Vanished kingdoms of Europe 5: Wallachia

Bela Lugosi as the definitive Count Dracula

If, like me, you've tended to assume that the legend of Count Dracula and his drinking preferences originated in Transylvania - seeing as such a mysterious and ghoulish sounding place does actually exist  - the reality is slightly different. Wallachia, subject of this post, was a land to the south of Transylvania, between the Carpathian Mountains and the great River Danube as it crosses central Europe eastwards towards the Black Sea. It was in Wallachia in the mid 15th century that a violent ruler named Vladimir Dracula, made his reputation. He was demonised by the Saxon inhabitants of Transylvania to the north as a drinker of the blood of his victims. Bram Stoker drew on this and other eastern European mythology for the great Count Dracula and his Transylvanian castle. Closest I've been to Dracula's Transylvania probably is eating fish and chips in Whitby, overlooking the ruined abbey above the harbour, which itself provided Stoker with some inspiration and setting for Count Dracula's voyage to England.

With apologies for that digression, the story of Wallachia leads into the creation of modern Rumania; a large country now bordered by Hungary and Serbia to the west; Bulgaria to the south; Moldavia and Ukraine to the north and east, and a coastal strip on the Black Sea. Like all 'kingdoms' in this series to date Wallachia spent many years - centuries in fact - fighting for its existence, its autonomy, while coming under pressure and occupation by stronger forces. Over time the Empires of Rome; Byzantium; Hungary; Austria, Russia and particularly the Ottomans laid their claims to influence or occupation.

Wallachia in the 18th and 19th centuries was
landlocked

Wallachia existed as a principality / kingdom / voivodeship from the early  fourteenth century until the mid nineteenth century. From 1417 to 1859 it was under the yoke of the Ottoman Empire, although that period saw many conflicts, and the usual shifting of borders in repeated struggles for power and influence.  The map above shows it neatly, with its two northern neighbouring principalities Transylvania and Moldavia, as they were in the 19 century. The three are bordered by the Black Sea to the east, and on terra firma by the great powers of the era Russia, Austria and the Ottomans. Its terrain runs from the foothills of the Carpathian mountain range to the north to the left bank of the Danube in the south. The country is crossed by dozens of tributaries of the Danube running from the mountains to the north. One of the larger of these, the River Olt, divides old Wallachia in two parts  - Muntenia (Greater Wallachia) to the west and Oltenia (lesser Wallachia) to the east.

The name Wallachia is an exonym, meaning a term used by outsiders rather than the people themselves – as we saw with Galicia (See Post VKE 22/2/2020). It derives from a germanic word walhaz denoting Celtic peoples. Of such stock were the Vlachs, tribes that pushed south from Transylvania, escaping from Magyars invading from the west.  Intriguingly, walhaz is also etymologically involved in places as different as Wales, Cornwall and Wallonia (southern Belgium). Wallachia disappeared at a stroke in 1859 after the Crimean war, when it merged with Moldavia to form Roumania.

Prior to the 14th century the land of Dacia, north and south of the lower Danube, was ‘Romanised’, and later came under the influence of the Byzantine empire, with its centre in (relatively) nearby Constantinople*. Byzantium’s influence was swept away by the First Bulgarian Empire; then by an emerging Hungarian empire; then some budding dynasties – the Peckenegs, then the Cumans – working their way east from Southern Ruthenia…. you’re getting the picture. Then in 1241 came the Mongol hordes from the east, replacing all of those.

The man who stopped this – at least temporarily – was Basarab I, widely regarded as the founder of Wallachia. He established a principality on either side of the River Olt, successfully rebuffing the advances of the Magyars, and extended his territories to the north eastward to what would become Bessarabia (another one of those WW1 curios I encountered). He and his descendants held on to Wallachia for over a century, but became increasingly threatened from the south by the burgeoning Ottoman Empire. This culminated in peace treaties in 1417 and 1428 that granted Wallachia a degree of autonomy, albeit under suzerainty** from Constantinople; while the Ottomans took complete control of the Balkans and Wallachian holdings on the Danube and Black Sea. This was to last until the 19 century, but there was sufficient autonomy to enable constant battles for power and influence, not to mention frequent incursions from other quarters.

