The Habsburg border control policy against the spread of the plague. An example of instruction on health matters in the 18th century

Miloš Đorđević

doi:10.5937/acthist43-54205

Miloš Đorđević University of Niš, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of History

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5937/acthist43-54205

Keywords: Sanitary cordon, Habsburg-Ottoman border, 18th Century.

Abstract

The paper analyzes the documents of the Court Sanitary Commission in Vienna on measures to suppress the threat of plague on the border with the Ottoman Empire. The documents refer to a wide border area in the 1730s and include instructions for the improvement of the Sanitary cordon, the organization of quarantines and the deployment of medical personnel. Peacetime period marked new methods the state applied to discard risks of population mass die–off due to epidemics of the disease whose causes science of the time still did not recognize. Gradual adapting of epidemics defense mechanism during the century should have led to better prediction of levels of risk, aiming to bring sanitary measures in Habsburg Monarchy through statistical estimations closer to mechanisms existing in other European countries. The aim of this paper is to show the steps in the establishment of a unified mechanism of defense against the plague in the various Habsburg border provinces.

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