Thu, 24 Feb 2000 15:47:03 -0800 From: [email protected] Subject: Suggestions for Researching Galicia To: ……
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An email from the year 2000 for historical interest. Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 15:47:03 -0800 From: [email protected] Subject: Suggestions for Researching Galicia To: ……. SUGGESTIONS FOR RESEARCHING GALICIA - Betty Wray, Editor, Galizien German Descendants newsletter. A HISTORY OF GALICIA All of us have ancestors who came from Galicia but many of us don't know much about the country. The following is a history that you might find interesting. Galicia is a historic region of Eastern Europe, located north of the Carpathian mountains and extending from the area around Krakow in Poland to as far east as Ternopol in Ukraine, which constituted an Austrian Kronland (Crownland) between 1772 and 1918. Galicia had an area of 30,299 sq. miles, about the size of S. Carolina. In 1910 two separate sources listed population at 7,316,000 and 7,980,477; about 59% speaking Polish, 31% Ukrainian and 10% Yiddish. No mention was made of the percentage of German-speaking persons in the encyclopedia from which I obtained this info. The linguistic frontier between these two races ran roughly north and south of Przemysl, east of which, 72% of the population was Ruthenian. The name Ruthenian was tradition-ally applied to the Ukrainian inhabitants of Poland and Hungary. The majority of the urban population, especially in the east, was Jewish. The official Austrian name for the region - Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria - derived from the medieval principality of Galich (in Polish, Halicz), which was united with Volhynia in 1199. The region came under Mongol rule before becoming part of Poland in 1340. The Hungarians had earlier laid claim to the region, and the Austrian Habsburgs, who inherited the Hungarian crown, used this claim as a legal pretext for taking these lands in 1772, forming the northeastern part of the Austrian Empire. The early history of west Galicia is that of Poland. In the east, an independent Ruthenian principality of Halicz appears in the 11th century. It grew in importance with the decay of Kiev, whence many refugees emigrated to Galicia. In the 12th century Galicia, under its prince Osmomysl, was one of the chief principalities of Russia. Many towns were founded, and much trade passed through Lemberg (Lvov/Lwow), from Asia and the Black Sea to Europe. Galicia failed, however, to achieve stability, largely owing to the character of its own nobles, who are des-cribed as rebellious to Suggestions for Researching Galicia Sent out by Betty Wray Feb 24, 2000 Page 1 of 21 their king and tyrannical to their serfs. It was alternately allied and at war with the neighbouring principality of Lodomeria. Poland, Hungary and Novgorod intrigued for possession of both districts. Hungary became master for short periods in 1190 and 1215; but the powerful native dynasty founded by Roman of Lodomeria (d.1205) retained its independence. Roman's son, Daniel (1205-64) was one of the strongest princes of eastern Europe, and was even crowned by a Papal Legate, temporarily deserting the Orthodox Church. In 1223, however, he lost his eastern provinces to the Mongols, who overran and ruined all Galicia in 1241. In 1324 the Romanov line died out, and Casimir of Poland occupied Galicia in 1340, Lodomeria in 1366. On his death, both provinces again came under Hungary, but reverted to Poland in 1372. Under the Jagellion kings prosperity revived, only to sink again when the world trade routes changed. The Ruthenian nobles adopted the Catholic faith and the Polish tongue. The Ruthenian nationality survived only among the serfs, who were as wild and backward as any in Europe, and lived in almost unrelieved misery, despite the natural wealth of the soil. Galicia was repeatedly harassed by Cossacks, Tatars, and Turks, and disorganized by the anarchy of the Polish State. At the partitions of Poland, Galicia (including Lodomeria) was assigned to Austria, for the first time in 1772, definitely, with a slightly altered frontier in 1814. Cracow become an independent republic. Austrian rule brought many improvements, but progress was slow. The Polish revolution of 1830 affected Galicia little, but Austria allowed legions to be formed here, and sheltered refugees from Russian Poland. In 1846, however, widespread and almost unconcealed preparations for revolution began by the Polish nobles to break out in mid-February. The danger for Austria was averted by a rising of the Polish (not Ruthenian) peasants, for whom disastrous floods had reduced to great misery. The peasants massacred a number of nobles in the Tarnow district. The revolt soon broke down, but as it had been largely directed from Cracow, Metternich took this pretext of incorporating the city in Galicia, as >from Nov. 1856. In 1848 the Austrian Government countered the revolutionary movement among the Polish nobles by winning the peasants through land reforms, and the Governor of