Enter the Dracula (sic). Two aspiring dynasties wrestled for internal control of Wallachia in the early years of suzerainty. They were the Dănești and Drăculești, and the head of the latter became Vlad II Dracul as the victor. However, to confirm his acceptability to Constantinople he was obliged to submit his two sons to Ottoman custody, where they languished for nearly twenty year. In 1447 Vlad II was assassinated, opening the way for his elder son to be released by the Ottomans as their ruler in Wallachia – Vlad III Dracul. He immediately reverted to type, with a violent establishment of his authority, massacre of those groups held responsible for his father’s death, and a desire to gain freedom from Ottoman rule. His predilection, gained while imprisoned, for punishing dissent and petty crime by impaling earned his alternative moniker Vlad III the Impaler. He engaged in frequent battle with the Ottoman forces to the south, and the Transylvanian Saxons to the north. It was the latter who gave credence and notoriety to the blood drinking stories. The violence and instability couldn’t last for long, and in turn Vlad III Dracul was overthrown by his younger brother Radu, who had used his time in captivity to convert to Islam rather than obsessing about impaling people. Some stability, and more harmonious relations with the Ottomans ensued. In the late 15^th century the diplomatic efforts turned to the north  and the Hungarians and Transylvanian Saxons.

After a century of relative stability the ascent of Michael the Brave was a portent of modern Rumania in that he gained control of Moldavia and much of Transylvania, and established an alliance with the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor to counterbalance the suzerainty of the Ottomans. Following Michael’s fall in the early 17^th century the struggles renewed – against the Ottomans influence from the south and the incursions by the Habsburg forces in the north and west (seeking to disrupt then control trade routes).

Come the 18^th century and Wallachia continued to be pushed from pillar to post by the great powers. It was a pawn in the Austro-Russian-Turkish war of 1735-39, and then in 1768 had to undergo its first occupation by Imperial Russia. During the Napoleonic era of 1798-1814 nowhere in Europe was left untouched by effects of his campaigns. Napoleon’s temporary alliance with Russia enabled the latter to extend her influence in Wallachia and other territories along the Danube.

The Treaty of Vienna (1814) re-established much of the pre-Napoleonic status quo, but a series of steps during the 1820s initiated the birth of Roumania and the end of Wallachia’s existence as a Principality. Firstly there was a further – and fatal – weakening of the Ottoman Empire following the Greek War of Independence (1821-29). The Russo-Turkish war of 1828-30 that followed helped gain material Russian support for Wallachia’s struggle against Ottoman suzerainty, and culminated in the 1829 Treaty of Adrianople. This placed Wallachia and Moldavia under Russian military control (though they were still nominally in the Ottoman sphere of influence. Wallachia had its Danube ports returned and was allowed to initiate free trade via those ports, opening up economic and social growth.

Prince Alexandru Cuza
First Ruler of Roumania

 During Europe’s year of revolution in 1848, a glorious but transient Republic of Wallachia was declared, but was rapidly snuffed out by the forces of counter-revolution i.e. the troops of Russia AND Turkey on this occasion. There was a brief occupation of Wallachia by the Russians during the Crimean War of 1853-6, but in the ensuing Treaty of Paris (1856) Wallachia and Moldavia were grated recognised status in a formal union. This was endorsed by the Ottoman Empire as well as the Congress of Great Powers***. It was not a straightforward process, unsurprisingly. After lengthy procedural shenanigans and public unrest, 1859 saw the ascent of Prince Cuza of Moldavia as Domnitor (Ruler) of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. From 1862 today’s name of Romania was adopted, and Cuza’s successor was crowned Carl I of Romania.

