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Putting Transylvania on the Map: Cartography andEnlightened Absolutism in the Habsburg Monarchy

Madalina-Valeria Veres

Austrian History Yearbook / Volume 43 / April 2012, pp 141 - 164DOI: 10.1017/S0067237811000634, Published online: 15 May 2012

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0067237811000634

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Madalina-Valeria Veres (2012). Putting Transylvania on the Map: Cartography and EnlightenedAbsolutism in the Habsburg Monarchy. Austrian History Yearbook,43, pp 141-164 doi:10.1017/S0067237811000634

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Putting Transylvania on the Map: Cartography andEnlightened Absolutism in the Habsburg Monarchy

MADALINA-VALERIA VERES

AF T E R T O U R I N GTR A N S Y L V A N I A I N1773, Joseph II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empireand co-regent of the Habsburg monarchy, wrote to Empress Maria Theresacomplaining about the state of the provinces economy and its administrative

corruption. Such problems required urgent reform of the sort that could be carried out onlyby a strong, centralized government acting in the spirit of Enlightened Absolutism. However,success in these endeavors required something more. In Joseph IIs words: We have toremember that the best intentions fail often and the lack of knowledge of local realitiesmakes such a real difference in governance, that what is often considered the best and wisestdecisions, cannot be applied locally efciently; the total ignorance of Your Majestys advisers

at the court and the Transylvanian Chancellery is a real hindrance and harm for theadministration.1

This total ignorance Joseph II found not only in Transylvania, but also in his frequenttravels to all corners of the monarchy as he struggled to gather accurate, rst-handinformation about the Habsburg domains. If he knew the problem, he also knew the answer:maps. Decision makers needed maps. It was a wise assessment, for, as Benedict Andersonhas noted, maps, along with censuses and museums, shaped the way in which colonialpowers imagined their dominions by creating a human landscape of perfect visibility.2 Inparticular, maps supplied a basic visual language to depict landscapes, villages, borders, androads. Inspired by the Enlightenment drive for numbering and categorizing, cartographers

made maps easily accessible by including legends that classi

ed and simpli

ed their maintraits. This organization of spatial knowledge provided governments with the informationessential to the expansion of central authority. Maps were, then, of great practical utility, andJoseph II was not alone in recognizing their value. Indeed, throughout the eighteenth centuryimperial rulers in Britain, China, France, Spain, and Russia also invested extensive resourcesto obtain detailed visual representations of their realms.

1All translations from primary sources and non-English secondary literature belong to the author. Ileana Bozac and

Teodor Pavel, Cltoria mpratului Iosif all II-lea n Transilvania la 1773 [The Journey of Emperor Joseph II to

Transylvania in 1773] (Cluj-Napoca, 2006), 716.2Benedict Anderson,Imagined Communities(London/New York, 1996), 18485.

Austrian History Yearbook43 (2012): 141164 Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2012doi:10.1017/S0067237811000634

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It is no surprise, then, that in the second half of the eighteenth century the Habsburgmonarchy launched vast cartographic projects aimed at helping to bring EnlightenedAbsolutism to the farthest reaches of its territories. Yet despite the valuable functionsperformed by cartography, its contributions to Habsburg history have been largely neglected.

Scholarly accounts of Maria Theresas and Joseph IIs reforms either ignore imperialmapping operations entirely or overlook the relationship between cartography andEnlightened Absolutism. Therefore, my study concentrates on the rst general mapping ofthe empire, theJosephinische Aufnahme, as carried out in the principality of Transylvania.

I dene imperial cartography as a process of gathering knowledge about the empiresterritory in order to introduce reforms and to plan the defense and the expansion of thestate. Whereas cartography includes visual representations of a territory, mapmaking projectswere often associated with nonvisual data gathering enterprises. Utilizing the history ofcartographys methodology, I interrogate the Transylvanian sections of this cartographicsource to determine which traits of the Josephinische Aufnahme made it a product of

Enlightened Absolutism. How exactly were the elements represented on the map correlatedwith imperial reforms and imperial expansion? How did this mapping effort and the datacollection associated with it enable the Habsburg monarchy to plan Transylvanias potentialdemographic, strategic, and mining exploitation? Ultimately, this effort facilitated thedevelopment of Habsburg Enlightened Absolutism and of imperial expansion. Indeed, it isdifcult to see how the monarchys drive in these directions could have made much headwaywithout a concomitant emphasis on cartography.

In 1775, commenting on the art of mapping, the French cartographer Csar-Franois Cassinide Thury wrote we would no longer consider as wasted timethe time spent to draw a goodmap, which would not need any modications, and would serve as an arbiter for all the

contestations caused by the imperfection of other plans.3

Cassinis statement reects ashared preconception of eighteenth-century European cartographers, who believed that ageometrical framework of triangulation based on astronomic observations made Europeanmaps scientically accurate.4 Cassinis writings express more than his dependence on theEnlightenments institutional framework and the political repercussions of his work. TheFrench cartographers condence that maps could be perfect representations of the realworld had implications for how governments used maps as scientic weapons for furtheringboth expansion and internal reforms.

Until a couple of decades ago, interpreting maps as accurate representations of pastgeographic realities had also been a common methodology among historians, who used

spatial representations to simply illustrate their narratives. In the 1980s, John Brian Harleysuggested that any maps utility as a historic source lies not only in its illustrativecapabilities, but also in its intrinsic textual value.5 Harley understood that the mostmisleading quality of a cartographical representation is its seemingly natural and objectiveaspect, which hides the ideological agenda.

3Csar-Franois Cassini de Thury,Relation dun voyage en Allemagne, qui comprend les oprations relatives lagure de la terre [et] la gographie particulire du Palatinat, du duch de Wurtemberg, du corde de Souabe, de la

Bavire de l

Autriche ... suivie de la description des conqutes de Louis XV., depuis 1745 jusqu

en 1748 (Paris, 1775),xxviii.4Matthew H. Edney, The Irony of Imperial Mapping, in The Imperial Map: Cartography and the Mastery of

Empire, ed. James Akerman, 1145 (Chicago, 2009), at 42.5John Brian Harley, Text and Contexts in the Interpretation of Early Maps,inFrom Sea Charts to Satellite Images,

ed. David Buisseret, 315 (Chicago/London, 1990), at 3.

MADALINA-VALERIA VERES142


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In particular, there is a strong relationship between maps and the interests of the groups thatnance their production. In a 1988 article on intentional and unintentional silences in maps,Harley noted that the map was an instrument of power and much of the instrumentality ofmaps in early modern Europe was concerned with power in one form or another As

cartography became more objective through the states patronage, so it was also imprisonedby a different subjectivity, that inherent in its replication of the states dominant ideology.

He was the rst historian who applied the relationship of power to knowledge as articulatedby Foucault to cartography, interpreting geographical representations as instruments of acentral power and as reections of the states codied world perspectives.6 Harleys essays inThe New Nature of Maps redened the history of cartography as a eld.7 His analysis notonly examined maps as instruments of external power, but also looked to the broader effectsof map production, concluding that the intrinsic qualities of maps (abstraction, uniformity,repeatability, visuality) enforced a certain hierarchy in society.

The work of other historians of cartography, such as Matthew Edney, Valerie Kivelson,

Barbara Mundy, and Neil Saer, who further rened Harleys methodology, has opened newdirections for research examining the cultural and ideological dimensions of mappingsocieties.8 These scholars do more than simply discuss maps as products of certain societiesand contexts; they make new inferences about the societies that produced maps, based ontheir territorial representations. Furthermore, Mundy and Kivelson established for the casesof the Spanish and Russian empires that territorial knowledge and cartographicrepresentations were an essential stage whenever both landlocked or transoceanic earlymodern empires extended their hegemony, a step that followed the conquest but precededthe efcient exploitation of new provinces. The Habsburgs Josephinische Aufnahmeillustrates this process, as it represents the Habsburg monarchys preliminary step (the visual

appropriation) in a longer process of integrating and exploiting all resources, especially withrespect to newly acquired eastern provinces, such as Transylvania, Galicia, and Bukovina.Moreover, mapping these lands helped the Habsburgs in their ongoing negotiations with twostrong competitors: the Ottoman and the Russian empires.

