Enlightened absolutism, imperial bureaucracy and provincial society: The Austrian project to transform Galicia, 1772--1815.

This dissertation explores the bureaucratic modernization of Galicia, the formerly Polish region annexed by the Habsburg monarchy in 1772. After 1772, hundreds of Austrian German-speaking bureaucrats from all over the monarchy arrived in Galicia to integrate the new province into imperial structures. They replaced Polish officials and built a new administration and bureaucracy in the region from scratch.;Through an analysis of archival documents in Vienna, L'viv, Krakow and Paris, this study unravels the making and functioning of a new, professional state-subordinate bureaucracy in the Habsburg monarchy. This is a history of institutions in one province, placed within the context of European state building, the Habsburg Empire, the Enlightenment, and reforms at the turn of the eighteenth century. I examine the mechanisms of integrating new territories and the role of the provincial bureaucracy in the functioning of a larger empire. The main focus of the dissertation is on the human element within bureaucracy, the interactions between administrators and administered, and the results of these very interactions.;By 1815, Galicia came to form an integral part of the monarchy, yet Austrian bureaucratic modernization left behind an ambivalent legacy. In 1772, Austrian bureaucrats arrived in Galicia to promote uniformity, and sought to make the Poles and Ruthenians of Galicia into equally Austrian subjects of the Habsburg monarchy. Instead, these reforms forged a certain sense of particularity, and, indirectly, stimulated the emergence of modern Polish and Ruthenian nationalisms in the nineteenth century. Vienna sought to control the very distinct Jewish minority and decrease the number of Jews in Galicia. Their number, however, was constantly growing, and Jews massively defied Austrian legislations. I analyze administrative practices and the actions of individual bureaucrats, which, I argue, were often responsible for the numerous discrepancies between reform intentions and the final outcomes of these reforms. In light of these numerous failures, one important success has often remained unobserved. The Austrian bureaucracy took root in the new province, and secured the integration of Galicia into the monarchy. An analysis of administration and bureaucracy help explain both the long-term persistence of the Habsburg monarchy and its eventual disintegration in 1918.