The Illyrian Provinces

Abstract

Napoleon established the Illyrian Provinces after signing the Treaty of Schônbrunn with Austria (October 1809). Located on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, the Illyrian Provinces extended over 55,000 square kilometers (21,500 square miles) and were named after the old Roman province of Illyricum. Previously they had belonged to various states: southern Carinthia and Carniola had been ruled by the Habsburg dynasty since the fourteenth century; Trieste, an active and ethnically diverse city, had belonged to the Habsburgs since 1382 and was the most important port of the Austrian Empire; Istria and Dalmatia had been a part of the Venetian Empire from the year 1000 until Campo Formio, when they were delivered by Napoleon to the Austrian Empire, along with Venice. Following the Treaty of Pressburg (1805), however, Napoleon transferred Istria and Dalmatia to the Kingdom of Italy. Ragusa (Dubrovnik), on the other hand, was an independent and prosperous Republican city-state that had managed to preserve its independence until the French occupied it in 1808. The Illyrian Provinces also included Croatia, south of the River Sava, and part of Tyrol, added in 1810. The main cities included the ports of Trieste and Ragusa, and Laibach (Ljubljana), which served as the capital.KeywordsNational GuardFrench SystemDiverse CityRoman ProvinceFrench RuleThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.