Military threats shaped Viennese eighteenth-century reformism. Indeed, wrecking defeats inthe rst half of the eighteenth century alarmed the Viennese political elites and triggered themilitary-scal reorganization of the state.9 Habsburg Enlightened Absolutism should beunderstood not as a clearly structured program, but as a direct reaction to the militaryfailures in the Russian-Austrian-Ottoman War (17371739), the War of the AustrianSuccession (17401742), and the Seven Years War (17561763). As Charles Ingrao asserts,

Maria Theresa was pushed to greatness by a crisis of survival that demanded nothing less;without a Frederick II to confront her, Maria Theresa would have probably done much lessto change the monarchys existing balance of domestic political forces or its culturalorientation.10

6John Brian Harley, Silences and Secrecy: The Hidden Agenda of Cartography in Early Modern Europe,ImagoMundi40 (1988): 5776, at 58, 71.

7John Brian Harley,The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the history of cartography(Baltimore, 2002).8Barbara Mundy,The Mapping of New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and the Maps of the relaciones geogrcas

(Chicago, 1996); Edney,

The Irony of Imperial Mapping;

Valerie Kivelson, Cartographies of Tsardom: The Landand Its Meanings in Seventeenth-Century Russia (Ithaca, 2006); Neil Saer, The Connes of the Colony,Boundaries, Ethnographic Landscapes, and Imperial Cartography in Iberoamerica,in Akerman,The Imperial Map.

9Hamish Scott,Enlightened Absolutism: Reform and Reformers in Later Eighteenth-Century Europe (Basingstoke,1990), 151.

10Charles W. Ingrao,The Habsburg Monarchy 16181815(Cambridge, 2000), 169.

PUTTING TRANSYLVANIA ON THE MAP 143


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The principles that guided Maria Theresa, Joseph II, and the rest of the Viennese decision-making circles can be characterized as critical, rational, and reformist, and were primarilyinuenced by German Enlightenment (Aufklrung) and cameralist ideas. Although thehistoriography has discussed in detail the Habsburg efforts to extract revenue from their

provinces in order to support military projects, no study makes its focal point a crucialelement in understanding the Habsburg reforms: the imperial mapping enterprises.11

Whereas between 1700 and 1779, 240 printed maps with more than 360 sheets appeared inthe Habsburg lands, in the ten years of Joseph II s sole rule (17801790), 227 maps containingmore than 370 sheets ooded the market.12 In addition to an increase in the number of printedmaps during Joseph IIs reign, the emperor also had a decisive role in reorganizing the militarymap collection and using maps to help the war effort. On 30 April 1781, the emperor sent aletter to Andreas Hadik, the president of the Aulic War Council, and ordered the cataloguingof all the maps located in their archive. After the material was organized, a copy of thedirectory for each collection of maps was sent to Joseph II,13 and in later years, the emperor

gave his military commanders and top bureaucrats access to maps in order to defend theempire. During the 17871791 Russo-Austrian-Ottoman conict, military commanders inthe provinces of Hungary, Transylvania, and Galicia received copies of secret military mapsfrom the Aulic War Council Archive.14

What triggered such an intensication of mapping initiatives at the same time that Joseph IIaccelerated his reformist program? For example, before planning the radical administrative andtaxation reform of Hungary in the 1780s, Joseph ordered the Hungarian Chancellery on 1November 1784 to send him information about and maps of the counties so that he couldform an opinion about the wholesystem.15 Whereas Maria Theresa did not leave Vienna fordecades and relied on second-hand sources to gather information about the empire, Joseph II

combined the use of maps and reports with extensive personal journeys to the variousprovinces of the monarchy. Before each foray, the emperor would gather information abouthis destination and prepare detailed itineraries. Joseph IIs relationship to maps reveals hiscondence in the ability of territorial representations to convey information about local realities.

Clearly, mapping the empire represented an essential component of the Habsburg efforts toextract revenue from their provinces in order to support military projects. Moreover,mapmaking was crucial to the process of centralization described by Peter Dickson, RobertEvans, and Charles Ingrao as it facilitated an essential turning point in the ongoingnegotiation for power between the center and local authorities.16 Through extensive datacollection in the provinces, Vienna eroded the advantage of provincial elites with respect to

local knowledge. Although the rst representation of the empire, the Josephinische

11Some of the main works discussing Maria Theresas and Joseph IIs reforms in detail are Derek Beales,

Enlightenment and Reform in Eighteenth-Century Europe (London, 2005); Peter George Muir Dickson, Financeand Government under Maria Theresa, 17401780 (Oxford/New York, 1987); Derek Beales, Joseph II(Cambridge,1987; 2009); Robert Evans, The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy: 15501700: An Interpretation (Oxford, 1984);Ingrao, The Habsburg Monarchy; Franz Szabo, Kaunitz and Enlightened Absolutism. 17531780 (Cambridge/New York, 1994).

12Johannes Dringer,Die sterreichische Kartographie im 18. und zu begin des 19. Jahrhunderts (Vienna, 1984),

104

5.13Vienna, Kriegsarchiv (hereafter KA), Hofkriegsrath (hereafter KA HKR) 1781 34 54.14See, for example: KA HKR 1787 34 191.15Beales,Joseph II, vol. 2, 480.16Dickson,Finance and Government under Maria Theresa;Evans,The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy; Ingrao,

The Habsburg Monarchy.



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Aufnahme, has been primarily understood as an instrument of the Habsburg army, it alsoanticipated provincial economic and social reforms during Maria Theresas and Joseph IIsreign. The Josephinische Aufnahmeembodies the concurrency of Maria Theresas and JosephIIs military, economic, and social reforms, as the collected data helped the development of a

wide range of imperial policies.It was during the time of Chancellor Wenzel Anton von Kaunitzs reforms that Maria Theresa

approved the rst general mapping of the monarchys territories. Lack of accurate maps hadproved fatal for the Habsburgs in eighteenth-century open-eld battles of the Seven YearsWar, which demanded that armies be highly mobile. In order to employ such a techniquesuccessfully, geographically extensive and detailed maps were essential.17 Without extensiveterrain maps, the Austrian armys maneuvers had been paralyzed in its own territories. On 2May 1764, Lieutenant Field Marshal Franz Moritz Graf Lacy brought this logistical problem tohis superior, the president of the Habsburg War Council, Count Leopold Daun:

The last war has demonstrated how important it is for the army, to have a good knowledge of all landsin which war is waged That which we now know, we have gathered from land maps, plans anddescriptions captured from enemiesDuring the last war, no march could be undertaken before anexploratory missionHow can one hide a troop-movement from the enemies if the army has toexplore the territoryrst?

Lacy lamented the difculties encountered by troops when having to cross a forest: Thecommanders did not know the terrain and wasted precious time in nding the best paths;meanwhile, they were responsible for protecting the army from potential enemy ambushes.The slow march of the troops also had ill effects on the civilian population, which had to

support the army with food and housing.18

Daun heeded Lacys appeal, and on 5 May 1764, forwarded the request for mappingoperations to Maria Theresa, who approved the project. Daun proposed the completion of auniform cartographical project of all the dynastys dominions.19 The survey was to servemilitary purposes, and this entailed secrecy. Through its richness of detail and the sheer sizeof the area covered, the map nished in 1787 was impressive. Twenty-one different surveysof countries and regions resulted in 3,324 sheets drawn at a 1:28,800 scale and 275 sheetsdrawn at a 1:11,520 scale (for the territory of Austrian Netherlands). The map ofTransylvania included 280 sections (see Figure 1), each covering an area of 18 12kilometers (11 7.5 miles).20

Because of their classied status, the representations did not exert any inuence oncontemporary civil cartographic projects. In addition, because astronomic measurements didnot factor into the mapping process, the 3,599 sheets could not be put together to recreate asingle, immense depiction of the monarchys possessions. These maps served the Habsburgstates strategic planning until 1869, when a cartographic depiction executed on the basis of

17Matthew H. Edney, Mapping Parts of the World, in Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, ed. James R.Akerman, and Robert W. Krakow, Jr., 11757 (Chicago, London, 2007), at 151.

