Mortimer
05-05-2012, 07:16 AM
Maria Theresia, the Empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, set an example with her policies of assimilation which influenced many other sovereigns. Striving to make the Roma settle down as “new citizens” or “new farmers”, she issued four great decrees altogether during her reign (1740-1780). By means of these decrees the Roma should be forced to give up their ways of life.
The first decree (1758) forced the “Gypsies” to settle. They were denied the right to own horses and wagons in order to keep them from “nomadising”. Furthermore, the Roma were given land and seeds and became liable to pay tribute from their crops just like the other subjects of the crown. They were supposed to build houses and had to ask for permission and state an exact purpose if they wanted to leave their villages.
In the second decree (1761) the term “Zigani”, which was commonly used for the Roma at that time, was replaced by the terms “Ujpolgár” (Hungarian for “new citizen”), “Ujparasztok” (“new farmer”), “Ujmagyar” (“new Hungarian”) or “Ujlakosok” (or Latin “Neocolonus”, for “new settler”). They were supposed to give up their way of life, together with their old name, in order to accelerate the process of integration. “Gypsy boys” would learn a trade or be recruited for military service at the age of sixteen if they were fit for service.
In 1767 Maria Theresia had the jurisdiction withdrawn from the voivodes and all “Gypsies” became subject to local jurisdiction (third decree). At the same time, they were ordered to register and – based on this registration – conscriptions were carried out for the first time.
The fourth decree, issued in 1773, prohibited marriages between the Roma. Mixed marriages were encouraged by subsidies. Permission to get married, however, was bound to an attestation of “a proper way of life and knowledge of the Catholic religious doctrine”. Since the empress and her counsellors were of the opinion that the “civilisation” of the “Gypsies” was the basis for a successful “domiciliation”, she ordered that all children over the age of five should be taken away from their parents and be handed over to Hungarian farmers’ families who were supposed to take charge of their Christian upbringing against payment. The children should grow up isolated from their parents in different comitatuses, go to school and later learn a trade or become farmers. [Ill. 3]
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A large number of Roma were successfully assimilated there: frequently children did not return to their own parents, stayed on the farms of their foster parents or learned a trade and married into a non-Roma family. In a few towns the Roma assimilated completely into the village population. The process of assimilation is mirrored in the disappearance of the formerly multifarious family names in the conscriptions of the “Gypsies”.
http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/index.php/history/state-policies-integration-forced-assimilation-deportation/austro-hungarian-empire
The first decree (1758) forced the “Gypsies” to settle. They were denied the right to own horses and wagons in order to keep them from “nomadising”. Furthermore, the Roma were given land and seeds and became liable to pay tribute from their crops just like the other subjects of the crown. They were supposed to build houses and had to ask for permission and state an exact purpose if they wanted to leave their villages.
In the second decree (1761) the term “Zigani”, which was commonly used for the Roma at that time, was replaced by the terms “Ujpolgár” (Hungarian for “new citizen”), “Ujparasztok” (“new farmer”), “Ujmagyar” (“new Hungarian”) or “Ujlakosok” (or Latin “Neocolonus”, for “new settler”). They were supposed to give up their way of life, together with their old name, in order to accelerate the process of integration. “Gypsy boys” would learn a trade or be recruited for military service at the age of sixteen if they were fit for service.
In 1767 Maria Theresia had the jurisdiction withdrawn from the voivodes and all “Gypsies” became subject to local jurisdiction (third decree). At the same time, they were ordered to register and – based on this registration – conscriptions were carried out for the first time.
The fourth decree, issued in 1773, prohibited marriages between the Roma. Mixed marriages were encouraged by subsidies. Permission to get married, however, was bound to an attestation of “a proper way of life and knowledge of the Catholic religious doctrine”. Since the empress and her counsellors were of the opinion that the “civilisation” of the “Gypsies” was the basis for a successful “domiciliation”, she ordered that all children over the age of five should be taken away from their parents and be handed over to Hungarian farmers’ families who were supposed to take charge of their Christian upbringing against payment. The children should grow up isolated from their parents in different comitatuses, go to school and later learn a trade or become farmers. [Ill. 3]
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A large number of Roma were successfully assimilated there: frequently children did not return to their own parents, stayed on the farms of their foster parents or learned a trade and married into a non-Roma family. In a few towns the Roma assimilated completely into the village population. The process of assimilation is mirrored in the disappearance of the formerly multifarious family names in the conscriptions of the “Gypsies”.
http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/index.php/history/state-policies-integration-forced-assimilation-deportation/austro-hungarian-empire