Illyrian Provinces of the French Empire

Napoleon, after several victories over Austria, incorporates the Slovenian provinces and other Austrian lands into the French Empire as the Illyrian Provinces, with the capital at Ljubljana.

Despite unpopular new tax and conscription laws, Slovenian intellectuals welcome the French, who issued proclamations in Slovenian as well as in German and French, build roads, reform the government, appointed Slovenes to official posts, and opened Slovenian-language schools for both sexes.

France strengthened the national self-awareness of the Slovenes and other South Slavs in the Illyrian Provinces by promoting the concept of Illyria as a common link among Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs.

This concept will later evolve into the idea of uniting the South Slavs in an independent state.

Venice repulses Ottoman attacks on Dalmatia for several centuries after the Battle of Mohács, and it had helped to push the Turks from the coastal area after 1693, but by the late eighteenth century, trade routes have shifted, Venice has declined, and Dalmatian ships stand idle.

Napoleon ends the Venetian Republic and defeats Austria; he then incorporates Dalmatia, Dubrovnik, and western Croatia as the French Illyrian Provinces.

France stimulates agriculture and commerce in the provinces, fights piracy, enhances the status of the Orthodox population, and stirs a Croatian national awakening.

In 1814 the military border and Dalmatia return to Austria when Napoleon is defeated; Hungary regains Croatia and Slavonia.

In 1816 Austria transforms most of the Illyrian Provinces into the Kingdom of Illyria, an administrative unit designed to counterbalance radical Hungarian nationalism and co-opt nascent movements for union of the South Slavs.

Austria keeps Dalmatia for itself and reduces the privileges of the Dalmatian nobles.

Austria reasserts its dominance of the Slovenes in 1813 and rescinds the French reforms.

Slovenian intellectuals, however, continue refining the Slovenian language and national identity, while Austria strives to confine their activities to the cultural sphere.

The pro-Austrian philologist and linguist Jernej Kopitar pioneers comparative Slavic linguistics and creates a Slovenian literary language from numerous local dialects, hoping to strengthen the monarchy and Catholicism.

France Preseren, perhaps the greatest Slovenian poet, works to transform the Slovenian peasant idiom into a refined language.

Napoleonic France intervenes in the Western Balkans, stirring a Croatian national awakening in its newly acquired Illyrian Province.

France strengthens the national self-awareness of the Slovenes and other South Slavs in the Illyrian Provinces by promoting the concept of Illyria as a common link among Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs. (This concept will later evolve into the idea of uniting the South Slavs in an independent state.)

The major forces in the Italian theater on the outbreak of war in April 1809 are the Franco-Italian army of the Viceroy of Italy, Eugène de Beauharnais and the Austrian army of General der Kavallerie Archduke John of Austria.

In addition, General of Division Marmont commands a French corps in occupation of Dalmatia.

At the end of the War of the Third Coalition on December 26, 1805, the Treaty of Pressburg had awarded the former Austrian provinces of Istria and Dalmatia to the French puppet Kingdom of Italy.

Since that time, Marmont has administered the region.

Because Marmont's troops had trained with the Grande Armée at the Camp de Boulogne (as the old II Corps) and missed the bloody battles of the War of the Fourth Coalition, Napoleon considers the unit his "finest corps".

The Austrians, though outnumbered by their adversaries, win the opening round of the campaign.

Between April 26 and 30, General-Major Stoichevich, commanding about eighty-one hundred troops, mounts a series of attacks on the Zrmanja River crossings of Ervenik, Kaštel Žegarski, Obrovac, Vagic, and Kravli Most.

Fighting in a rainstorm, the Austrian grenzers drive the French from a mountaintop position on April 30.

During the retreat, the civilian population joins in harassing the French.

The widely dispersed French forces are driven back to Knin (Kürn) and Zadar (Zara).

For a loss of two hundred and fifty casualties, Stoichevich inflicts losses of one thousand dead and wounded on the French, while capturing two hundred enemy soldiers.

The front line stabilizes for two weeks, with the Austrians unable to capture Knin.

Meanwhile, Bosnian and Ottoman Turk irregulars begin attacking the Austrians.

Hearing of the defeat of Archduke John at the Battle of Piave River on May 8  and the French eastward advance toward Laibach, Stoichevich prepares to withdraw.

Hauptmann (captain) Hrabovszky leads one hundred and fifty men from the Szluiner Grenz Infantry Regiment Nr. 4 and the Dalmatian Freikorps in a highly successful night raid against Delzons' brigade
on May 15.

For negligible losses, the Austrians claim to have killed one hundred Frenchmen in an attack on the village of Stara Straza, six kilometers (three point seven miles) northwest of Knin.

In addition, they capture two hundred enemy soldiers, seven hundred sheep, and thirty-four oxen.

While a holding force of French skirmishers and artillery probes at a well-defended mountaintop position, Marmont sends the 23rd Line to strike the Austrian flank.

The attack succeeds in overrunning the Austrian defenses.

Of thirteen thousand soldiers on the field, the French suffer few casualties.

Out of nine thousand men, the Austrians suffer losses of two hundred dead, five hundred wounded, and between three hundred and six hundred captured, including Stoichevich.

Two sources locate the battle at Pribudić, while a third associates the battle with both Mount Kita, south of Gračac, and Golubić, north of Knin.

The two sides clash at Gračac the next day.

In this action, Marmont admits losing three hundred dead, without reporting other losses.

The Austrians, now commanded by Oberst (colonel) Matthias Rebrovich, report losing three hundred killed and wounded before retreating toward Gospić.

Gračac is about forty-five kilometers (twenty-eight miles) northwest of Knin.

Marmont locates Rebrovich's forces deployed behind the Lika River near Gospić on 21 May.

Holding back one of his divisions as a reserve, he sends the other into a trans-riverine attack.

To open the action, the French voltiguer (light infantry) companies wade across the river at a ford under fire.

Taking possession of the bluffs on the far side, they fight off repeated Austrian assaults.

The French feed reinforcements into a bridgehead that is commanded by twelve Austrian guns.

To counter the enemy's local superiority in artillery, the French form  in a single line with three-pace gaps between men.

The skirmish line is backed by groups of ten men, each led by an officer.

Mule-carried mountain howitzers were brought up to provide fire support.

Noting that the Austrians fight in three disconnected forces, Marmont hurls his main blow at Rebrovich's center.

Although one battalion of the 81st Line suffers heavy losses from the Austrian bombardment, the French begin to prevail.

An attack by the 18th Light storms the enemy battery, capturing five cannons.

As the Austrian center retreats hastily, Marmont turns against the enemy wings and throws them back also.

The French lose one hundred and thirty-four dead, six hundred wounded, and two hundred and seventy captured out of the eleven thousand men engaged in this tough fight.

Both Soye and de Launay are wounded.

The Austrians admit losing sixty-four dead, five hundred wounded, two hundred captured, and two guns.