18Ernst Hofsttter,Beitrge zur Geschichte der sterreichischen Landesaufnahmen(Vienna, 1989), 35.19

Andor Borbly and Julia Nagy,

Der ersten militrischen Aufnahmen

Josephinische Aufnahme,

on DVDAzels Katonai Felmrs Erdly s Temesi Bnsg[The rst military surveying: Transylvania and Temes] (Budapest,2005).

20Annamria Jank, An Outstanding Person of the 1st Military Survey: Mihly Lajos Jeney,inStudia Cartologica13. Papers in Honour of the 65th Birthday of Prof. Istvn Klinghammer,ed. Zentai Lszl, Gyrffy Jnos, and TrkZsolt, 201207 (Budapest, 2006), at 201202;Az elsKatonai Felmrs Erdly s Temesi Bnsg.



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the third Austrian survey on a scale of 1:75,000 replaced it.22 The project is remembered as theJosephinische Aufnahmebecause of Joseph IIs contribution to it. As co-regent with his mothersince 1765, he directed military matters. Joseph IIs close collaboration with theHofkriegsratspresident, Daun, and his successor, Field Marshal Lacy, led to innovations such as the use ofdrill and exercise manuals for the soldiers training and also the introduction of inspectorsgeneral.23 The cartographic initiative was part of the same package of military reforms.24

The order in which the state mapped its territories suggests the primarily military value of theAufnahme. Throughout the eighteenth century, Transylvania remained a frontier region,vulnerable to Tartar invasions and Ottoman attacks, and accurate mapping provided oneway to successfully counter a potential raid, as it allowed the army to prepare a betterdefense against invasions. For example, in 1769 there was a real fear of a Tartar invasion inthe principality of Transylvania. The commander Fabris of the Quartermaster General Staff

FIGURE1: The Sections of theJosephinische Aufnahmefor Transylvania.21

21

Az elsKatonai Felmrs Erdly s Temesi Bnsg.22Ernst von Nischer-Falkenhof, The Survey by the Austrian General Staff under the Empress Maria Theresa andthe Emperor Joseph II, and the Subsequent Initial Surveys of Neighbouring Territories during the Years 17491854,

Imago Mundi2 (1937): 8388, at 87. Jank, An Outstanding Person of the 1st Military Survey,202.23Ingrao,The Habsburg Monarchy,183.24Dringer,Die sterreichische Kartographie, 63.



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(Generalquartiermeisterstabes) and a number of ofcers assigned to the region received ordersfrom Vienna to start the process of mapping theJosephinische Aufnahmefor this province, fromthe borders of Transylvania with Moldavia and Wallachia, after which they were to continuemapping the principality, from the eastern borders toward the west.25

On 16 March 1769, Field Marshal Lacy (now president of the War Council), wrote to thegeneral in command in Transylvania, Count ODonnell, instructing him to carry out aneconomic survey (conomische Conscription). In the end, four enterprises took placeconcurrently in Transylvania: a military survey on a scale of 1:28,800; the description of thesurvey sections; a survey of all the settlements; and an economic description.26 Lacy instructedthe surveyors on what elements to incorporate in the descriptions. This order reveals again thedual dimension of the map (military and economic), as the descriptions had to include:

a. the distance between the places marked on the map

b. the depth and width of the rivers, the quality of their banks, the places where the riverscould be crossed and whether they could be crossed by people, riders and/or carriages

c. the forests, the roads used to transport wood from the forest, the number of paths, variousobstacles encountered in the forest (hills, valleys, swamps), details about the age of theforest, the height of the trees

d. information about the various swamps and whether the swamps could be crossed on foot,on horseback, [and] during which seasons; mention whether the swamp crossing

conditions were inuenced by the weather

e. details about the quality of the lakeswater, the surface the lakes could inundate duringrainy seasons

f. the highest hills or mountains which could be used as observation points

g. the condition of the roads and footpaths during bad weather

h. the position of the churches, graveyards, farms, mills or other important buildings, which

offered housingoptions for troops, and populated the landscape with noteworthy landmarks.27

The entry in the economic description for the village Szsz Fnes illustrates how allsettlements presentations followed the template suggested by Lacy.28 The account speciesthat the Szamos River, located in the north of the settlement, was 20 Schrittwide and 1 to2 Schuch deep, and the river bed was sandy and stony. The road from Clausenburg toBanhunyad passed through here, and it was wide enough to allow carriage trafc in dry

25

Josef Paldus,Die militrischen Aufnahmen im Bereiche der Habsburgischen Lnder aus der Zeit Kaiser Joseph II(Vienna, 1918).26Ibid.27Borbly and Julia Nagy, Der ersten militrischen Aufnahmen.28The toponyms used in this essay to refer to settlements and rivers have been preserved in the same format as

included in the Josephinische Aufnahme.



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weather. The surrounding forests were tall, and the church located in the village was built ofstone.29 The depiction of this village on the map (see Figure 2) could not reveal all thisnumerical and qualitative data, which was nonetheless essential for the troops movementthrough the area.30 Therefore, for each map section, the descriptions also include generalinformation about the terrain, under the section Main Observations. For section 83 ofTransylvanias map, the surveyor warned the reader against marching the troops in this areaduring rainy weather, as the swampy ground could greatly slow down the maneuvers.31

Although most of the historiography discussing this cartographic project stresses only itsmilitary value for the Habsburgs, I argue that the map and its attached documents, asdemonstrated by the elements they collected, also served economic, social, and religious

innovations.32

The next sections analyze the role cartographic projects such as theJosephinische Aufnahmeplayed in supporting both external and internal expansion projects.

The Military Dimension of the Josephinische Aufnahme

The institutional organization of eighteenth-century surveyor corps demonstrates that mapsserved primarily military interests. During Maria Theresas reign, cartographic engineersbecame state employees. In 1747, the engineersprofessional group became a special division

FIGURE2: The village Szsz Fnes, Section 82.

29OneSchrittequals approximately 3 inches, and 1 Schuchequals approximately 11.4 inches, in Measurements,http://www.kartenmeister.com/preview/html/measurements__coinage.html, last accessed on 15 October 2011; KA B

IXa 715, vol 2, 9192.30Az elsKatonai Felmrs Erdly s Temesi Bnsg, Section 82.31Ibid., 108.32The exception is the study of James Vann. According to this scholar, in the eighteenth century, because of the

aggressive emergence of Brandenburg-Prussia and the loss of the Spanish throne to a French claimant, the

Habsburgs embarked upon a methodical program of state building. The dynasty exchanged an expansionist

policy, looking toward the West for one of consolidation and expansion toward the East. Vann touches upon the

role of the Josephinische Aufnahme in future imperial economic reforms. In the case of Maramaros, the order of

26 September 1766, stipulated that the standard map on a scale of 1:28,000 had to be accompanied by a second setof maps on a scale of 1:17,200, which would assist in determining a more accurate tax base for the province.

Furthermore, the Crown ordered that the 1769 Hungarian mapping had to be accompanied by more specic

information about villages and estates. James Vann, Mapping under the Austrian Habsburgs, in Monarchs,Ministers and Maps: The Emergence of Cartography as a Tool of Government in Early Modern Europe, ed. DavidBuisseret, 15367 (Chicago, 1992).



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subordinate to the Headquarters of the Quartermaster General, and a topographic departmentbecame part of the Military Archive, solidifying the bond between the armys interests andcartography.33

In a letter to Maria Theresa on 3 April 1761, in which he discusses his ideas about military

reform, Joseph II stressed the key role of army engineers in knowing the territory and keepingupdated maps with them during military conicts: [A]s for the engineers, they will bedistributed among all the provinces, and they will have to know the territory in which theyare sent thoroughly, and to have very detailed maps not only of that territory but also of allthe adjacent territories.34

The important part army engineers played in the survey operations is conrmed by thepersonnel working on the Josephinische Aufnahme. From 1769 to 1772, Colonel Fabris andhis subordinate ofcers mapped Transylvania.35 An order from the KaiserlichKniglicherGeneralquartiermeisterstab (Imperial-Royal Staff of Logistics, created in 1758 and in chargeof all the military surveys) from 31 January 1773 mentions Colonel Fabriss promotion to

General Major.36

Therefore, Major Jeney became the new ofcer in charge of nishing themapping of Transylvania.37 Both Fabris and Jeney also worked in other provinces on the

Josephinische Aufnahme (Bohemia, the three Austrian districts of Silesia, the Croatian-Slavonian Kingdom, the Military frontier districts of Croatia-Slavonia, Inner Austria).38

In surveying the principality, the central authorities took extensive care to record the roadnetwork. As a potential military theater, Transylvanias lines of communication had to bedepicted as accurately as possible. The imperial order asked the surveyors to use at least ninetypes of symbols to differentiate among different qualities and types of road. This explainswhy the legend of the map distinguishes among the following notations (see Figure 3).39

The labeling of certain roads but not others suggests the importance of the road network for

the army. Only the main roads had clear identications, because labels ensured the orientationof the troops and eased the relaying of orders. To give a concrete example, the Landstrasse,which linked Clausenburg and Maros Vsrhely, had strategic value in a potential armedconfrontation; consequently the cartographer labeled it (see Figure 4).40 By contrast, otherroads and paths were not labeled.

