Military Border

Military Frontier
Militärgrenze
military province
1553–1881
Map of the Military Frontier (marked with a red outline) in c. 1800
Capital		Not specified
Religion		Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic
Political structure		military province
Historical era		Early Modern period
•	Established	1553
•	Disestablished	1881
Area
•	1857	33,553 km2 (12,955 sq mi)
Population
•	1857 est.	1,062,072
Density		32/km2 (82/sq mi)
Today part of		Croatia  Serbia  Hungary  Romania

The Military Frontier was a province straddling the southern borderland of the Habsburg Monarchy and later the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian Empire. It acted as the cordon sanitaire against incursions from the Ottoman Empire.

When created in the 16th century by Ferdinand I, the region was divided into two districts under special military administration: the Croatian Military Frontier and the Slavonian Military Frontier. Initially, the Military Frontier came under the jurisdiction of the Croatian Sabor and ban but, in 1627, it was placed under the direct control of the Habsburg military. For more than two centuries, they would retain complete civilian and military authority over the area, up to the abolition of the Military Frontier in 1881.

During the 17th century, the territory was expanded towards the East and new sections were created. By then, it stretched from Croatia proper in the west to eastern Transylvania in the east and included parts of present-day Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Hungary. During, this period, the defence system was also changed, from a conventional garrison model to one of 'soldier-settler' communities.

The inhabitants of the area were known as the Grenzer, or 'Frontiersmen'. They were colonists, mostly ethnic Serbs, Croats and Germans, who undertook to defend the Monarchy in return for their land-grants. Germans had been recruited by Hungary in the late 18th century to resettle and develop the Danube River Valley, and became known as Donauschwaben. The military regiments formed by the settlers had a vested reason to stand and fight and were familiar with local terrain and conditions. They soon gained a formidable military reputation.