IX. IN DEFENCE OF EUROPE MILITARY CARTOGRAPHY ON THE HUNGARIAN FRONTIER OF THE HABSBURG EMPIRE IN THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES (Su…
137IX. IN DEFENCE OF EUROPE
MILITARY CARTOGRAPHY ON THE HUNGARIAN FRONTIER OF THE HABSBURG EMPIRE IN THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES
(Summary)
MILITARY CARTOGRAPHY ON THE HUNGARIAN FRONTIER OF THE HABSBURG EMPIRE IN THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES
(Summary)
The 16th and 17th centuries brought great changes in the life of Hungary and Central Europe caused by the offensive of the Ottomans. After the battle of Mohács (1526), the Hungarian Kingdom became gradually a defence-zone of the Austrian Hereditary Lands and the Holy Roman Empire or in other words, she became a buffer-state (Pufferstaat). It was on Hungarian territory that a line of border-fortresses was constructed, which was to fend off Ottoman attacks against the Habsburg Empire. This stronghold-system was organized by the Wiener Hofkriegsrat (Aulic War Council in Vienna, founded in 1556) in the second half of the 16th century. To meet this task, a close cooperation between the Hungarian theatre of war and the Empire was necessary. Thus the lands of the Empire, in order to defend themselves, contributed a considerable amount annually to the up-keeping of the neighbouring Hungarian border-zone. The War Council would not have been able to meet the costs of fortress-building and run the system efficiently without their support.
In the 16th and 17th centuries different military maps were needed for the organisation of the individual fortress-units (the borderfortress-captain-generalcies) and the occasional modernisation of the whole defence system. The greatest problem of the War Council – besides financing – was the lack of knowledge of localities and natural-geographic conditions in Hungary. New defence-units were, however, to be constructed in Hungary, Slavonia and Croatia with a view to make the best of the geographic conditions (primarily of the rich hydrographic network, swamps and mountains). Ottoman forays could be stopped only by a tight, and well controlled defence system.
Until recently Hungarian and Austrian cartography-historians believed that only older maps were reconstructed in the 16th and 17th centuries since there was no up-to-date information available due to the Ottoman offensives. This volume proves them wrong. The Aulic War Council commissioned several maps of the borderfortress-network, but until now they have not yet been systematically studied. As it was the general practice in other parts of Europe in this period, these maps were not drawn by military engineers. Military cartography as an independent discipline had not yet evolved, it did so only after the formation 138of the standing armies, in the second half of 18th century. In fact these defence-zone-maps were made by various non-professionals: by fortress-captains who knew their zones well, by the landlords of that region and primarily by Italian, German and French fortificators (Baumeister). Military engineers (Militäringenieur) were employed for this job only in the 17th century. These maps were almost exclusively the products of personal experiences collected on the spot, fortress-inspections (Grenzvisitation) and surveys of the border-zone.
Since these maps were drawn for the use of the military, they were understandably qualified as military secret. It explains why, with the exception of the manuscript-map of the frontiers (1661) in 12 plates by the German military engineer, Martin Stier, none of them has ever been published. Consequently, they could not have any impact on the contemporary printed maps. The maps discussed in this volume were all „hidden” in manuscript form in different map-collections or among archival documents. They can be classified as bordermaps (Grenzkarte). It is because in the 16th and 17th centuries the Habsburg and the Ottoman Empires had no fixed borders in the modern sense on the territory of Hungary. There was only an ever-changing frontier, a zone broad enough to conform the current military power relations which was marked by the Hungarians by a chain of borderfortresses. Hence, the above mentioned maps did not show a definite borderline but a system of the fortresses making up the frontier. It is, therefore better to call them „maps of the borderfortress-system” (Grenzfestungslinienkarte).