Roads are more than lines uniting destinations. There are many other elements, such asbridges, gallows, inns, and wood or stone crosses, that accompany the depiction of roads.The mapmakers included all these elements, as synthesized in Figure 5. Such attention todepicting accurately the human impact on the landscape reveals both a desire for knowingthe state of the communication networks, while also paving the way for future developments.

33Irina Popova, Representing National Territory: Cartography and Nationalism in Hungary, 17001848, in

Creating the Other: Ethnic Conict and Nationalism in Habsburg Central Europe, ed. Nancy M. Wingeld, 1938(New York/Oxford, 2003), at 2021.

34Alfred Ritter von Arneth, Maria Theresa und Joseph II: Ihre Gorrespondenz sammt Briefen Josephs an seinenBruder Leopold, vol. 1 (Vienna, 1867), 10.

35Jank, An Outstanding Person of the 1st Military Survey, 204.36Hofsttter,Beitrge zur Geschichte der sterreichischen Landesaufnahmen, 50; Jank, An Outstanding Person of

the 1st Military Survey,

202.37KA HKR 1773 57 11.38Jank, An Outstanding Person of the 1st Military Survey, 201, 204.39Az elsKatonai Felmrs Erdly s Temesi Bnsg. The images are from the DVD, and the table was created by

Daniel Pinkterton at the Center for Austrian Studies.40Ibid., Section 85.



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The richness of detail characterizing theJosephinische Aufnahmeserved Habsburg militarypurposes. But moving beyond the seemingly objective depiction of the Transylvanianlandscape, the map can be interpreted as a reection of Habsburg consolidation andexpansionism in the late eighteenth century. The Habsburgsefforts to map Transylvania arepart of their drive toward uniformity. Throughout the eighteenth century, the Habsburgelites strived to integrate the southern, western, and eastern border regions more fully intothe monarchy. This process culminated during the reigns of Maria Theresa and Joseph II.Whereas Maria Teresa tolerated the survival of some provincial specicity, Joseph II ignoredconstitutional limitations on his rule in the Austrian Netherlands and even refused tobe crowned king of Hungary and Bohemia. The emperor was determined to impose the

principle of Gleichfrmigkeit, or uniform government, in all Habsburg provinces, and he

FIGURE 3: The Josephinische Aufnahme. Adapted from Borbly and Nagy, Der erstenmilitrischen Aufnahmen.

FIGURE4: TheLandstrasseconnecting Clausenburg and Maros Vsrhely, Section 85.



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reorganized outer provinces on the model of the core Habsburg provinces.41 TheJosephinischeAufnahmecan be read as a product of these imperial uniformizing goals, even before Joseph IIbecame the sole ruler of the Habsburg lands. Additionally, the Habsburg cartographic projectsare connected to numerous military conicts in Eastern Europe, which triggered a continuousreadjustment of borders.

The 176874 Russo-Ottoman War and Habsburg Expansionism

In the eighteenth century, the Habsburgs, the Romanovs, and the Ottomans were constantly ateach others throats, ghting for supremacy in Eastern Europe. The Eastern Question,whichstrongly impacted international relations in the nineteenth century had its origins in therepeated defeats the Ottomans suffered a century before in front of Russian and Austrianarmies. Historians such as Virginia Aksan, Michael Hochedlinger, Karl Roider, and FranzSzabo discuss the multiple military challenges Vienna faced in the eighteenth century.42

Although some scholars have focused their attention on the Christian-Muslim component ofthe military conicts in Eastern and Central Europe, others have prioritized Russiasemergence as the main political actor in Eastern Europe.43 The Habsburg policy makers

hesitated throughout this period between allying themselves with Russia against theOttomans and preserving the status quo, in order to keep a strong potential competitor(Russia) out of the Balkans. The Habsburgs had to operate both on the western front againstPrussia and on an eastern front in the Balkans and Poland. Karl Roider and Virginia Aksananalyze the interdependence between these two conict arenas and recreate the complex

FIGURE5: Elements associated with the Road Network

41Beales,Joseph II, vol. 2, 64; Beales, Enlightenment and Reform in Eighteenth-Century Europe, 273.42Virginia Aksan,Ottoman Wars 17001870: An Empire Besieged, 1st ed. (Harlow, 2007); Michael Hochedlinger,

Austrias Wars of Emergence: War, State and Society in the Habsburg Monarchy, 16831797(Harlow, 2003); Karl

Roider, Austria

s Eastern Question, 1700

1790 (Princeton, 1982); Szabo, Kaunitz and Enlightened Absolutism,17531780.43Andrew Wheatcroft,The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe (New York, 2009);

Harald Heppner, Austria i principatele Dunrene (17741812): o contribuie la politica Sud-Est European aHabsburgilor[Austria and the Danubian Principalities (1774-1782): a contribution to the Politics of the Habsburgsin south-eastern Europe] (Cluj-Napoca, 2000).



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image of the triple Russo-Ottoman-Habsburg imperial confrontation in Eastern Europe fromthe Habsburg and the Ottoman point of views.44

Joseph IIs efforts to increase and strengthen the Habsburg army aimed both at territorialdefense and eventual expansion. The emperor and Chancellor Kaunitz understood the

impossibility of sudden territorial expansion and prioritized negotiation over warfare.However, when they felt the international situation was favorable to Habsburg expansion,the Viennese decision makers enlarged the monarchys boundaries. The rst partition ofPoland (1772) and the annexation of Bukovina (1775) are cases in point. To aid in theirdecision making about whether to enter or stay out of conicts, the Habsburgs used maps.In this sense, cartographical projects anticipated Habsburg expansionism. In order tounderstand the Habsburgs decision to engage only in some of the wars involving theOttomans, their access to military-sensitive information has to be reevaluated. Joseph IIseffort in the midst of the 17681774 Russo-Ottoman war to collect cartographic informationproves the mapsimportance in the emperors decision-making process. In the confrontation

among Vienna, Constantinople, and St. Petersburg, the Josephinische Aufnahme,supplemented by additional mapping enterprises in the 1770s in Moldavia and Wallachia,anticipated the expansion of the monarchy to Bukovina and the preservation of theDanubian Principalities as buffer states between the Habsburgs and the Russians.

During his tour of Transylvania in 1773, Joseph II expressed his discontent with theTransylvanian parts of the Josephinische Aufnahme sections that had been produced since1769, and he ordered the surveyors to improve the accuracy of the cartographicrepresentation of the border between Transylvania and its neighboring provinces, Ottoman-controlled Moldavia and Wallachia (collectively known as the Danubian Principalities). Henot only desired to map the frontier, but also to obtain accurate representations of part of

the inner territory of Moldavia and Wallachia. TheAufnahmenot only served the purpose ofstrengthening defense, but it also reected the expansionist goals of the Habsburg monarchy.The Habsburgs were more than passive spectators during the 17681774 Russo-Ottomanwar, and Josephs 1773 tour in Transylvania, Galicia, and Bukovina paved the way forfurther annexations to the Habsburg realm in 1775.

