and the practical issues of colonization. This study presents the context and consequences of the 1896 conference from a transnational perspective. It also draws attention to two things. First, historical research on the question of colonization should be extended to the Balkan peninsula in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Second, Austria-Hungary’s new Albanian policy was based not only on international models but also on its own experiences in Africa.

Hungarian Freemasons as “Builders of the Habsburg Empire” in Southeastern Europe

Author(s): Zsófia Turóczy / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

In the 1890s, Hungarian Freemasonry began to expand its sphere of influence in southeastern Europe. The establishment of lodges in the southeastern border areas and even outside the Kingdom of Hungary exemplifies this expansion. When devising explanations for this policy, the Hungarian Freemasons made use of colonial and imperial discourses to justify expansion into the “Orient” with reference to the alleged civilizing role they attributed to Freemasonry. They divided the world into two parts from a cultural-civilizational point of view: one where Freemasonry was already established and flourishing and another where this form of community and social practice was not yet known or established. This discourse was entangled with political, economic, and academic practices that were prevalent among the Hungarian Freemasons. Masonic activities and discourses therefore merit consideration in the cultural and social context of their time and analysis from the perspective of new imperial histories, especially since the importance of the discourses and political symbolisms used in the expansion and maintenance of imperial structures has already been pointed out by many historians and scholars of cultural studies within the framework of New Imperial History and postcolonial studies With a view to the undertakings of Hungarian Freemasons in the Balkans, this paper asks whether Hungarian Freemasons can also be considered “Builders of the Habsburg Empire.” This question is particularly relevant given that Freemasonry was only permitted in the Hungarian half of the Dual Monarchy. Thus, Hungarian Freemasons acted as both national and imperial actors, and they did so independently of Vienna. As the framework for my discussion here, I focus in this article on the discourses and activities of the Symbolic Grand Lodge of Hungary and the contributions of the most relevant actors, such as the Turkologist Ignácz Kúnos and the journalist and deputy director of the Hungarian Museum of Commerce, Armin Sasváris.

Ḥajj above all: Ḥakīm-khān between Mecca and Petersburg

Author(s): Aftandil Erkinov / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2022

In 1823, one of the pretenders to the throne of the Kokand Khanate, Ḥakīm-khān, went on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He reflected on the events of this five years journey in his memoirs Muntakhab al-tavārīkh (‘Extracts from History’). The Hajj was carried out on the orders of Muhammad ‘Ali-khān, who had recently taken the throne and sought to neutralize other pretenders to the Kokand throne. Having received a letter from Alexander I with an invitation to visit the Imperial Palace in St. Petersburg, Ḥakīm-khān rejected this offer. When he met the Tsar by chance, Alexander I reminded him of the invitation and the refusal received. The representative of the ruling Kokand dynasty justified his actions by his own promise to, first of all, make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and only then to visit other places. The Emperor generously endowed the pilgrim and supplied him with a special letter allowing him to freely move around the territory of the Russian Empire. However, Ḥakīm-khān decided not to make the return journey through Russia, but Persia.

Powstanie styczniowe w regionie szadkowskim na kanwie wspomnień Alfonsa Parczewskiego

Author(s): Tadeusz Marszał / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2022

At the end of the 1920s, Alfons Parczewski, nearly eighty at that time, published his recollections of the January Uprising in 1863. He describes the events that took place in his family’s estate in Wodzierady and in the surrounding region. He also recalls the reminiscences of the insurgent commandersthat he knew and his parents, who supported the insurrection. The selected fragments of A. Parczewski’s memoirs relating to insurgent actions in Szadek region were supplemented with information from other sources. All this provides a picture of the life of the inhabitants of Szadek and the surrounding localities during the insurrection in the first half of the 1860s.

Rodzina Dziamarskich z Szadku i jej droga do niepodległości

Author(s): Dorota Stefańska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2022

This article higlights the history of several members of the Dziamarski family – for centuries connected with Szadek and engaged in various forms of fight for Poland’s independence. The awarded orders of merit served as a criterion for selecting those family members who made the greatest contribution: Franciszek Dziamarski (1889–1942), Józef Dziamarski (1885–1941), Leontyna Dziamarska (1879–1944), Franciszek Dziamarski (1891–?), Stanisław Dziamarski (1893–1965), and Jan Dziamarski (1898–1971). All of them participated in armed fighting in the Polish Army and in various forms of social and organic work, both legal and in conspiracy. Józef and Leontyna Dziamarski were honoured in 1932, by the President of the Republic of Poland, with the Cross of Independence, and Franciszek Dziamarski “Żegota” with the Medal of Independence in 1938.