The aim of the maps of the borderfortress-system at first might have been to inform the councillors of the War Council who were ignorant of the circumstances in Hungary. The author believes that such a map by János Choron from Devecser (1563) was the earliest found from the 16th century (see Supplement I). This map portrays sketchily, but at the same time precisely the region between Vienna, the Danube and Lake Balaton, that is the defence-zone organized around Győr (Raab). Similar but of better quality are the 4 maps of the borderfortress-system by Nicolo Angielini, an Italian fortress-builder (for the way he shows Croatian and Slavonian fortresses see Supplement II). The above mentioned maps were made between 1564 and 1566. They were mostly based on experience and actual surveys of the theater of war. The third example of the same type is the map-sketch by György Zrínyi (1582) the right bank of the river Mura as seen from the guard-posts (see Supplement IV).This map was inserted in a request-proposal for guard-outfitting. Finally, there are the elaborate maps compiled by the German military engineer, Martin Stier in 1657 over the cities of the Styrian border-zone, the neighbouring Hungarian fortresses against the Ottoman Kanizsa, the Croatian and Slavonian strongholds (see Supplements 139VII and VIII). Special fortress-inspections and surveys were needed and carried out in order to compile these maps.
Besides the aim of keeping the supreme command informed, military maps were made to meet various other military needs. Maps of the borderfortress-system were drawn for the Estates of the Holy Roman Empire to demonstrate at their meetings (Reichstag) the structure and organisation of the Hungarian border-defence. The aim was, of course, to gain the material and military help of the Estates. Finally, there are the maps which were produced to help reorganize the border-defence. Due to the Ottoman expansion, the War Council in Vienna was forced to create new defence-zones. Before decisions were made, long negotiations were held and elaborate plans discussed. The fortress of Kanizsa (north of the river Drava), for example, was occupied by the Ottomans in 1600 and its replacement in the defence system made the reorganisation of the borderfortress-system necessary. To meet this end maps were constructed. The only surviving map of this type (see Supplement VI) was an insert to the plan of Ferenc Batthyány, the most important Hungarian landlord of this region.
All these examples show that the 16th and 17th century maps of the borderfortress-system had an important influence over the military and political decision-making. They could
– supply the Aulic War Council with information about the needs of the frontier-defence,
– inform the Estates of the Holy Roman Empire as auxiliary documents, – influence the forming of defencive-concepts at the supreme command in Vienna.
The volume proves that the basic methods and mechanisms of the military cartography were formed in the Hungarian frontier region of the Habsburg Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries. Military cartography (in the second half of 17th century, following the formation of the standing armies) reached a higher level during the decisive war against the Ottomans (1683–1699). From there a direct path lead to its becoming an independent discipline.
Moreover, the maps of the borderfortress-system were so important, that enemy spies of the period tried to snatch them. One of the maps caught (1580) by diplomatic intelligence is shown in Supplement III. That year, the Ottoman supreme command in Hungary had a map drawn of the borderfortresses around Kanizsa, the copy of which was sent back to Constantinople to the Porte. When the map arrived in Buda a court-interpreter (obviously in return for money from the ambassador of the Habsburgs) copied and sent it to Vienna to the War Council. The copy with Italian notations clearly demonstrates how well the Ottomans knew the borderfortress-system of their enemy.
140The published facsimile-map of the borderfortress-system is a typical example of the above mentioned 16th and 17th century military-maps. It is the work of Giovanni Jacobo Gasparini, an Italian fortificator from the early months of 1594. It depicts the Hungarian borderfortress-system lying north-northeast of the river Drava. The map itself is rather simple, sometimes sketchy, but wonderfully exact. Gasparini shows fortresses and guard-posts on his map that were built in the previous years, or soon after demolished. The scale of the map is about 1:720 000, it was made after collecting personal experiences and borderfortress-inspections on the theatre of war.
Moreover, Gasparini’s map has an other important aspect from the point of view of cartography-history in Hungary, Austria and Europe in general. The Italian fortificator oriented his map toward East, not toward North, the customary orientation of printed and manuscript maps of Hungary in this period. Thus, Vienna is lying on the southern corner and the frontierdefence-system is viewed from there. That is Casparini supplied the Aulic War Council with a map in 1594 which enabled them, by means of putting the map on the table, to be reliably informed about the frontier defence in Hungary in a way as if they were physically looking toward the right direction. It portrayed the borderfortress-system in Hungary as the propugnaculum Christianitatis, viewing the territory from Europe and the Habsburg court in Vienna.
