Imperial Impact: When Maria Theresa Ruled Vojvodina

Northern Serbia still bears many influences from the reign of the formidable Habsburg Empress

“If you want something done, ask a woman.” 

In her life, Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa was many things. Once upon a time, she was just a sub-chapter in my World History textbook. To Sasha’s 93-year-old Baba Radojka, the 18th century is “the time of Maria Theresa,” nothing more, nothing less. Born female, she disappointed her parents. She would go on to aggravate fellow royals, tolerate a philandering husband, bear 16 children, and organize an empire that was paradoxically progressive. She was well-educated but lacked the formal training for a royal heir, but she learned on the job… an occupation rife with regal hazards. 

Born to the royal (blue)

For a personality who was born in 1717 and passed in 1780, her name and likeness crop up a fair bit around these parts. When her father’s Pragmatic Sanction made female sovereignty possible, she ascended the throne, managing to survive the War of the Austrian Succession. A staunch Catholic, she disdained Protestants and Jews, yet oversaw the creation of secular primary education for people of all stripes. Her professional civil service centralized a formerly capricious patchwork of duchies, diets, and despots. Her empire was no democracy, constitutional republic, or even constitutional monarchy, but her policies molded Vojvodina, Serbia’s northern region, into a politically functional part of a much larger empire.

One of our local gas stations stocks chocolates bearing the likeness of Maria Theresa in her latter years 

So here goes the story of Maria Theresa and Vojvodina, a place that punches well above its size on the horizon of European history! 

Maria Theresa’s lands (in orange) in 1748 following the forfeiture of Silesia to Frederick the Great of Prussia. Banat and Slavonia are historic parts of Croatia, Serbia, and Romania. Vojvodina encompasses Backa (not listed here), part of Slavonia, and part of Banat

The Southern Sphere Frontier 

The Ottoman Empire expanded into the Balkans, defeating the Bulgarians at the Battle of Maritsa in 1371, and the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 and at the Danube-side Smederevo Fortress in 1459. From Smedevero, the Ottomans attacked Belgrade, taking the Serbian city in 1521 and using it as a launching pad for attacks on the Hungarians. The corridor between Hungary and the Balkans spent the better part of five centuries as a battleground between the European powers and the Ottomans, placing Vojvodina the frontier of a half-millennia long clash of civilizations. 

After the 1526 Battle of Mohács, Ottoman forces entered Vojvodina, pushing into the district of Banat, where Serbs lived along the border of Transylvania. A mass migration of Hungarians and Croats ensued, as these Catholic cultures fled north into Hungarian and Austrian-controlled territory. Two Serbian leaders, Jovan Nenad and Radoslav Čelnik, looked to forge control amidst the chaos. Nenad solidified power in the city of Subotica, but was assassinated by Hungarian nobles in 1527. Čelnik rallied the remains of Nenad’s army from northern Bačka down into Syrmia (aka Srem- where we live!) and ruled as an Ottoman vassal from the settlement of Slankamen. 

During this period of Ottoman rule, the Vojvodina countryside was inhabited by Serbs, while Turkish and Slavic Muslims concentrated in the towns until 1699, with a notable uprising against the Ottomans sparked and squashed in the Banat district in 1594. A century later, Vojvodina was transferred back to Hungarian hands, and in 1740, Maria Theresa was on the Habsburg throne. Since she was crowned to rule Austria and Hungary, Hungary’s possessions became a part of her expansive realm. With political borders redrawn came another population shift: Vojvodina Muslims fled south into Ottoman-controlled Bosnia, while Serbs from Rascia migrated north into Vojvodina and Hungary proper. Thus, Vojvodina became a militarized frontier zone protected from the north, where the Serbs gained religious freedom plus the right to elect voivode for political and military representation. 

Depiction of the great migration of the Serbs into the safety of Austrian-held Vojvodina

The Vojvodina Diaries

General reforms made under Maria Theresa benefited Vojvodina as part of a dynamic empire. Concerns about infant mortality and lackluster population growth prompted the empress to launch inquiries on the leading causes of infant and maternal mortality. Maternity hospitals established in major cities later became a model for those across the empire, and laws governing burial practices were tightened to prevent unhygienic mortuary customs from spreading disease. Remember the episode of vampire panic? Imperial edicts criminalized gravesite desecration, and autopsies were only permitted by qualified physicians. Campaigns for smallpox inoculation were also undertaken, especially after three of Maria Theresa’s children were lost to the disease. Lead drinking vessels were officially banned in her empire, and apothecaries were regulated to prevent harmful substances being sold for profit. 

Because the empress inherited a mess of a treasury, she needed competent civil servants employed by merit to keep her revenues in order. Training in public administration was accessible in urban centers in Vojvodina, allowing persons from different backgrounds leadership opportunities. As part of a diverse empire, this small province became the most concentrated multiethnic place in Europe. Serbs, Hungarians, Croats, Germans, Bunjevci, Ruthenians, Romanians, and Czechs came to call Vojvodina home, a microcosm of the empire itself. Population shifts mellowed after Habsburg rule was solidified. In certain cases, Protestants and Jews, for whom Maria Theresa bore contempt, were pushed to settle in regions like Vojvodina and Transylvania, as a means of pushing them from core cities like Vienna and Budapest. Yet this ended up being a blessing in disguise, as Protestants settled in Hungary and Transylvania built artisan guilds and prosperous farms, while Hungarian-speaking Jews in Vojvodina brought merchant enterprise to cities like Novi Sad and Zemun.