Today's Rumania has a population of around 20 million of whom, ethnically, 90% are Romanian, around 7% are Hungarian and the remainder are Roma. The historic region of Wallachia is 97% Romanian ethnically; incorporates the capital Bucharest and around 8.5million people. It has thirteen counties, and is still divided broadly into Oltenia and Muntenia, either side of the River Olt. 

  

* Hence modern Rumanian language is Romance, as with French, Italian and Spanish, rather than Slavic

** Defined as ‘situation in which a powerful region or people controls the foreign policy and international relations of a tributary vassal state while allowing the subservient nation internal autonomy.’

*** Prussia, Russia, Britain France, Austrian Empire and Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (see Post VKE ‘Savoy’ 10/1/2020

Vanished kingdoms of Europe 4: Pomerania

The components of old Pomerania as they are on the map of 2020

Reaching back to my anglo-centric history education at school, I can recall nothing about Scandinavia – beyond the Vikings and how they impacted on our country. There was little or nothing about Northern Europe, represented by the implacable foe of Germany, scourge of two world wars, and the hidden Soviet Union, bogeyman of that era. Even in the last thirty years Germany has been substantially re-modelled and the USSR – the world’s largest empire – has ceased to exist.

Interesting then, to learn at this late stage of a voluminous and rich pre-20^th century history of what may be loosely termed Northern Europe. At the heart of this region lies a huge sea – the Baltic. It resembles the Mediterranean insofar as numerous countries rely on it for their maritime access to the great oceans of the world. The Baltic has a very tight outlet to the North Sea and thence the Atlantic (like the Dardanelles and Straits of Gibraltar at east and west ends of the Mediterranean respectively. This outlet, the Kattegat, is sufficiently narrow to be crossed by a series of bridges from Denmark to Sweden. Once mankind discovered the need for sea travel – for exploration and then trade – then geography began to determine history, which is filled with the politics and wars resulting from ‘control of the straits’, wherever they may be. All of which makes for an oblique introduction to Pomerania, and apparently insignificant strip of land straddling Germany and Poland on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. The shore line of today’s Baltic gives sea access to no less than nine countries. Over time, most of these, and several of their predecessors, have controlled Pomerania.

Pomerania means, simply, ‘by the sea’, derived from old Polish/Slavic words ‘po morze’: It is – or was - a fairly unremarkable territory: a coastal strip of land stretching from today’s Gdansk in the east, at the outflow of the great river Vistula, to the smaller outflow of the river Recknitz between Szczecin and Rostock, nearly three hundred miles to the west along the southern Baltic shore. There is something of a west/east divide both in Pomerania’s geography and in the twists and turns of its history. The land is situated at the coastal northern end of the great European plain, and is often marshy, with many lakes and limited agricultural potential. There is hilly land to the south; the western coast is rugged, with peninsulas and many small islands, whereas to the east it is smooth, with the large lagoon of Gdansk (the Zalew-Wiślany) as its main feature. Today, Pomerania lies mostly in Poland.

100-1500 AD. Before the second millennium various tribes – Germanic and other cultures – occupied or passed through what could not have been a very enticing area. The first to settle and take control were the Poles, from the 10^th century onwards. In the past three hundred years Poland has had a very rough deal positioned between the hegemonic powers of Germany, Austria and Russia, but it was not always so. Until the partitions and subjugations began in 1772 (see VKE Post 22/1/2020) Poland was for centuries one of the leading and most enlightened nations in northern Europe. By the 12^th century, the first of Pomerania’s east-west divisions occurred with the western ‘Duchy of Pomerania’ becoming Christian, whereas the eastern ‘Duchy of Pomerelia’ came under control of a pagan Polish dynasty, the Samborides. Confused?* It gets worse, and I may have got this wrong. Pomerania came under the influence of the Holy Roman Empire, and the growing influence of Prussia and the Margrave of Brandenburg (a future dedicatee of Bach’s great concertos). Whereas Pomerelia remained part of Poland (and helpfully changed its name sometime later to the Duchy of Pomerania). So at some point, two separate Duchies of Pomerania existed, controlled by different powers. Think of Macedonia in the last fifty years, but there wasn’t a United Nations to sort out Pomerania. All changed with the advent in the fourteenth century of the Teutonic Knights. Their Baltic Crusades on behalf of the Pope sought to protect and extend their version of Christianity. During their advances north eastwards they annexed Eastern Pomerania (aka Pomerelia), leaving only the citadel at Gdansk unconquered. By 1466 the Teutonic Knights had been defeated and Pomerelia (aka Eastern Pomerania) was back under Polish control.