Galicia, Count Stadion, also for the first time encouraged the Ruthenians and won their support against the Poles. A period of centralized bureaucratic rule followed, during which Galicia was divided, on roughly ethnographical lines, into first three, and later two administrative districts; but the Polish nobles supported the Hungarians in their demand for decentralization, and after the Hungarian "Ausgleich" of 1867, Galicia, thanks to the efforts of Count Goluchowski, obtained more liberty than any other Austrian province. Austria-Hungary was the name of the Habsburg empire, from when it was reorganization into the Dual Monarchy in 1867 to its breakup in 1918. Suggestions for Researching Galicia Sent out by Betty Wray Feb 24, 2000 Page 2 of 21 Its predecessor was known as the Austrian Empire, founded in 1804 during the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in order to create a single centralized state from the dynasty's diverse provinces. After 1815 the major parts of Austria-Hungary were: the Austrian crown lands were of a people who were predominantly German; the kingdom of Bohemia which was inhabited by Czechs and Germans; Galicia, with a mixture of Poles and Ruthenians; the Italian provinces of Lombardy and Venetia; and the kingdom of Hungary, which had a ruling class of Magyars and its own minorities - mainly Slovaks, Croats, Serbs and Romanians. Under a special minister for Galicia, the Poles enjoyed de facto home rule and a free hand against the Ruthenians, Galicia being reunited into a single province with Polish as the official language. There were evidently many German-speaking people in Galicia during the 19th century, but not much is mentioned about them. The Poles formed the chief support of the successive Austrian Governments, and took a large part in directing Austrian policy. The strategic importance of the region to Austria was great, and was probably the main reason why the Austrian Government never yielded to the wish of the German nationalists to give Galicia an independent status within the monarchy. By 1918 Galicia was virtually independent of Austria. The Poles renounced allegiance to Austria in October 1918, claiming all Galicia for the new Polish state. The Ruthenians claimed the right of determination and in November formed a government under Dr. Petrushievicz in Lemberg, which they occupied. The Ruthenians marched against the Poles and claimed East Galicia for the Ukrainian Republic. On May 8, 1919 the supreme council as-signed West Galicia to Poland and on June 24 allowed East Galicia the right of self-determination, while authorizing the continued Polish occupation. In December they granted autonomy under a Polish protectorate for 25 years after which the League of Nations was to decide its future. In 1923 East Galicia ceased to exist and became part of Poland who then gave the Ruthenian population a limited degree of self-government and their agitation against Polish rule diminished. GERMANS IN GALICIA The German colonization of Galicia occurred basically in two distinct waves. After the Tatar invasion and devastation of large parts of eastern Europe in 1241, the Polish Kingdom was anxious to have its southeastern borders strengthened with new settlers. This led to the first influx of German settlers (priests, soldiers, artisans, traders), who eventually followed Poland's expansion and incorporation of the Galician-Volhynian principality in the 14th century. The German colonists were welcomed for their more advanced trading, artisan, and agricultural skills, and, like the Armenians, they were granted special privileges, especially within the cities under Magdeburg Law. During Suggestions for Researching Galicia Sent out by Betty Wray Feb 24, 2000 Page 3 of 21 the early period, most German colonists settled in western rather than Eastern Galicia, and those that did live in the latter area became largely assimilated to Polish culture by the 16th century. The second wave of German colonists arrived after Galicia became part of the Habsburg Empire in 1772. Anxious to improve the economic status of Galicia and to secure Austrian control of the new province, Emperor Joseph II brought (between 1781 and 1785) more than 15,000 colonists and (between 1802 and 1805) Franz II brought about 4,000 more from the Palatinate and other southwest German states. During the first half of the 19th century, another 2,000 Germans arrived from Sudetenland. In contrast to the medieval wave of colonists, these Germans settled in small villages in eastern Galicia, most especially in a belt stretching >from Kaminka Strumylova and Zhovkva in the north, then past L'viv to Drohobych, Boryslav, and Stryi in the south. Also, in contrast to their medieval predecessors, the new colonists were able to avoid assimilation. This was due in part to their relatively more isolated rural settlement pattern as well as to numerous cultural societies, agricultural cooperatives, schools (some supported by the Protestant church), and publications, all of which contributed to maintenance of a German identity.