Becoming subaltern? The application of postcolonial theories to the relationship between the Galician nobility and the Habsburg monarchy (1772–1815)

The article deals with the applicability of postcolonial theoretical framework to the relationship between the Habsburg Monarchy agents and the noble elites of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria following the First Partition of the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is argued that the imperial government attempted to implement “subalternization” strategies concerning the local elites by depriving them of the opportunities to influence provincial politics, in order to transform the Galician szlachta into loyal “enlightened” subordinates of the absolutist monarchy. The reactions of the Kingdom nobility to these politics, their attempts to retain dominant positions through creating a symbiotic government model, and the eventual outcome of the Habsburg homogenization politics in Galicia by the end of Napoleonic Wars are also examined in the article.