Pomerania after the Thirty Years War.
Note the hither/thither terminology

1500-1815. The Protestant Catholic schism that prompted the Thirty Years War in 1618 led to untold death and suffering not only in Pomerania but across central Europe. When it was over in 1648, Pomerania was split in three. Western Pomerania became part of Protestant Brandenburg Prussia; Pomerania east came into the orbit of the Protestant Swedish empire, one of the victors of the Thirty Years War. Pomerelia, meantime, reverted to Poland, and Catholicism. Fifty years of relative inactivity ensued until, in 1720, ambitious Prussia took advantage of relative weakness in Sweden, and took control of the southern parts of Swedish Pomerania. Then, during the partitions of poor Poland from 1772-1793 (See Post VKE Galicia 22/1/2020) Prussia swallowed Pomerelia. Finally after the Napoleonic wars and Treaty of Vienna in 1815, Prussia gained the remainder of Swedish Pomerania.

1870-1918. During the years leading up to German unification and the birth of the German Empire, Pomerania reverted to its east west configuration, although this time both parts were firmly under Prussian control. The western section was the ‘Prussian Province of Pomerania’, whilst what had been Pomerelia became part of the ‘Province of West Prussia’. I have no idea why. In any event, with the arrival of the German First Reich following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, both these provinces became part of the empire. There followed a sustained period of Germanisation, with the consequent elimination of Polish influence and culture – a foretaste of even darker events in the 20^th century.

1918-1945. Surprisingly there were no major military actions or events during WW1, although the population suffered from hardships of poverty, unemployment and hunger like the rest of Germany’s civilian population. After the early major German victory at Tannenberg in 1914 (See WW1 Blog post 23/1/2015), the Russians did not threaten north eastern Germany again. At the end of the war, however, major unrest, even revolution occurred. The communist presence was strong in the early days of the Weimar Republic. As part of the Versailles and subsequent settlements territory was allocated to newly independent Poland. President Wilson had promised Poland access to the sea, and so the old Pomerelia was handed to Poland, creating the infamous Danzig corridor. Gdansk itself was named a free city. This unstable arrangement lasted only twenty years, disappearing in the run up to WW2. Ethnic Germans living in the Danzig corridor became another propaganda tool and a casus belli for Hitler. August 1939 saw the Nazi invasion of Poland, and four years of brutality followed. All Jews in Pomerania were exterminated, and many thousands of Poles suffered the same fate, or deportation to prison or forced labour. Relief, when it came, by the liberating Soviet Army was short lived. After 1945 all of Pomerania was behind the iron curtain, whether in the GDR or in Poland. Gdansk, of course, became the epicentre of the Solidarnosc freedom movement that contributed to the collapse of the USSR in the late 1980s.

Today, what was Pomerania exists in the form of voivodeships (provinces) in democratic Poland – West Pommerania with Szczecin as its capital, and Pommerania, with Gdansk. Across the national border in re-unified Germany, Mecklenberg-Vorpommern includes the remnant of Western Pomerania.

