The Curious Case of Franz Josef Land
High up north in the Arctic Circle lies a group of islands that today belong to Russia. However, they have a very unusual name: Franz Josef Land. Who was Franz Josef? And how did he get an Arctic archipelago named after him? Read below to find out!
To begin with the story of Franz Josef, it is first necessary to start with the empire of Austria-Hungary.
Austria-Hungary was an empire in Central Europe. At its height, its expanse was immense, stretching from Austria in the west, down to Italy and the Baltics in the south, and east to parts of what are today Poland, Romania, and Ukraine. The empire contained people of numerous cultures, national identities, languages, and religions.
With such a wide area of land and such a diverse population, there were few aspects that united all of the subjects of Austria-Hungary. Indeed, by the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, there might have been just one essential uniting force across the entire empire and that was their leader, Franz Josef. Franz Josef was the emperor of Austria and the King of Hungary. He had come to the throne in 1848 (in the wake of calls for revolution and reform across Europe) and had continued to lead the empire across the 19th century, including through the discovery of what would be named Franz Josef Land. Indeed, Franz Josef remained monarch until his death in 1916 (in the midst of World War I). For many subjects of Austria-Hungary, and indeed for people around the world, Franz Joseph was the only Austro-Hungarian emperor that they could remember. Within the empire, the emperor was a much-beloved leader and a figurehead for the entire country.
Austria-Hungary was an empire that controlled a vast area of land with many different peoples across central Europe. However, at a time when other major empires, like Britain and France, were expanding overseas, Austria-Hungary was a notable exception, remaining a continental empire, as opposed to an empire with vast territories spread across the globe.
That didn’t mean that subjects of Austria-Hungary remained outside of the 19th-century rush for overseas territories. Much like other empires at the time, Austro-Hungarian world explorations in part were driven by scientific concerns and in part were driven by ideas of power and empire. One of these expeditions was the one that discovered Franz Josef Land.
This expedition was called the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition of 1872-1874. It was led by Julius von Payer (an Austrian army officer and explorer) and Karl Weyprecht (a German-born Austrian naval office and Arctic explorer). The expedition’s goals were twofold. First, the expedition hoped to discover the famed Northeast Passage, the sea route that connects Scotland to eastern Russia by traversing the northern shores of Europe. Such a route would more quickly and easily connect the Atlantic and Pacific, linking the west coast of Europe to the east coast of Asia. Second, the expedition hoped to reach the North Pole, which had not yet been reached. Especially, the expedition wanted to find some land areas that would be good staging areas for future expeditions that were trying to reach the North Pole.
Unlike most territorial expansions, which are funded by governments, this expedition was funded mainly by the public. Funds especially flowed in from Austrian nobles who were moved by national sentiment, scientific intrigue, and the financial gains that could come from the expedition’s discoveries. In addition, significant donations also came from the Austrian emperor Franz Josef himself.
The expedition departed in July 1872. Almost immediately, the boat became stuck in the thick northern ice sheet and was forced to float along with the moving ice. The boat was trapped in this ice, floating wherever the current took it, for a year. It was then (in August 1873) that the crew spotted a new land mass—what would be Franz Josef Land—in the distance. In subsequent months, the ice drift pushed the crew even closer to this land, which allowed for the crew to observe the land and name it in honor of the beloved emperor (and donor to the expedition).
In the end, the expedition did not achieve either goal of finding the Northeast Passage or reaching the North Pole. However, the crew was still celebrated as a national success, with festivals held in honor of the expedition. In addition to finding Franz Josef Land, the expedition also did crucial work in setting up further Arctic exploration. The Northeast Passage was first navigated just a few years later, in 1878-1879. And the Austro-Hungarian expedition also helped inspire the establishment of the International Polar Year, a series of years that focused on gaining scientific knowledge about the polar regions. Finally, the legacy of this expedition is still with us: even though Austria-Hungary no longer exists and these islands are now part of Russia, the name Franz Josef Land remains on this distant Arctic archipelago.
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