Re: Feudal system and land ownership in Croatia. The Austrian "military border" of Croatia established in 1522 (and technically lasted until 1881) was a special exception in two ways: 1) direct control from Viena 2) the peasants had title to their land. Title to the land was the motivation that kept them anchored there on land that wasn't generally the best for farming with the obligation that half the males had to serve in the "border guard" that could be called out at any time to oppose the invading Turks.

But the Military Borderland (Militärgrenze) also included parts of the area around Pakrac and also into Slavonia and the Banat which has good farmland... as well the Uskok who where pirates employed by the Austrians to raid Turkish ships on the Adriatic and later moving to Zumberak had special privilages ...but I don't know if the same rules about peasant ownership applied as it did in the Lika region. I have seen RC parish records for Udbina (Lika region) and every man was listed as granièari into the late 1800s.... granièari = border guard http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5f/Militargrenze.jpg Robert James Castellan <james.castellan@alumni.brown.edu> wrote: Re: Feudal system and land ownership in Croatia. The Austrian "military border" of Croatia established in 1522 (and technically lasted until 1881) was a special exception in two ways: 1) direct control from Viena 2) the peasants had title to their land. Title to the land was the motivation that kept them anchored there on land that wasn't generally the best for farming with the obligation that half the males had to serve in the "border guard" that could be called out at any time to oppose the invading Turks. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to CROATIA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message To learn about my October 2007 Heritage and History tour of Croatia http://www.croatia-in-english.com/rj/jerin2007.pdf