Rodziny ziemiańskie i ich majątki w okolicach Szadku

Author(s): Elżbieta Nejman / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2022

Landowning families and their manors in the Szadek region

Juliusz Daniel Jedliński (1811–1882) – powstaniec listopadowy, działacz polonijny we Francji i kawaler Orderu Virtuti Militari

Author(s): Jarosław Stulczewski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2022

Juliusz Daniel Jedliński, born in Szadek, during his studies at Warsaw University took part as ficer in the November Uprising (1830-1831), for which he was awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari. After the defeat oh the uprising he emigrated to France. He became a teacher in a Polish school in Batignolles, and in the years 1855-1860 was its director. Under the supervision of French professors he elaborated a detailed geological map of France. He also lectured in Paris School of Mining and ran courses in geology. Another field of his activity was journalism and poetry oriented to the Polish immigrant community in France. Hotel Lambert was his political option. He died in Paris.

Znaczenie Pommersche Kunstgeschichte (1840) Franza Kuglera w odkrywaniu sztuki Pomorza

Author(s): Barbara Maria Ochendowska-Grzelak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2022

Franz Theodor Kugler’s (1808–1858) work on the general history of art is well known owing to English and German speaking scholars. Researchers from outside Pomerania are less familiar (or not at all) with the content and significance of the Pommersche Kunstgeschichte published in 1840. The purpose of this article is to discuss the value of this publication. It is one of the first studies of Pomeranian art history in Europe and in the world. Kugler described the most important monuments of the region, especially those located in towns and along transportation routes, which he visited in the summer of 1839. Although he noticed that art in Pomerania originated in pagan times, he mainly demonstrated examples of Christian art from the period of the twelfth century onwards. Pomeranian art was thus Christian and Germanic to him. His analysis concludes with examples from the eighteenth, and a few from the nineteenth century. He was the first researcher to pose the question of the existence of Pomeranian art as a specific art, distinctive from others. In order to address this ques- tion he tried to identify its characteristics, which the article tries to point out. Many of Kugler’s theses were maintained and developed by Polish art historians after 1945, which proves the value of his intuition as a researcher. Kugler’s monograph laid the foundation for further research into Pomeranian art. Paradoxically, however, its exist- ence delayed work on the first comprehensive inventory of the region’s historic sites because it was considered by some to be a quasi-inventory of historic monuments.

THE FORMALIZATION AND INTENSIFICATION OF RITUALS: THE CULT OF “108 EFFICACY AND HEROIC MARTYRS” IN VIETNAM

Author(s): Ngọc Thơ Nguyễn,Thị Bích Thủy Trần / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

The worship of “108 Chiêu Ứng Anh Liệt (Efficacy and Heroic Martyrs)” of the Hainan Chinese had its primary form taken place long time ago in Hainan Island but was then standardized and formalized in Vietnam after one incident occurred on the central coast of the country. In 1851, a group of Hainanese merchants were un-justly killed offshore. In the same year, they were vindicated and ordained by King Tự Đức of the Nguyễn Vietnam. With imperial sanction, the worship easily transformed its sacred symbolisms, thus becoming a public cult and significant landmark of the Hainan Chinese communities in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. The cult followed the Hainanese merchants in spreading to Hainan Island of China. From the perspective of cultural studies, combined with historical research and fieldwork methods, the authors find out that this expansion is not spontaneous. Nonetheless, it contains the collective consciousness and rhetorical narratives of the Hainanese community. The worship of 108 Chiêu Ứng Anh Liệt has to a certain extent become a symbol of the “going-upstream spirit” of the community, which covers hidden cultural and political discourse in a cross-border context.