A Pedigree Pomeranian

Was Pomerania ever really a kingdom? After all this, it seems not. Constantly split and reformed by rival nations, it has been a Duchy; multiple Duchies; provinces and voivodeships. Like most subjects in this series it has suffered terrible hard times and emerged on the other side. That at least is a comfort. And its dogs are famous.

* There is also a German based nomenclature that refers to Hither and Farther Pomerania, not attempted in this blog.

Vanished kingdoms of Europe 3: Illyria

Nations in, or adjoining, the Balkans in 2020

The Balkan Peninsula, better known as ‘the Balkans’  (since it isn’t, strictly speaking, a peninsula) has almost become a byword for ethnic and internecine strife. For a brief interlude in the past few hundred years it comprised a single, troubled nation of south Slavs* – Yugoslavia, emergent from the Treaty of Versailles - held together by the authoritarian dictator Tito. His death in 1980 was followed by more tragic violence, and a new term ‘balkanization’ entered the lexicon, as local wars and international diplomacy moved the region to new national borders that we recognise today.

The word balkan has its origins in Ottoman Turkish language, meaning ‘chain of wooded mountains’, and for hundreds of years most of the region was part of the great Ottoman Empire. Confusingly the Ottomans referred to it not as Balkans, but as Rumelia – land of the Romans – since, going back further in time it had formed part of the Roman, and then Byzantine, empires.

The term Balkans became preponderant and accepted only during the 19^th century, a paltry two hundred years ago. For millennia before that its western portion, with ever shifting borders,  was known as Illyria.

Illyria was the fictional country setting for Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, though it seems there is no evidence that Shakespeare knew of the real Illyrian lands, which today comprise parts of Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro. Illyria existed through the Greek and Roman eras, disappearing during the Ottoman times, only to resurface in the 19^th century as a kingdom after the Napoleonic wars. It’s another tortuous story.

 

Illyria pre Illyricum. The Zone of influence of the Illyrian tribes

1. Ancient. Earliest mention of Illyria as a land goes back to Greek antiquity, when the northwestern part of the Balkans we recognise today was inhabited by tribes of Illyrian people from about the 10th century BC onward by late bronze age tribes, the Illyrians. At the height of their power, their frontiers extended from the river Danube to the Adriatic sea, and to the east to the Šar Mountains (today in Kosovo and Albania). The Illyrians comprised numerous autonomous tribes, occasionally banding together under strong leadership. In this latter guise their chosen leader, Queen Teuta made the mistake of antagonising the Romans by attacking Sicily, a mere 400 miles away across the Adriatic. This resulted in a series of attacks from Rome, which finally subjugated the country when the last Illyrian king, Genthius, surrendered in 168BC

2. The Roman Era of Illyricum.The Romans created a new province, named Illyricum, in their own style, stretching from modern day Albania in the south to Slovenia in the north and to the River Sava in the east, i.e. covering more of the southern Balkans than Illyria. The Roman Empire was still expanding, and as it moved further to the east, to Constantinople and beyond, Illyricum was divided into Dalmatia, covering most of the Adriatic coast and mountains and Pannonia, more inland and to the north. Illyricum disappeared completely over the next five hundred years, as the Roman Empire split into east and west and struggled to protect its borders. The Goths and Visigoths invaded from the north, and then from the 6^th and 7^th centuries the slav tribes penetrated further into the whole Balkan region.

3. Middle Ages and the Ottomans. The old Illyria was now predominantly Dalmatia, and a number of regional power shifts made their mark.

The Province of Dalmatia at the height of the
Roman Empire

 Byzantium, as the eastern remnant of the great Roman Empire, held an irregular and diminishing control over the region from its capital in Constantinople. Newer powers, Venice - across the Adriatic - and Hungary - to the north of the Danube - moved on Dalmatia from time to time and exerted control. Following the scourge of the Black Death in the mid 14^th century the hold of Byzantium faded away completely, and the depopulated region was significantly weakened, enabling the burgeoning Ottoman Empire to spread westwards into Europe. Through the fifteenth century they gradually took control of most of the Balkans, although most of the mountainous lands were theirs in name only. It was the might of the Habsburg Empire that held the western borders against the Ottomans in their surge against the various forms of Christendom. For two centuries Dalmatia was little more than part of a buffer zone between the two great forces.