From the moment Russian troops occupied Moldavia and Wallachia in 1769, Maria Theresa,Joseph II, and Kaunitz seriously considered the possibility of having to enter the Russo-Ottomanconict on the side of the Porte.45 Moldavia and Wallachia were vassal principalities of theOttoman Empire, located east and south of Transylvania, respectively. The Habsburgs fearedthat Russias occupation of these provinces marked the beginning of its permanent domination

over the area. When in 1770 Catherine the Great demanded the right to control Moldavia andWallachia for twenty-ve years, she conrmed the monarchys fears.46 Chancellor Kaunitzargued strongly for declaring war on Catherine the Great and hoped that siding with theOttomans would lead to the Habsburg monarchys re-annexation of the western part ofWallachia. Joseph II suggested a different approach: Allow the Russian and the Ottoman forcesto ght each other and only intervene in the conict if the Russians were winning. He stressedthe futility of an attack against Russia without obtaining Prussias support, or at least itsneutrality.47 Prussias refusal to promise neutrality prevented a Russian-Austrian military clash.48

44Roider,Austrias Eastern Question; Aksan,Ottoman Wars, 86.45Aksan,Ottoman Wars, 87.46Hochedlinger,Austrias Wars of Emergence, 352.47Beales,Joseph II, vol. 1, 28691.48Heppner,Austria i principatele Dunrene, 2627.



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Chancellor Kaunitz, Joseph II, and Maria Theresa then debated their next step. Reinforcing thearmy in Transylvania represented the only course of action on which all three agreed. As itturned out, the demonstration of military might staged in Transylvania convinced the Russiansthat Habsburg interests would not easily accommodate Russian expansionism in the Danubian

Principalities.49

Joseph II had originally planned a journey to Transylvania for 1772. Because of military andpolitical developments, however, his journey had to be postponed by a year. After the rstpartition of Poland and the annexation of Galicia (located in close proximity toTransylvania), Joseph II decided to inspect the newly acquired region as well. On the way toGalicia, he allocated some months for travelling around Transylvania.50

One of Josephs goals during his tour of Transylvania was to analyze the advantages of apotential annexation of the western part of Wallachia, which Chancellor Kaunitz favored.Writing to Maria Theresa in June 1773, the emperor noted:

after I have thoroughly examined the Rothenthurm Pass, I cannot hide from Your Majesty that themore I see this country, the more I am convinced that the acquisition of the Wallachia surnamedAustrian would bring more disadvantages than advantages to the state. I dare to ask YourMajesty to transmit this information to prince Kaunitz, and I take the responsibility to counselYour Majesty against the acquisition [of Little Wallachia].51

Although Little Wallachia had been part of the Habsburg monarchy, between 1718 and 1739,Joseph IIs assessment of potential re-annexation inuenced the Monarchys foreign policy withrespect to the region. On 31 July 1777, in a letter to Count Mercy-Argenteau, the Habsburgambassador to France, Maria Theresa stated: unhealthy provinces, without culture,

depopulated or inhabited by perdious and ill-intentioned Greeks, would be more likely toexhaust than to augment the forces of the monarchy. To Joseph IIs rejection of LittleWallachia because of strategic reasons, Maria Theresa thus added a moral dimension.52

Instead of Little Wallachia, Joseph II suggested an alternative annexation. While inspectingthe territory of Galicia, the emperor discovered that the best way to connect Transylvania andeastern Galicia ran through the northern section of Ottoman Moldavia, a region soon to benamed Bukovina. In a letter to his mother, Joseph II wrote that this territory wouldfacilitate our communications and our commerce as well as win for us the passageway forour troops in case of war from one to the other of our provinces which would otherwisehave to make a terrible detour to join together.53 After he decided that Bukovina should be

claimed from the Ottomans, in 1773, the emperor ordered Austrian ofcers to go to theregion (still under Russian control) and start mapping it.54 This initiative was taken twoyears before the Ottoman Empire accepted ceding Bukovina.

Maria Theresa and Kaunitz took Joseph IIs suggestion seriously. The empress ordered J. A.Thugut, the Habsburg ambassador to Constantinople, to persuade the sultan to exchange

49Roider,Austrias Eastern Question,11624.50

Bozac and Pavel,Cltoria mpratului Iosif all II-lea n Transilvania la 1773, 29.51von Arneth,Maria Theresa und Joseph II., vol. 2, 8.52Cited in Alex Drace-Francis, A Provincial Imperialist and a Curious Account of Wallachia: Ignaz von Born,

European History Quarterly36, no. 1 (1 January 2006): 6189, at 80.53Roider,Austrias Eastern Question,140.54Hochedlinger,Austrias Wars of Emergence, 358.



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Bukovina for help in obtaining an advantageous peace treaty with the Russians. In 1774, Thugutadvised Chancellor Kaunitz to go ahead and order the occupation of Bukovina, as the new defacto situation would give Vienna the upper hand in the negotiations.55 In 1774, as Catherinenally withdrew her troops from Bukovina and the Principalities, Maria Theresa ordered the

occupation of Bukovina. Thus, the Austrians acquired 10,500 square kilometers and 70,000inhabitants.56 On 23 November 1774, in a dispatch addressed to his brother Leopold, Josephwrote:

From here the most interesting news is the uncertainty in which we persist regarding our frontiers inPoland we have advanced our borders right after the concluded peace treaty up to the forest calledBukovinaand this gives us incalculable advantages, because it opens up direct communicationbetween Transylvania and Pocutia, gives us clear borders, forests, pastures and around thirty villages.57

Expanding the empire by taking advantage of the Russo-Ottoman rivalry proved successful.

However, at the time of Joseph IIs visit to Transylvania, the war had not reached its conclusion,and there remained a chance that Austria might have to get involved in the conict. During histhree-month journey in Transylvania, the emperor thus devoted seven full days to inspectingthe borders with Moldavia and Wallachia. On 5 and 6 June, he allocated nine hours a day tothe examination of Transylvanias southern frontier; and on 10, 11, 13, 14, and 16 June, hedevoted up to eleven hours a day to the inspection of the province s eastern frontier.58 Thisrst-hand experience of Transylvanias borders led Joseph to express his discontent with thelatest cartographic representation of the area.

On 14 June 1773, Joseph inspected the Gymes pass, which connected Transylvania andMoldavia. The cartographic representation of this area on the Josephinische Aufnahme

reveals the discrepancy between the rich details on the Transylvanian side and the scarcity ofinformation for the region across the border (see Figure 6).59 This is not an isolatedoccurrence. For the whole length of the border between the Habsburg territories and theDanubian Principalities, the cartographers lacked information about the other side of theborder. No wonder that after he traveled to Transylvania and then saw the map, Joseph IIcomplained that the main passes, roads, and footpaths were not represented accurately onthe map. This faulty depiction of the border could negatively affect military operations inthe area. Consequently, the emperor ordered General Barco to obtain the permission of theRussian commandant of Moldavia and Wallachia, to undertake mapping operations on theother side of the border.60

A new border-survey was the result. Major Jeney and his team of surveyorsnished this newproject at the end of 1774. The new maps could be joined to the Transylvanian sheets of the

Josephinische Aufnahme in the eastern and southern direction, providing detailedrepresentations not only of the Transylvanian side of the border, but also part of theadjoining Danubian Principalities.61

The cartographic initiatives of the Habsburg monarchy at the borders of the DanubianPrincipalities mapped lands lying outside the borders of the empire. Joseph II was directly

55Roider,Austrias Eastern Question, 14347.56

Aksan,Ottoman Wars, 159.57von Arneth,Maria Theresa und Joseph II., vol. 2, 4748.58Bozac and Pavel,Cltoria mpratului Iosif all II-lea n Transilvania la 1773, 525.59Az elsKatonai Felmrs Erdly s Temesi Bnsg, Section 164.60KA HKR 1773 57 64.61Jank, An Outstanding Person of the 1st Military Survey,204; KA, Karten- und Plansammlung, B III c 38.



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involved in the cartographic projects of the early 1770s and considered maps both a preliminarystep in a potential expansion of the empire and a necessary defense instrument. AlthoughVienna did not extend its direct control over all of Moldavia and Wallachia, it maintainedthe Danubian Principalities as buffer states between Habsburg territories and the doubleRussian-Ottoman menace. Furthermore, through a crafty combination of diplomatic andmilitary pressures, Vienna obtained a part of Moldavia: Bukovina. Habsburg mappingprojects in the eastern borderlands of the monarchy should be given their fair share in thenarrative of the Russian-Austrian-Ottoman military confrontations in the second half of theeighteenth century.