Vojvodina Ruthenians, descended from the original 1751 settlers granted land by Maria Theresa. The empress granted Greek Catholics equal status with Roman Catholics, despite her prejudice against members of other faiths

Novi Sad's leading synagogue, located on Jevreska (Jewish) Street, a legacy of the strong Hungarian-speaking Jewish community that made Vojvodina home

Primary schooling for male and female pupils, ages six through twelve, was expanded in local languages. Primary schools like the Norma in Sombor dotted the empire’s landscape, increasing literacy in local languages while creating a pathway for the brightest to access higher studies in the empire’s capital. Vojvodina’s elite, like language reformer Vuk Karadžić, studied and worked in Vienna, forging ties to the broader empire and finally returning home with the skills needed to support Serbia’s own cultural growth. Serbia’s premier secondary school came into force a decade after the empress’ death on the grounds of a more informal school founded by Russian emigres in 1725. With means put in place under Maria Theresa, Serbian clergy and merchants appealed to the Austrian government for a comprehensive collegiate institute, and the Sremski Karlovci Grammar School (now Gymnasium) was born in 1791 under the leadership of a Slovak headmaster. 

Subsequent generations living and learning in Sombor and Sremski Karlovci

For the Serbs under Ottoman rule, illiteracy and poor infrastructure were the norm. Yet in Vojvodina, a model of statehood supported development for the emerging Kingdom of Serbia, which gained de facto independence by 1878. The system of schooling was applied in the creation of the Royal Serbian Grammar network, establishing a classical education model that molded the next generation of great minds, including scientific greats like Nikola Tesla, Mileva Marić, Mihailo Pupin, and Milutin Milanković.

Serbia's subsequent learned generation: Tesla, Marić, Pupin, and Milanković

The city of Subotica, which today straddles the Serbia-Hungary border, was granted royal free status in 1743, and was then called Maria Theresiopolis to honor the empress who officiated its status and gifted the growing town 150 horses. The population grew, as did the schools in the city, with both the Orthodox and Catholic churches taking part in the spread of basic primary education.

Subotica skyline

What became Novi Sad began in 1687 when the Ottomans were pushed out of Bačka, Vojvodina’s western section, with the foundation of the Petrovaradin Fortress on the south bank of the Danube. Serbian merchants settled the burgeoning town, as did German and Hungarian-speaking soldiers. By 1698, the town was known to locals as Racka Varos, and there the seat of the Bačka district Serbian Orthodox Church was relocated.

Petrovaradin, defense on the Danube’s south bank (for me, it was love at first brick upon meeting this amazing structure)

Seven years into the reign of Maria Theresa, the city gained its official moniker along with the status of “Free Imperial City.” 

THE EDICT OF EMPRESS MARIA THERESA ON FEBRUARY 1ST 1748:

“We, Maria Theresa, by the grace of God Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Rama, Serbia, Galicia, Lodomeria, Carinthia, […] cast this proclamation to anyone, whom it might concern… so that the renowned Petrovaradinski Šanac, which lies on the other side of the Danube in the Bačka province on the Sajlovo land, by the might of our divine royal power and prestige…make this town a Free Imperial City and to fortify, accept and acknowledge it as one of the Free Imperial Cities of our Kingdom of Hungary and other territories, by abolishing its previous name of Petrovaradinski Šanac, renaming it Neoplantae (Latin), Új-Vidégh (Hungarian), Neusatz (German) and Novi Sad (Serbian)”

Proclamation of Novi Sad as a Free Imperial City from 1748…February 1st is still celebrated as its founding day 

Northeast of Novi Sad is Zrenjanin, formerly known as Beckerek. In the 1760s, the city gained prominence thanks to the bravery of its regional soliders, who were dubbed “lalas” (tulips) following a story surrounding an imperial visitation. After local soldiers pushed back against Ottoman incursions on Austria’s frontier, Maria Theresa’s entourage met with regiments from the district of Banat. To avoid seasonal flooding the royal party met up with the troops in the forested region of Fruška Gora, where military leaders presented the empress with tulips to celebrate the recent victory. According to the story, she was so impressed by the Banat troops that she redistributed the gifted tulips amongst common soldiers, proclaiming them to be her metaphorical “lalas” for their brave defense of her volatile southern border. 

Young male life was defined by military service in 18th century Vojvodina; tulips planted symbolically in front of the Zrenjanin city hall in honor of the gallant Banat "lalas"

Maria Theresa’s eldest son, Joseph II, assumed his position as co-ruler when his father died in 1765. He inherited a realm with a great deal of potential, but had to push his conservative mother on a number of fronts. Joseph II supported greater religious freedom, dissolving the legal disabilities on Protestant and Jews his mother had stubbornly retained. He and his successors continued to build hospitals, post offices, and schools, along with trains, factories, opera houses, and music conservatories.

Built during the reign of Maria Theresa: Chapel of St. John Nepoumuk in Sombor (1751); bishop’s house in Vrsac (1757); in Sremski Karlovci, Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicolas (1758) and Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity (1768); Zemun’s Orthodox Church of the Holy Virgin (1774); ramparts of Novi Sad’s Petrovaradin Fortress revamped in 1780

Maria Theresa, her policies, and her successors endure in Vojvodina’s built environment and cultural character. Her enlightened autocracy laid the foundation for this small section of vulnerable frontier land to develop urban centers with skilled populations and varied enterprise. Vojvodina remains the Balkan’s breadbasket, Serbia’s most affluent region, and one of Europe’s most diverse population concentrations. The Habsburg Empire may have been struck from the map in 1919, but small Vojvodina survived that strike (any many others!) to remain rich in the noble legacies of human activity. It’s a special place where Christmas and Easter each come twice per year; opera, ballet, and theater are accessible to the average citizen; and speech casually spans Slavic, Uralic, Latin, and Germanic tongues.

And now, it is a place we get to call home!