The Illyrian Provinces were an autonomous province of France during the First French Empire that existed under Napoleonic Rule from 1809 to 1814.
History
left|thumb|Napoleon in Austria during the [[War of the Fifth Coalition]]
The Slovene Lands, ruled by the Habsburg monarchy, were first occupied by the French Revolutionary Army after the Battle of Tarvis in March 1797, led by General Napoleon Bonaparte. The occupation caused huge civil disturbances. The French troops under the command of General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte tried to calm the worried population by issuing special public notices that were published also in Slovene. During the withdrawal of the French army, the commanding general Bonaparte and his escort made a stop in Ljubljana on April 28, 1797. Upon the 1805 Battle of Austerlitz and the Peace of Pressburg, French troops once again occupied parts of Slovene territory. Supply of the French troops and steep war dues were a huge burden for the population of the occupied territories. The foundation of the provincial brigades in June 1808 and extensive preparations for the new war did not stop Napoleon's Grande Armée, which completely defeated the Austrian troops at the Battle of Wagram on July 6, 1809.
After the Austrian defeat, the Illyrian Provinces were created by the Treaty of Schönbrunn on 14 October 1809, when the Austrian Empire ceded the territories of western ("Upper") Carinthia with Lienz in the East Tyrol, Carniola, Gorizia and Gradisca, the Imperial Free City of Trieste, the March of Istria, and the Croatian lands southwest of the river Sava to the French Empire. These territories lying north and east of the Adriatic Sea were amalgamated with the former Venetian territories of Dalmatia and Istria, annexed by Austria in the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio, and the former Republic of Ragusa, which all had just been adjudicated to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1805 and 1808, into the Illyrian Provinces, technically part of France.
In August 1813, the Austrian Empire again declared war on France. Austrian troops led by generals Christoph von Lattermann and Franz Tomassich invaded the Illyrian Provinces. Lattermann operated in northern parts, while Tomassich invaded Dalmatia. The strategic port of Trieste was taken on 29 October. Croat troops enrolled in the French army switched sides. Zara (now called Zadar) surrendered to Austrian and British forces after a 34-day siege on 6 December 1813. In the regions of Dubrovnik and Kotor local insurrections forced the French to retreat into the cities. Insurrection in the Bay of Kotor region was aided by Montenegrin forces. Arrival of British naval forces led to the siege of Kotor, forcing French garrison to surrender on 3 January 1814. In the region of Dubrovnik, a provisional Ragusan administration was established, hoping for the restoration of the Republic. After the Siege of Dubrovnik, the French garrison surrendered on 27 January 1814, thus effectively ending French rule in the Illyrian Provinces, while the Treaty of Paris (30 May 1814) formally reduced French territory to the 1792 borders. The appearance of Austrian forces in the Bay of Kotor region caused the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro to turn over the territory to Austrian administration on 11 June. The British withdrew from the Dalmatian islands as the final part of the handover of these islands to their Austrian allies in July 1815, following the conclusion of the Battle of Waterloo.
Subdivision
The area initially consisted of eleven departments, though the subdivision was never completely enacted:
{| border="0" style="border: 1px solid #999; background-color:#ffffff"
|- align="center" bgcolor="#cccccc"
! Name !! Capital
|-
| Adelsberg || Adelsberg (Postojna)
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
| Bouches-du-Cattaro || Cattaro (Kotor)
|-
| Croatie || Karlstadt (Karlovac)
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
| Dalmatie || Zara (Zadar)
|-
| Fiume || Fiume (Rijeka)
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
| Gorice || Gorice (Gorizia)
|-
| Laybach || Laybach (Ljubljana)
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
| Neustadt || Neustadt (Novo Mesto)
|-
| Raguse || Raguse (Dubrovnik)
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
| Trieste || Trieste
|-
| Willach ||Willach (Villach)
|}
In 1811, the Illyrian provinces saw an administrative reorganization, when the country was divided initially in four – Laybach (Ljubljana), Karlstadt (Karlovac), Trieste (Trst), Zara (Zadar) – on 15 April in seven provinces (intendances, similar to French départements). Each province was further subdivided into districts, and these into cantons. They established the first botanic garden at the city's edge, redesigned the streets and made vaccination of children obligatory. At Karlovac, the headquarters of the Croatian military, a special French-language military school was established in 1811. The "French gift" of letting Slovene be used at school was one of the most important reforms