MILITARY FRONTIER (Ger. Militargrenze), a former institution and division of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. When Croatia swore allegiance to the Habsburgs in 1527, after the defeat of Hungary by the Turks at Mohacs, Southern Croatia was left half deserted, its inhabitants having fled north before the Turks. The Austrian Government built a series of forts in this zone, and organized the remaining population, with immigrant Serbs and Vlachs, into a defence force under military supervision; the costs being borne by the Estates of the Austrian provinces proper. This organization was gradually extended, and in 163o received a formal statute.
By 'the end of the i 7th century, there were three "Generalates," in Karlstadt (Karlovats), Warasdin and Petrinja respectively. The Hungarian and Croat Estates deeply resented the existence of this exception from their authority, and constantly demanded its abolition, especially after Prince Eugene's victories had prac tically ended the Turkish peril; but the "Grenzer" themselves resisted any change, and the Habsburgs had also now become alive to its usefulness as a weapon against the unruly nobles. Instead of abolishing, they extended it ; a new Slavonian district was established in 1702, a Szekler, in East Transylvania, in and a Wallach in 1766; the Frontier now ran from the Adriatic to the confines of Moldavia.
The "Grenzer" gradually became the backbone of the Austrian army. As its bravest, most loyal and best disciplined troops, they fought in all Austria's foreign campaigns, and under Jella'eiC took a chief share in crushing the revolutions of 1848-49 in Vienna and Hungary. In 1849 the Frontier was formed into a separate prov ince, with an area of 15,182 sq. m., and a population of 1,220,503, mostly Serb or Croat, with some Vlach or Rumanian. In 1851, however, the eastern portion was incorporated with the rest of Transylvania. The Warasdin frontier passed under civil adminis tration in 1871, the Banat in 2872 and the remainder of the Croat and Slovene districts on July 15, 1881. The tradition, however, remained, and even in the World War the "Grenzer" regiments were comparatively unaffected by nationalist agitation, while a high proportion of Austria-Hungary's highest officers were drawn from the old Frontier.
See F. Vankek, Spezialgeschichte der Militiirgrenze (Vienna, 1875) and J. H. Schwicker, Geschichte der oe. Militiirgrenze (Vienna and Teschen, 1883). (C. A. M.)