Abstract
Throughout centuries, policies of states in the Western Balkan region were largely shaped in accordance with the infection outbreaks and consequences of plague epidemics. Austrian policy was not out of the line in this context, so the general aspects of dealing in organisation of military border with the Ottoman Empire were always crucially connected with the reactions towards epidemics. Especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, Austria battled hard to stop expansion of epidemics that during those times mainly fluxed in from the side of the Ottoman Empire. The decisive change came in the 18th century. During this period, the Austrian reaction to plague outbursts at the area of south-eastern Europe was already a product of general rise of sanitary standards in western European regions, where attempts for implementation of some of newest qualities in perception of the quarantine requirements and medicine applications met with complex aspects of life in a turbulent area of military border. Efficiency of measures was instant and sustainable in the long term.
Highlights
Throughout centuries, policies of states in the Western Balkan region were largely shaped in accordance with the infection outbreaks and consequences of plague epidemics
Special breakthrough in the taming of the rage in the destructive epidemics came in the 18th century, when the Austrian side started the series of measures that in the long term completely eliminated plague as significant factor in the political calculations and as essential threat to the regions next to Ottoman border
Erned by pasha) was to some extent prevented by the plague epidemics, which were relatively frequent in the Pashalik area during the 17th century
Summary
Received: 3 October 2019 Revision received: November 2019 Accepted: November 2019. Some crucial movements in the aspect of political shaping of south-eastern Europe during last several millennia were firmly connected with the directions and timing of plague epidemics. Such patterns have been pretty much present at the area of western Balkans throughout era of confrontations between the Habsburgs (the Austrians) and the Ottomans (the Turks), especially in the 17th and 18th century. Special breakthrough in the taming of the rage in the destructive epidemics came in the 18th century, when the Austrian side started the series of measures that in the long term completely eliminated plague as significant factor in the political calculations and as essential threat to the regions next to Ottoman border. In Bosnia, the epidemics raged constantly in the period 1686-1690, and again in 1694.1 Probably one such epidemic was the cause of the stalemate of a large and very successful offensive of the Austrian army, which, during the winter of 1688/89, moved from northern Serbia,[2] through Zvornik and Srebrenica (eastern Bosnia), to the plateau of Romanija, and to the entrance to Sarajevo.[3]
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