The main factors of territorial differences in the Habsburg Empire

Abstract

The capitalist industrialization, being a powerful factor of territorial differences within the Habsburg Empire, based on steam energy and new technologies (rather than hydro energy) and with the preference of the coal-rich Czech provinces instead of the Alps, created a new regional pattern of development. However, some other factors, such as railway construction also played an important role in the emergence of new development patterns. Since exact correlations between railway density and GDP vary at the imperial level depending on the projection base, this study turns to analyzing the impact of railways on a regional basis, through the examples of Galicia. Findings indicate that the early lines of the military / foreign policy considerations barely generated any positive developmental impacts. With a strong delay railway became a real dynamising factor only at the turn of the 19-20th centuries, with its forward linkages contributing to the acceleration of regional and urban development. However, its backward links, or its multiplicator role, proved to be insignificant in the backward regions. The author does not verify the common theory that Galicia’s strong peripherisation between the 18th and 20th centuries had occurred solely due to railway development.
In the beginning of the 20th century, neither economic, nor transport geographic peripherisation had taken place in this strategically important province; and in fact, the period had strenghtened Galicia’s integration into the imperial economic structure.
The research does not cover the incidental (indirect) intervention(s) of the Burg’s politics, as well as the influential role of the “agrarian scissors” opening regarding regional differences.