4. The Napoleonic Wars. As the impact of the French Revolution reverberated around the world, the 19^th Century saw a return of ‘Illyria’ to the map of Europe. Napoleon’s 1797 adventures against Austria and into Italy created his Cisalpine Republic in north Italy. He then seized Dalmatia after his victory at the Battle of Wagram in 1809, and in the Treaty of Schönbrunn created the Illyrian Provinces, which also included chunks of the Tyrol and other areas around Venice and Trieste. Napoleon thus denied the Austrians access to the Adriatic, and strengthened his own position to enable further eastwards expansion of his own growing empire. His ultimate defeat in 1814 resulted in the provinces reverting to Austrian rule after the Treaty of Vienna in 1814

For those five years 1809-14, the Illyrian Provinces were autonomous jurisdictions of France. Napoleonic systems and codes were introduced, with an imposition of French language, culture and law.  Napoleon introduced a greater national self-confidence and awareness of freedoms, as well as numerous political reforms. Out of this was born, later in the 19^th century, the Illyrian Movement, a South Slav nationalist campaign.

The last incarnation of Illyria was as a 'Kingdom of Illyria', under Austrian rule from 1814 until its eventual demise. Yet another shift of borders took place, losing Dalmatia, and gaining the southern Austria province of Carinthia, and the Istrian peninsula which included the ports of Trieste and Fiume (see below). Its first city was Ljubliana, today Slovenia’s capital. In 1849 it reverted to Austria, but in the 1868 ausgleich  (forming the Austria-Hungary Dual Monarchy) Fiume was given to Hungary, creating an exclave that allowed Hungarian access to the Adriatic to match Austria’s access via Trieste.  

5. World War One  In the build up to declaration of war, French support for the slav cause was influenced by their historical links through the Illryian provinces. (See WW1 Post 8/11/2014) At the end of the war the fates of Trieste and Fiume (today the Croatian city of Rijeka) were the focus of the strong Italian Nationalist movement that forced PM Orlando and Foreign Minister Sonnino to walk out of the Versailles Peace Conference (See WW1 post 28/6/2019). Twenty years later, WW2 saw terrible atrocities as fascist Italian nationalism, supported by Germany ran up against partisan Yugoslavs, whose communist leader was Tito.

Illyria, as a country, as a concept, has something of an idyllic sound to it, like ‘elysian’ or ‘ambrosia’, but far from it. At its birth Illyria may have neighboured Ancient Greece. In its final form the nearest neighbour was Germany. In the Post Tito events of the 1980s and 1990s the cultural, ethnic and religious patchworks within the Balkans re-surfaced. Every country in the Balkans has a bit of Illyria in its history.

*Also included Albania Greece and Bulgaria, although the latter was not part of a peninsula

Vanished kingdoms of Europe 2: Galicia

By Mariusz Paździora - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3817601

There are at least two Galicias of significance in Europe; one in Spain and one in Eastern Europe – the latter being the subject of this blog. Both are situated in plains to the north of mountain ranges, and so it’s tempting to think they share the name’s etymology. It is possible. The Spanish Galicia – notable in British history for the heroics of Sir John Moore at Corunna during the Peninsular War against Napoleon’s occupation – derives from a celtic tribe of ‘hill people’ the Callacei who resided north of the River Douro. Eastern European Galicia’s etymology is less certain, but probably derives from Old East Slavic language as a derivation of the town name Galiç (today Halych in Ukraine).

