Strategies of the “civilizing mission” of the Habsburg government in Galicia after the First Partition of Poland

Abstract

The article is devoted to analysis of the “civilising mission” element in plans and strategies of the Habsburg Monarchy in the “Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria” during the first years after the First Partition of Poland. The imperial administration created an ambitious plan of reforms and transformations in Galicia, aimed at bringing the population of the province to progress and prosperity in the “Habsburg” sense of these terms and making them model citizens of the empire. In order to examine these plans, the reasons for their creation, and their short-term implementation, the texts of the first patents and orders of the Habsburg government, as well as reports of Habsburg officials employed in Galicia, will be analyzed, with particular emphasis on the “civilizing mission” element of these documents. Since the annexation of Galicia coincided with the popularity of the Enlightened Absolutism philosophy and the implementation of reforms in its spirit throughout the entire monarchy, the influence of this philosophy on the planned transformations in Galicia will also be studied.