The Economic Dimension of the Josephinische Aufnahme

The Josephinische Aufnahme served not only the armys interests, but it also constituted anessential component of economic measures, such as the ones related to the development ofthe mining industry and population management. From the Aufnahmes early phases, MariaTheresa and Joseph II valued the maps as government tools that could serve to improve thestates nances and to stimulate the economy.62 Indeed, the mapping of new territoriesusually accompanied early-modern imperial projects. Studies of British, French, Russian,

Portuguese, and Spanish imperial enterprises analyze the relationship between themanagement of the territories by the central power and the projects of territorial andeconomic representation. The Habsburg imperial project enacted in Transylvania is part of alarger process of centralization unfolding all over the monarchy, including its heartlands.However, as a result of its peripheral geographical position with respect to Vienna,Transylvania represented more of an unknown land than did older Habsburg possessions.Moreover, this province represented both a potential gate for foreign invasion and also apotential bridge for further expansion of the Habsburg borders.

Alex Drace-Francis argues that the Habsburgsintegration of their southeastern frontier maybe compared with other contemporary imperial enterprises. An imperial aspect Drace-Francis

identies, but does not explore further, regards Viennas exploitation of provincial resources.63

FIGURE6: The Gymes pass, Section 164.

62Vann, Mapping under the Austrian Habsburgs,165.63Drace-Francis, A Provincial Imperialist and a Curious Account of Wallachia,62.



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TheJosephinische Aufnahmealso had a pronounced economic dimension in relationship to theprovince of Transylvania, especially with respect to the exploitation of mines and themanagement of the population. This aspect of the Habsburg cartographic enterprise can bebetter explored through an examination of the other major enterprise that took place

concurrently with the mapping of the province: the detailed economic description of all ofTransylvanias settlements and their surroundings.

The economic survey of the Transylvanian Principality followed a very strict template. In1769, the President of the War Council, Field Marshal Lacy, sent a comprehensive list ofobjectives that the economic description had to contain for each settlement: an assessment ofthe land quality (arable, fallow, sandy); mentions of meadows, vineyards, woods, marshes,lakes, mills, important crops; the inhabitants professions; existing manufactures or factories;and natural resources.64 Based on the Josephinische Aufnahme, information about economicobjectives, such as mills, can be synthesized. Figure 7 reproduces the depiction of a papermill, situated in the proximity of the village Sebes Varalya.65 This example is only one of

hundreds of mills recorded on the map by the surveyors. The different types of millswatermills, sawmills, stamp mills, paper mills, windmillsserved specic economic activities. Forexample, stamp mills processed mineral resources, such as gold and silver.

Mining for Revenue

Eighteenth-century cameralists posited that the power of territorial rulers rested on economicprosperity, and the three main sources of wealth were the Crowns domains, various royalduties and levies, and the taxes negotiated with the Estates.66 Although the Estates repeatedly

refused to cooperate with Vienna, the monarchy had relatively more control over the cameralrevenue derived from royal domains, mines, salt, customs, and excise.67 Andre Wakeelddemonstrates the intimate connection between cameral sciences and the sciences of nature,especially chemistry and mineralogy.68 Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi, Christoph TraugottDelius, Joseph von Sonnenfels, and Ignaz von Born were just some of the top-level Habsburgbureaucrats and advisers who promoted the exploitation of natural resources as the backboneof the states revenue. As Justi stated, the purpose of mining was to increase the treasure ofthe country with respect to the amount of gold and silver which they extract from the earth.69

The interest of the imperial court in Transylvanias natural resources increased throughoutthe eighteenth century, especially after the loss of most of Silesia, rich in mineral deposits, to

Prussia. Mining represented the most valuable economic activity for the Habsburgmonarchy, and the state had the legal right to control it through state works or leaseholders.The Hofkammer controlled the mining institutions since the beginning of the eighteenthcentury, and in 1746 Maria Theresa created a special ofce, Bergkollegium, which was incharge of the Mint and mines.70 The salt from Transylvania and the Hungarian county of

64Paldus,Die militrischen aufnahmen im bereiche der habsburgischen lnder aus der zeit kaiser Josephs II.65Az elsKatonai Felmrs Erdly s Temesi Bnsg, Section 59.66Keith Tribe, Governing Economy: The Reformation of German Economic Discourse, 17501840 (Cambridge/

New York, 1988), 19.67Dickson,Finance and Government under Maria Theresa, vol. 2, 87.68Andre Wakeeld,The Disordered Police State: German Cameralism as Science and Practice(Chicago, 2009).69Albion Small,The Cameralists: The Pioneers of German Social Polity, 360.70Donata Brianta, Education and Training in the Mining Industry, 17501860: European Models and the Italian

Case,Annals of Science57, no. 3 (1 July 2000): 267300, at 273.



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Maramaros represented the main source of salt for Hungary, Banat, Croatia, Slavonia, Serbia,Moravia, and Silesia, and the Habsburg state held a monopoly on salt exploitation andcommercialization.71 After the Seven Years War, Maria Theresa decided to increase themonopoly price of government salt in all lands by one orin per centner in order to obtainnew funds to pay the interest on the high governmental debts, thus demonstrating herunderstanding of the capacity of salt commercialization to save the empire from nancialdifculties.72

Maria Theresa also reformed the university system to train better imperial miningadministrators. In 1763, she reorganized the mining school in Schemnitz, one of the centers

of precious metal production, into an imperial mining academy. Based on therecommendations of Christoph Traugott Delius, the empress established chairs ofmineralogy, chemistry, and metallurgy.73 Delius offered lectures on forestry, because, asMaria Theresa emphasized, this is essential for mining, impacting the safety of mines, themineral production, and the smelting of metal.74

Gaining control of the salt and gold mines in Transylvania represented one of Viennas mainobjectives after conquering the Principality in 1699. Maria Theresa was one of the mainshareholders of the Transylvanian gold and silver mining enterprises, and as a result of herand Joseph IIs efforts, between the early 1720s and 1770 gold production tripled. By the rsthalf of the nineteenth century, Transylvania produced more gold than all other parts of

Europe combined. Therefore, although gold, copper, and silver mines were not Treasurymonopolies, the Habsburg rulers still used them to increase the monarchys revenue.75

The salt mines in Transylvania rivaled the famous deposits of Wieliczka and Bochnia inGalicia, and the Habsburgs brought in experienced miners from Tirol and Bohemia to

FIGURE7: Paper mill next to the village Sebes Varalya, Section 59.

71Ion Dordea and Wollmann Volker, Transportuli comercializarea srii din Transilvaniai Maramuren Veacul

al XVIII-lea [The salt-transport and salt-trade from Transylvania and Maramaros in the eighteenth century],

Anuarul Institutului de Istorie din Cluj21 (1978): 135171, at 142.72Dickson,Finance and Government under Maria Theresa, vol. 2, 4647.73

Brianta,

Education and Training in the Mining Industry, 1750

1860,

279.74University of West Hungary: A Short History,http://www.uniwest.hu/index.php/2362/, last accessed 10 March

2010.75Katherine Verdery,Transylvanian Villagers: Three Centuries of Political, Economic, and Ethnic Change(Berkeley,

1983), 1489; Bla Kpeczi, Lszl Makkai, Andrs Mcsy, Zoltn Szsz, Gbor Barta, eds., History of Transylvania.Vol. 2, From 1606 to 1830(New York, 2002), 53839.



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increase production.76 Acknowledging the importance of salt resources, in 1699, theHofkammer (the Viennese institution in charge of mines administration) sent a specialcommission led by Baron Ludwig Albrecht von Tavonath to inquire into the causes of hugequantities of salt losses. The salt obtained from Transylvanian mines often did not reach the

imperial storage centers because of the poor transport organization on the Maros River andto contraband activities. Based on the report of the Tavonath commission sent to assess themining industrys situation and to suggest how to reorganize the exploitation, transport, andcommercialization of salt, on 15 January 1700, the Hofkammer in Vienna sent a detailed listof recommendations to improve the protability of the Transylvania salt mines to theprovincial administration. The Hofkammeridentied the free access that nobles, the church,and other special groups had to the mines as one of the main problems. The Hofkammeralso recommended special measures to improve the quality of the water transport on theMaros, and it interdicted salt import from Wallachia and Moldavia.77

During the mapping of Transylvania, an important imperial employee visited the region.