Wadowice w aktach C.K. Starostwa w Białej - sprawa Izydora Daniela z lat 1886-1887

Author(s): Michał Jarnot / Language(s): Polish Issue: 25/2022

Z podnikatele šlechticem

Author(s): Libor Denk / Language(s): Czech Issue: 63/2022

The New Aristocracy Nádherný family is not all that researched a subject in Czech historiography. Most of the research work thus far has focused only on Baroness Sidonie Nádherná and the other members of the family have only been marginally referred to. A rapid social ascension, caused by well thought-out family strategies, was typical for the Nádherný family. This was primarily represented by business activities, charitable activity and attempts at attaining a similar lifestyle as the landed nobility. I focus in this article on the personage of a not particularly known figure Ludvík Nádherný, who was raised to the status of knight of the land in 1865 thanks to his activities. The primary focus is on the circumstances of his wedding, by means of which I attempt to summarise one of the areas of their family strategy and partially demonstrate their lifestyle.

Cesty hraběte Františka Arnošta z Harrachu do Velké Británie

Author(s): Filip Binder / Language(s): Czech Issue: 63/2022

The paper was dealing with the British travels of Franz Ernst of Harrach mainly on the basis of his newly found correspondence in the Austrian State Archives. In total, eight British travels of a different character were docu­mented. The first journey, which took place in 1825 and during which he visited a number of mansions of British nobility and landscape parks, deepened Harrach’s tending towards the isles, which was later reflected in the construction of Hrádek u Nechanic and the rebuilding of Prugg Castle. The study has also shown that some of the Count’s other stays influenced the shape of Hrádek, for example his expedition of the late 1830s and his two travels to England in 1851 undertaken due to his participation at the World Exhibition in London, the second of which was partly shared with his architect Karl Fischer. An ana­lysis of the Count’s correspondence has shown that Harrach continued to visit aristocratic residences and landscape parks in the isles after 1825, made contacts, and that he pursued his business and his interests (as evidenced, among other things, by his participation in horse races in York). The sources also show that Franz Ernst was an Anglophile whose linkage to Great Britain was very strong and who knew the British environment very well.

Forráskiadvány az 1848–49-es „törvényesített” forradalomról és szabadságharcról

Author(s): Ákos Egyed / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 03/2023

Az 1848–49-es forradalom és szabadságharc. Szerkesztette Hermann Róbert. Osiris Kiadó, Bp., 2022.

Ekonomiczne i społeczne konsekwencje wojny serbsko-tureckiej 1876–1878 dla Królestwa Serbii

Author(s): Mirosław Dymarski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 29/2022

Artykuł podejmuje analizę kosztów ekonomicznych i skutków społecznych wojny serbsko-tureckiej z lat 1876–1878, zarówno po zakończeniu konfliktu, jak i ich wpływu na sytuację w Królestwie Serbii w dłuższej perspektywie. Ocena obejmuje bezpośrednie skutki finansowe wojny z Turcją, ale również odszkodowania wojenne, rekwizycje, utrzymanie uchodźców, którzy schronili się w Serbii, kompensaty dla właścicieli muzułmanów za utracone ziemie i nieruchomości w wyniku inkorporacji ziem sandżaku Niš i część sandżaku Pirot. Koszty tej wojny był przykładem niemal całkowitego podporządkowania polityki finansowej państwa jednemu celowi: ekspansji terytorialnej na ziem historycznie związane z Serbią w procesie budowy państwa narodowego.

Kővári László Petőfi Sándorról

Author(s): Ákos Egyed / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 10/2023

László Kővári was one of the most outstanding Hungarian historians of the 19th century. He was born in Torda in 1819. He was interested in Transylvanian issues and participated as a war correspondent in the 1848-1849 revolution and war of independence. He later elaborated his experiences in his historical works. What were his views about the legendary Hungarian revolutionary Sándor Petőfi?

Egy erdélyi forradalmi népszónok 1848/49-ben

Author(s): Péter Zakar / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 10/2023

János Bardocz, a talented young priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Transylvania, after a short period as a chaplain in Cluj/Kolozsvár, moved to Alba Iulia/Gyulafehérvár in 1848, where he taught at the main grammar school. A sermon he preached in the cathedral of Gyulafehérvár on 8 October 1848, expressing radical political views, led to the castle commander Ferenc Horák demanding his removal from the city. After the castle was placed under siege, Bardocz was ordered by his bishop to go to Târgu Mureş/Marosvásárhely, but he left for Budapest instead. In several newspaper articles he demanded the armed defence of the country against the counter-revolution and called on the Szeklers to rise up. In early January 1849, he fled to Debrecen and then to Oradea/Nagyvárad, where he gave speeches promoting the ideas of the revolution. At the end of March, he was in Kolozsvár, where he not only agitated for a republican form of government, but also presented the Hungarians as a chosen people, similar to the Jewish people. He was arrested after the suppression of the War of Independence, but escaped from his prison in Marosvásárhely and emigrated.

