Central Europe and emigration
Millions of emigrants
Between 1871 and 1915, emigration from Central Europe, that is, from Austria-Hungary, totalled 4,383,000.
When plotted on the entire 100 year period, i.e., from the Napoleonic wars until World War II (1815 – 1940), one in ten European immigrants was a native of Central Europe. After Great Britain (11.4 million), Italy (9.9 million) and Ireland (7.3 million), this represented the fourth largest source of emigration
Emigration between encouragement and prohibition
During the 18th century, emigration had been strictly banned in the spirit of mercantilism, which viewed the populace of a state as its backbone and the source of its welfare. The French economist, Jean-Baptiste Say, claimed: “If 100,000 persons leave a country with 10 million Florins, that is the same as if 100,000 fully equipped and armed soldiers go across the border and perish there.
One of the many patents issued by Emperor Joseph II, dated 10 August 1784, concerned emigration, encompassing all prior regulations. In 1832, Emperor Francis Joseph I issued another emigration patent, this one recognizing “legal emigration,” but with the loss of citizenship. In 1867 the freedom of movement was legalized, and the only restriction imposed applied to conscripts. Although the Monarchy thus liberalized emigration, it never passed an all-encompassing law on emigration.
Report of the Commander of Vis – the beginning of the exodus
In his report to Navy Headquarters, dated 6 October 1860, the commander of Vis Island, Captain Josef Schmidt notes: “All the young people have left, more than a hundred to America and Australia, while many others are on the Lloyds and other cargo steamships….”
In the 1860s and the 1870s, emigrants from the Habsburg Monarchy numbered only several thousand per year, with Dalmatia in the lead.
Mass emigration
Only during the economic recession in the 1880s did overseas emigration from the Austrian part of the Empire sharply rise to 20,000 persons per annum and it never fell below that level again. In 1892, the number of emigrants reached 50,000 and in 1904 as many as 100,000.
In the Hungarian part of the Monarchy, the numbers were even greater.
Emigration, For and Against
When some regions became totally depopulated, proponents stressed that the United States should be thanked for saving those people from starvation. On the other hand, critics warned about the depopulation of entire villages. However, emigrants who returned home boosted development and economic growth in many Austro-Hungarian regions.
One of the critics of emigration expressed his opposition quite picturesquely: “Our Government must pass economic, social and political measures that would ensure the loyalty of the labour force we need for our homeland…. But, the state will not be able to achieve that…if it keeps running like a policeman after its children with a raised baton shouting: ‘You must love me.’”
Emigration of the Slavs – good or bad?
In 1904, at the beginning of the peak of emigration from Austria-Hungary, the Pan-Slavic people’s tribune and peasant leader, Stjepan Radić, who had studied “comparative colonization” wrote in his book Modern Colonization and the Slavs (Zagreb 1904): “Under the circumstances, we should not dwell on theoretical questions about the pros and cons of emigration. Here I would like to reiterate and stress: recently, we, the Slavs, have not been emigrating from our homeland, we have been fleeing from here in desperation. When I say ‘we,’ I have in mind primarily the backbone of our nation: our peasants and workers.