Ignaz von Born, one of the best European mineralogists serving the Habsburgs requested aleave to visit the goldmine located in Transylvania at Nagyag and to take care of some familyissues.78 Von Born was originally from Transylvania, and he had successfully reached the toptier of the Mining Administration hierarchy in Bohemia. Borns book, Briefe bermineralogische Gegenstnde, auf seiner Reise durch das Temeswarer Bannat, Siebenbrgen,Ober- und Nieder-Hungarn geschrieben, rst published in Leipzig in 1774, and thentranslated into English, Italian, and French, represents an invaluable source about mineraldeposits in Transylvania. Drace-Francis suggests that there was a correlation between vonBorns journey in 1770 and Joseph IIs travels in Banat and Transylvania in 1773, as theinformation gathered by von Born could have been considered sensitive strategic

knowledge.79

Furthermore, in 1770, von Born became the Assessor of the Bohemian Miningand Minting Directorate in Prague. This conrms his role as a key Habsburg advisor onmining. The representation of mines on the Josephinische Aufnahme, the journal Joseph IIkept during his trip to Transylvania, and the report he led at the end of this journey allsuggest that von Borns survey of mines in Hungary, Banat, and Transylvania helped theimperial court make better use of the mineral resources from these provinces. Von Bornincluded part of his itinerary through Transylvania in his own published work, revealing thevarious stops and inspections he made at mining sites.

In 1773, Joseph IIs route allowed him to stop at various salt, gold, and iron mines, and heprovided commentaries on all these visits in his journal. The emperor had meetings with the

main functionaries in charge of mines and salt deposits; and in the nal report to MariaTheresa he stated, I have inquired closely about all the salt-transportation routes, and Icould write a very detailed description of it.80 Based on Joseph IIs travel notes, it seemsthat before entering Transylvania, the emperor stopped at Szegedin, in Hungary. Here, hemet with salt-bailiff Gruber. Joseph recorded in his journal that Gruber made no promises

76Verdery,Transylvanian Villagers, 14849.77Dordea and Volker, Transportuli comercializarea srii din Transilvania i Maramuren Veacul al XVIII-lea,

13739.78

Drace-Francis,

A Provincial Imperialist and a Curious Account of Wallachia,

67.79Ibid., 6567.80On 8 May 1773, he met the salt-bailiff [Salz-Amtmann] in Szegedin, Gruber; on 25 May 1773, he met the salt-

director [Salz Direktor] from Carlsburg[Alba-Iulia], Kern; on 27 June 1773, he met the salt administrator of the

mines in Thorda [Turda], Joseph Hodor; on 3 July 1773, he met various functionaries from the Visaknaer [Ocna

Sibiului] salt mines, in Bozac and Pavel, Cltoria mpratului Iosif all II-lea n Transilvania la 1773; Ibid., 745.



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about gathering all the salt quantity (800,000 quintals) necessary for Szegedin and for threeother [?] cities for this year, because he had been promised only 600,000 quintals fromTransylvania.81 Furthermore, the arrival of this quantity depended on whether the salt wouldtravel safely on the Maros River. Joseph concluded that the lack of ships and personnel tonavigate the river hindered the transport of salt.82

The emperor made good use of the information obtained from Gruber. Later in his journey,he visited Carlsburgs (Alba-Iulia) salt deposit, in Transylvania. In Carlsburg, Joseph II inquiredabout the organization of the salt transport, and Salt Director Kern offered him detailedinformation, carefully recorded in the emperors journal. Kern and Joseph II even calculatedthe number of ships and men needed to transport the salt to Szegedin. Kern also complained

to the emperor that Viennas desire for full control of the salt administration slowed downthe decision-making process, as every local decision had to be approved in Vienna. The lackof local autonomy regarding decisions about mining proves the high importance the revenueobtained from these enterprises had for the Crown.

The Habsburg monarchys preoccupation with salt exploitation in Transylvania impacted themapping of the province. The surveyors marked with special drawings and key words allmining-related sites. For example, the salt deposit (Saltz-Niederlag) Joseph II inquired abouton 27 June 1773 is marked as located right next to Carlsburg, on the Maros River (seeFigure 8).83

In Torda, another important salt basin (Figure 9), Joseph II visited the ve salt-mines, the

deepest of which has about 60Klafter[fathoms],and commented that the system of extractionis similar to the other salt-mines, the deposits are very full, and the salt production shows nodeciencies.84 All in all, the emperor was content with the situation at Torda and after histalk with the main salt administrator, Joseph Hodor, Joseph II appreciated him for beingvery well informed and competent.

Von Born had also visited the salt mines in Torda on his trip three years before Joseph IImade his trip. The mineralogist had descended into the mines Theresa and Coloser, the

FIGURE8: The salt deposit next to Carlsburg, Section 170.

81

1 quintal equals 65 kilograms.82Bozac and Pavel,Cltoria mpratului Iosif all II-lea n Transilvania la 1773, 552.83Az elsKatonai Felmrs Erdly s Temesi Bnsg, Section 170.84Ibid., Section 110; Bozac and Pavel, Cltoria mpratului Iosif all II-lea n Transilvania la 1773, 677. One

Austrian Klafter is equal to 6.22 feet. Russ Rowlett, How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement, http://

www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictK.html., last accessed on 13 March 2010.



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second beingsixty fathoms depth, and fty fathoms diameter.85 In his letter of 28 July 1770,he commented extensively on the inefcient use of small blocks of salt:

After having satised my curiosity under ground, I saw the immense piles of rejected salt-rocks whichare under the prescribed size. They are kept for no use; and severe penal laws forbid even the poor tomake use of them. The reasons which they gave me for this unaccountable squandering away of souseful a substance, were as follows: That to prevent smuggling pieces of the same weight weregiven to the carriers, and that the abundance of the Transsylvania salt-mines did not seem torequire any grudging, or fending the smaller salt-pieces in sacks or casks. This might do, if theworld was only to last but a thousand years more; but good public economy takes care of the latest

prosperity and disapproves any arbitrary and unnecessary destruction of an useful mineral asinhuman extravagance. Many hundred millions weight of rejected salt are thus exposed todissolving rain and snowsand what vast quantities are spent in a similar way near and in theVizakna,Koloser,Szekes,Deeseand Paraite salt-mines?86

Joseph II conrmed Ignaz von Borns comment about the quantity of wasted salt. The emperornoted in his nal report that the salt mines are a great blessing, which brings several million ayear, and whose richness and productivity is so large, that their exploitation is treated in awasteful way; the prot could be multiplied by six, if only some of the salt would not bethrown away.87

As reected in their testimonies, both Joseph II and Ignaz von Born gave seriousconsideration to minimizing the waste of salt. Curtailing the right of the clergy and freesupplies of salt was one way in which the Habsburg authorities increased the prot obtainedfrom the mines. By the end of Maria Theresas reign, salt represented the source of 61percent of the total revenue managed by the Hungarian Royal Chamber, which also includedthe prots obtained from Transylvanian salt. Joseph II continued the effort to boost saltproduction. In 1784, he issued a regulation that exempted serfs involved in transporting saltfrom labor dues to the nobles.88

FIGURE9: The Torda salt mines, Section 110.

85Ignaz Born,Travels through the Bannat of Temeswar Transylvania, and Hungary, in the year 1770. Described in aseries of letters to Prof. Ferber, on the mines and mountains of these different countries, by Baron(London, 1777), 143.

86Ibid., 14445.87Bozac and Pavel,Cltoria mpratului Iosif all II-lea n Transilvania la 1773,744.88Verdery,Transylvanian villagers, 9091.



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Joseph IIs journal, Ignaz von Borns published work, and the imperial measures issued toprotect and increase the Habsburg revenue obtained from mining, can be correlated with thegraphic representation of the Transylvanian mineral resources. Figure 10 shows the totalnumber of mines and deposits marked on the Josephinische Aufnahme and conrms theimportance of Transylvania as a gold, salt, and silver provider for the empire.

