JVF Conference Papers
The paper analyzes the bureaucratic modernization of Galicia, the formerly Polish territory annexed to the Habsbsurg empire in 1772.
The attempted transformation of Galicia was part of a larger reform project of the second half of the eighteenth century, uniting an Enlightened spirit of centralization with the reality of Austria’s territorial enlargement. The Austrian bureaucrats were responsible for the integration of a new province into imperial structures. By focusing on the Austrian state bureaucracy and its interaction with local population – Poles, Jews, and Ruthenians (Ukrainians) - I intend to analyze the general transformation of Galician political culture through the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