Vitézlő oskola. Tüköry Lajos az 1848/49. évi szabadságharc csataterein

Author(s): László Csorba / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 10/2023

Lajos Tüköry (1830–1860) completed his regrettably short but successful military career as a hero of three nations. When the Hungarian War of Independence broke out in the summer of 1848, he first became a volunteer National Guard, then served in the 55th Honvéd Battalion on the Transylvanian battlefields, first against the Austrian Imperial and then the Russian Tsarist troops. In the summer of 1849, he emigrated to Turkey and entered the Ottoman army as a first lieutenant. After military service in Syria, he faced the Russian tsarist army again on the Caucasus front of the Crimean War (1853-56), and although he was wounded in the arm, he fought with such valor that he was appointed major and awarded by the Medjidije medal. When the war broke out in Northern Italy between the French-Piedmontese and Austrian forces in 1859, Tüköry returned to Europe and joined the Hungarian Legion established in Genova, but his unit was demobilized due to the Armistice of Villafranca. He then joined Garibaldi’s thousand red shirts, took part in the legendary Sicilian battles as a lieutenant colonel and finally received a fatal wound on 27 May 1860, at the entrance of Palermo. He was appointed postumus colonel by the dictator of Sicily.

Két visszaemlékezés az 1849. évi erdélyi hadjáratról

Author(s): Attila Süli / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 10/2023

In this source publication, we present two shorter recollections by Kálmán Dercsényi, former lieutenant of the 15th (Mátyás) Hussar Regiment. As a member of the unit, the author took part in the Transylvanian battles until the spring of 1849. Both retrospectives focus on the events of early February 1849, vividly recalling the battles around Vízakna, with a particular emphasis on his personal connection with General Bem and his encounter with Sándor Petőfi. Kálmán Dercsényi presents the events in an engaging style, primarily intended for the press and interested readers.

A szibériai hadifogság és Petőfi

Author(s): Ildikó Rosonczy / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 10/2023

Occasionally, the question arises whether the Russian army that suppressed the 1848-49 Hungarian Revolution might have taken Hungarian prisoners of war with them, including Petőfi. Society, having experienced the suppressed history of Soviet Gulags, is receptive to these suggestions. According to the Russian-Austrian agreement of 10 June 1849, as supported by extensive research based on Austrian, Russian, and Polish archival sources and literature, the contracting parties reciprocally returned each other's subjects who had fallen into captivity. This is attested, for example, by the documents regarding the extradition of the former Imperial and Royal officer Stanisław Jan Szydlowski, who was the commander of the fortress in Braşov/Brassó. These documents are held in the Russian State Military Historical Archives in Moscow. Hundreds of subjects of the Russian czar participated on the side of the Hungarians in the War of Independence. These were the Poles who had fled to Hungary from the territories annexed to the Russian Empire following the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian state. If captured, the Austrians handed them over to the Russians, many of whom were subsequently sentenced to Siberian exile. During the Polish uprising of 1863-64, the Habsburg Empire participated with volunteers, and those who were captured were subsequently exiled to the interior of Russia or Siberia. The number of their subjects affected approaches 2,000. Among them were also Hungarians who were able to return home in the late 1860s and 1870s. Their hardships were regularly covered in the contemporary press. None of them knew anything about the exiled Hungarians from 1849 or their memory.

1848–49 legendái és mítoszai

Author(s): Róbert Hermann / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 10/2023

The study reviews the national myths and legends that are linked to the history of the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence. These include the legend that Sándor Petőfi recited the National Song on the steps of the National Museum on 15 March 1848; that Croatian ban Josip Jellačić broke the terms of the three-day armistice following the Battle of Pákozd on 29 September 1848. It is also unjustifiable to attribute the success of the Battle of Pákozd to the activities of the National Defence Committee, which was set up in September 1848. According to the study, the Battle of Kápolna on 26-27 February 1849 had no influence on the issue of the Ołmütz Constitution of 4 March 1849, nor did Franz Joseph I kiss the hand of the Russian Tsar Nicholas I in Warsaw on 21 May 1849. It also briefly touches on the assumptions surrounding Petőfi’s deportation to Siberia and the interpretation of 1848-49 as a Masonic world conspiracy.