Where There Are People, There Is Wealth

From the seventeenth century onward, cameralist writings addressed the issue of population as

a key state resource. Johann von Justi exclaimed that

a country in which subsistence andcommerce ourish can never have too many inhabitants, and Joseph von Sonnenfels arguedthat increasing the size of the population should be one of the basic principles of a state seconomy.89 The writings of these two cameralists were inuential during the reign of MariaTheresa, as attested by Justis and Sonnenfelss appointments in the 1760s to professorshipsof Cameral Sciences at the University of Vienna.90 Their populationist theories convincedMaria Theresa that freeing the peasantry would help increase the population and themonarchys wealth. Therefore, the empress abolished large-scale serf-based farming on theCrowns lands, abolished the labor dues, and raised taxes in the form of rental fees paid bypeasants for the use of the land.91

The emigration produced by oppressive institutions of serfdom represented a grave concernfor Vienna. Transylvanian peasants frequently crossed the Carpathians into Moldavia andWallachia to escape serfdom. In June 1770, rumors about the serfs emancipation inMoldavia caused fears in Vienna of an exodus of the Transylvanian peasants across theborder.92 During his journey to Transylvania, Joseph II investigated the emigration issuersthand. In his nal report, he noted that people are leaving together with many cattle,goods, women, children and horses. The indifference with which the emigration is lookedupon here, conrms my suspicions, that the landowners are causing the misery of the

FIGURE10: Types of resources.

89Tribe,Governing Economy, 65, 85.90Ibid., 55, 7879.91Eva Weiss,Cameralism and Physiocracy in Joseph IIs Economic Reforms(M.A. thesis, McGill University, 1969),

3334.92Barta,History of Transylvania, 440.



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subjects.93 Joseph II agreed with Maria Theresa that the landownersabuses and the institutionof serfdom not only caused grievances for the local population, but also negatively affected therevenue raised by the Habsburg authorities from the province. In a memorandum from 1765,Joseph II stated: I consider the principal aim, in accordance with which not only thegovernment in general but also the nancial and military administrations ought to regulatetheir actions, to be population, that is the conservation and the augmentation of [the numberof] subjects.94

In order to encourage a systematic increase in population, the government needed at least arough estimate of the number of its inhabitants. The Josephinische Aufnahme served thisfunction roughly until 1785 when a more systematic demographic survey was accomplished.Although neither the map nor the economic description contains population estimates for

the various settlements, other elements compensated for the missing information. For eachtown and village, the surveyors sketched the topography of the settlement, marking thelocation and orientation of all buildings, such as churches, barns, mills, inns, and particularlyimportant, households.

Each section of the map records in the right corner the names of the settlements depictedwholly or partially in that particular section. The total number of settlements forTransylvania marked on the map is 2,727. The cartographers included on the map variouselements primarily associated with settlements, such as churches, postal stations, andcustoms ofces. Figure 11 shows the distribution of these buildings with respect to thenumber of settlements.

It is widely accepted that Joseph II ordered the rst demographic survey of Transylvania in1785, following up on the work of the Josephinische Aufnahme. A letter sent by Joseph II toChancellor Eszterhzy in 1784 reveals the main factors that motivated this measure: the needto reorganize conscription and taxation on more solid bases.95 Indeed, the 1750 conscription

FIGURE 11: Settlements and the distribution of religious and economic

buildings

93Bozac and Pavel,Cltoria mpratului Iosif all II-lea n Transilvania la 1773, 73940.94Cited in Beales,Joseph II, vol. 1, 166.95Liviu Moldovan, Conscripii i recensminte n Transilvania (sec. XVIIXIX): Metodologie i valoare

documentar [Conscriptions and population surveys in Transylvania (17th19th centuries)], Revista de statistic

19, no. 8 (1970): 86

92; Liviu Moldovan,

Instruciunile n limba romn date n anul 1785, pentru nregistrarea(conscripia) populaiei din Transilvania (I) [The 1785 Romanian language instructions for the recording (survey)

of the population from Transylvania], Revista de statistic 14, no. 9 (1965): 5771. Sources related to Joseph IIscensus had been published in Gusztv Thirring, Magyarorszg npessge II. Jzsef korban [Hungarys populationduring the age of Joseph II] (Budapest, 1938); Dezs Danyi and Zoltn Dvid,Az elsmagyarorszgi npszmlls,17841787 [The First Population Survey in Hungary] (Budapest, 1960).



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of Transylvania had targeted only tax-paying families and their goods.96 The privileged groups,such as the nobles and the clergy belonging to the Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, or Unitarianconfessions had remained outside the scope of this Habsburg enterprise.97 Moreover, thewritten descriptions of the 2,001 settlements had no visual equivalent in the form of maps.

However, from 1769 to 1773, the Habsburg authorities had counted, organized, and madea comprehensive inventory of Transylvanias potential contribution to the state in both awritten and a visual form. These actions, part of the Josephinische Aufnahme, represented apreliminary measure toward assessing the whole population of the province and preparingthe tax reforms. Furthermore, the military personnel involved in the later 1785 demographicsurvey and the land cadastre developed the necessary skills during their work on the

Aufnahme. Colonel von Neu had been directly involved in the 17691773 mapping processand later supervised the land cadastre in Hungary and Transylvania.98

Conclusion

An analysis of the Transylvanian section of the Josephinische Aufnahme conrms theimportance of cartographic sources for understanding Habsburg Enlightened Absolutism.The attention to military and economic details and the various taxonomies developed forenumerating roads, mills, mines, and settlements allow for the integration of this map toother eighteenth-century Enlightenment programs. The Josephinische Aufnahme reectsperfectly the interconnectedness between military and economic reforms implementedduring Maria Theresas and Joseph IIs reigns. A good knowledge of the Transylvanian roadnetwork served both the army and trade; representing all the houses in each settlementhelped both with the armys housing needs and with an assessment of the demographiccapacities of Transylvania.

The mapping of Transylvania was part of a larger effort: representing all the possessions ofthe Habsburg monarchy in the same scale and with the same amount of detail. The Habsburgs desire to obtain a to-scale map of their territories and borders can be understood as part of aworldwide effort of both European and Asian imperial powers to learn more about theirpossessions or to claim new territories.99 The international competition for territory alsoexplains why access to the Habsburg map and the rich information it contains remainedlimited to the reform makers in Vienna and why only three copies were made and preservedin the Imperial Archives.100 The Josephinische Aufnahme is an imperial map because of itsintended purpose and audience and because of the ways that it reected Habsburg imperialideology in the eighteenth century. The imperial project aimed to integrate and understand

96The surviving conscription material for Transylvania has been published in Ladislau Gymnt, Conscripiascala Transilvaniei din anul 1750. Descrierea localitilor conscrise [The 1750 Fiscal Survey of Transylvania. TheDescription of the surveyed settlements] (Bucharest, 2009).

97Ibid., LXXI98Peter George Muir Dickson, Josephs II Hungarian Land Survey,The English Historical Review106, no. 420 (July

1991): 611

34.99Laura Hostetler, Qing Colonial Enterprise. Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China (Chicago/London, 2001), 4, 22; Kapil Raj, Circulation and the Emergence of Modern Mapping: Great Britain and Early

Colonial India, 17641820, in Relocating Modern Science: Circulation and the Construction of Knowledge in SouthAsia and Europe, 16501900(Basingstoke, 2007).

100Daniel R. Headrick,When Information Came of Age (Oxford/New York, 2000), 106.



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all the monarchys provinces in order to transform unknown land into territory that was mademanageable and thus ready for reform.

The ability of the central government to breach the power of the local Estates proved essentialfor Habsburg Enlightened Absolutism. However, the Habsburgs had to ll in all the

cartographic blanks before their attempts at centralization could be effective. Only aftersurveying in detail, synthesizing, and reducing to graphical representations or verbaldescriptions the complexity of real territories, could the Habsburgs plan their eighteenth-century defense, expansion, and reform strategies. In the process of state building and statecentralization, Vienna promoted the expansion of governmental power over its own subjectsand territory by rst learning more about the monarchys population and dominions. Theimportance of mapping for both defending the monarchy and assessing the economicpotential of the various provinces was indispensable.

MADALINA-VALERIAVERES is a graduate student in history at the University of Pittsburgh. Her researchfocuses on cartography in the eighteenth century Habsburg Monarchy.


Documents

Transylvania on the Map