Anyhow, regardless of etymology, Galicia has a complex history riddled with violence and tragedy. Its story subsumes a number of other smaller vanished kingdoms. Its final incarnation from 1772, as the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, was as part of the Habsburg Empire, and its demise accompanied that of Austria-Hungary at the end of WW1. Overall it has a 1000 year history - usually closely tied to the fortunes of Poland, but also under the sphere of influence of Hungary, Austria, Russia and Prussia.

I’ll aim to chunk this into three periods before the denouement of the world wars: the early iterations from 1000-1200 approximately; from thirteenth to eighteenth centuries, and from 1772 until 1914.

1. Geography. Allowing for frequent shifting of boundaries the Kingdom of

Galicia was broadly as shown in the above map of Galicia and Lodomeria - attractive mountainous Carpathian southern borders descending northwards with diminishing hills and valleys to arable plains. Numerous rivers and lakes cross the country winding down from the watershed of the Carpathians, the greatest to the western end being the rivers Oder and Vistula. The river San, a large tributary of the Vistula effectively divided Galicia into east and western regions. At its northern border were the plains of Poland. As Galicia and Lodomeria it reached a population of 8 million in1914 and covered an area of over 30,00 square miles¹. It was Austria-Hungary’s most ethnically diverse region, although the great majority of the population were peasants.

2. 950-1400AD. In early times the ‘kingdom’ was ruled by the Ruthenian Kings. The origin and fate of Ruthenia is a topic in its own right², but until the twelfth century they held sway in the city and principality of Halych, which gave Galicia its name. This somehow became Galicia Volhynia,  which fell apart in the mid 14^th century in the wars of the same name, after which the old kingdom of Ruthenia was annexed by Poland. Then there was period from 1188 to around 1400 when 'ownership’ and title passed to the Kings of Hungary.

3. 1400-1772. The growing power of Poland and Lithuania dominated the region for the next four hundred years. Poland annexed all of the previous Galicia and Volhynia as part of this. Poland and Lithuania’s alliance was consolidated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, with Poland as the dominant partner. Despite this, the commonwealth ultimately folded, and Poland’s subjugation began in 1772 with its first partition by the surrounding powers of Russia, Prussia and Austria. By the First Partition of Poland³, Habsburg Austria swallowed Galicia and Volhynia, creating a new title for its Emperor (at that time still also the head of the Holy Roman Empire). Volhynia was renamed Lodomeria, and the territory titled the “Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria’. From the outset, Lodomeria was not a real entity and the kingdom was more generally known as Galicia (or Austrian Galicia, presumably to distinguish it from Spanish Galicia…. or Polish Galicia?). This brings us to the Galicia that came to my notice as a critical site for the Eastern Front of WW1 in 1914.

4. Austrian Galicia. In its 142 years existence, Galicia’s fortune was bound up with that of the Habsburg Empire. Its status was mostly poor and backward, the large plains being primitive serfdoms with predominantly Polish nobility owners. Those of Polish ethnicity spoke Polish, and the peasantry - predominantly Ruthenian - spoke Rus’ (Ruthenian). A large Jewish minority inhabited the towns and southern areas, and spoke Yiddish. Gradually, Austrians moved in, making the city of L’viv their regional capital and renaming it as Lemberg. In 1846 the formerly ‘Free City’ of Cracow, came into the sphere of Galician control along with two neighbouring duchies of Oświeçim and Bielske. Almost immediately an uprising against poverty and hunger broke out across Galicia. It was a harbinger of the wider revolutions that burst upon Europe in 1848, and became known as the Galician Slaughter. Marauding peasants hunted down and massacred all landowners and their families. The world was shocked, but the Austrian leaders did little to help the predominantly Polish victims until Lemberg itself was threatened. Once the revolt had been suppressed, Galicia returned to its rural, poor and primitive status. The growing cities of Lemberg and Cracow were exceptions, and in the 1850s oil was discovered, triggering a Galician oil rush (By 1908 Galicia was reckoned to have the world’s third largest oil fields after Texas and Persia). This also became the era of mass migration, as people took the opportunity of modern transport to escape from poverty. The main point of departure became the station at Oświeçim. North America was a magnet – ethnic Poles emigrated to the USA mid-west; the Ruthenians to the plains of USA and Canada, and the Jews to the cities.

