Professionalization, State-building and the Language Question in Forestry: The Case of the 19th Century Kingdom of Hungary

Abstract

Due to its role in transforming landscapes, and because of its knowledge production that took place in a transnational space, forestry is a salient aspect of environmental history globally. Yet, the way forestry management practices evolved in the eastern part of Austria‑Hungary has a meagre presence in the literature of environmental history or in the study of empires. This paper begins with outlining routes of circulation of knowledge of forestry within the Habsburg Empire. It emphasises the role of the Academy (later College) of Forestry and Mining at Banská Štiavnica (Selmecbánya in Hungarian) but does not ignore the role of other actors outside that education institution. Then, the paper turns to how the history of professionalization of forestry and the nascent legal notions related to land contributed to the changes of the landscape in the Kingdom of Hungary in the last decades of the 19th century. The third section discusses the importance of the effort by the community of Hungarian foresters to create a Hungarian professional language.