Following its defeat in the 1866 Austro-Prussian war, the Habsburgs’ empire entered its final configuration in the ausgleich – the creation of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Galicia remained under Austrian rule, although geographically it was closer to Hungary. Galicia’s delegates sat alongside Slavs, Bohemians, Czechs, Hungarians and many others in the new Austrian parliament the ‘Reichsrat’, which was established in 1908 to placate the disenchanted states within Austria-Hungary.

5. World War One. In June 1914 that disenchantment surfaced in Sarajevo with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the subsequent outbreak of WW1. Galicia’s topography made it inevitable that early military engagement with Russia would happen there. Austria had to split its armies between the invasion of Serbia to the south, and protection of its borders in the north (see WW1 Blog posts as below). Overwhelming numbers of Russian forces were able to advance (relatively) rapidly across the Galician plains, and they captured Lemberg in one of the early great battles in August 1914. They occupied most of Galicia and laid siege to the great fortress of Przemysl (see WW1 Posts 14/1/2015 and 31/1/2015). The Austrians recovered in early 1915, pushing back eastwards from the outskirts of Cracow, and then in May came the great German breakthrough of Gorlice-Tarnow (see Post 7/6/2015), and the Russians were driven completely out of Galicia. They returned in 1916 during Brusilov’s offensive (See Post 15/5/2016) pushing through eastern Galician and heading for the Hungarian plains and Roumania. Then came the 1917 Russian collapses after revolution in St. Petersburg followed by the crushing fate of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (See Post 22/1/2018).

The great Russian retreat from Galicia 1917

In a miserable combination of death, disease and starvation WW1 came to an end in German occupied Galicia, with competing aspirations of Ukrainian and Polish nationalism struggling to emerge from the wreckage. The Polish question was too complex for the Versailles Treaty of 1919 (See Post 22/6/2019), but after the wars between Poland and the Red Russians, Galicia in its entirety was incorporated into the reunited Poland. However worse was to follow.

6. World War Two and its aftermath.  Along with much of Poland, Galicia was subjected to atrocities by Russian and German occupiers. In the 1939 carve up Germany took over west Galicia and Russia the eastern half. Then came the brutal eastwards German invasions of 1941-2, and the equally brutal retreats from the Red Army in 1944-45. The advancing Red Army reached western Galicia to discover the famous 19^th century rail junction Oświeçim had become the world’s most infamous railway terminus – Auschwitz.  Whatever remained of the 1914 Galicia was utterly broken and destroyed by 1945. In the post war jockeying, east Galicia was absorbed into the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine and west Galicia became southern Poland. Both were behind the iron curtain and under Stalin’s control. Callous ethnic cleansing sent all of polish origins back to Poland from Ukraine, and most of Ruthenian origin in west Galicia moved into Ukraine. Galicia was finished.

Yet still those ethnic tensions and east v west barriers continue. The area containing ancient Halych is the Lviv Oblast of Ukraine, bordering Poland based on its main city (ex Lvov, Lemberg, L’viv). The wider political issues for Ukraine pitch those of Russian ethnicity against those of Ruthenian origins (today known as ethnic Ukrainians). Plus ça change.

1 About the size of today’s Slovakia and Estonia

² Ruthenia is an exonym for the language and influence of the Rus’ peoples  (aka Old East Slavic, or Kievan Rus'). An exonym is a name for language, culture or ethnicity used by those external to it. For example English language 'German' and French language 'Allemagne' are exonyms for that country's endonym 'Deutsch'. (Thanks to Wikipedia for that one)

³ There were two further Partitions in 1793 and 1795, resulting in the loss of Polish independence, and the creation of the Polish Salient of the Russian Empire