The largest waves of settlers came to the Banat during the three "Swabian Migrations" (Schwabenzüge).

About 11,000 families (about 42,000 persons) immigrated to the Banat in the Theresian settlement period.  For settlement of colonists, 200,000 fl (gulden) were appropriated annually between 1762 and 1772.  Thus, the establishment of 30 villages and the expansion of 27 additional towns cost the exchequer 2 million Rhenish guldens.  Immediately after the Treaty of Hubertusburg²¹ (1763) between Prussia, Austria and Saxony, settlement activity was again carried out on a grand scale.  The Bohemian-Austrian court chancellor’s office issued the Theresian colonization land patent on 25 February 1763, and called for settlement by officers, non commissioned officers, discharged soldiers and military members who had become invalids.  Villages were established, which (unlike in the first Schwabenzug) no longer lay in the higher parts of the heath, but lay instead in the western fallow lands in the center of the heath (in the former swamplands) which had been drained after the building of the Bega canal.  The towns of Albrechtsflor,²² Billed,²³ Bogarosch,²⁴ Charleville,²⁵ Gottlob,²⁶ Grabatz,²⁷ Großjetscha,²⁸ Hatzfeld,²⁹ Heufeld,³⁰ Kleinbetschkerek,³¹ Kleinjetscha,³² Lenauheim³³, Lunga³⁴, Marienfeld³⁵, Mastort³⁶, Nero³⁷,  Ostern,³⁸ Pesag,³⁹ Seultour,⁴⁰ St. Hubert,⁴¹ Triebswetter,⁴² Warjasch,⁴³ and Wiseschdia⁴⁴ were built for settlement.  The external borders of the monarchy urgently required to be secured and from economic considerations, additional subjects were called for colonization ("ubi populus, ibi obolus"⁴⁵).  With the same land patent, subsequent to 1764 imperial subjects were also recruited for colonization.    They were granted a six year reprieve from taxes, free timber for construction and firewood, 24 Joch⁴⁶ for cultivation, 6 Joch meadowland, 6 Joch pastureland, and 1 Joch housing lots.  Craftsmen received a ten year reprieve from taxation. In the second Swabenzug, as in the first, only Catholics were permitted to settle.   Protestants were either dispersed by caning or "converted" during the passage through Vienna.  They had to declare themselves willing to convert to the Catholic faith.

Joseph II was an admirer of Frederic II of Prussia.  He perceived the imperial coronation as a "ridiculous, obsolete ceremony."  When he came to power, he did not let himself being crowned in Hungary as king of the Magyars, but rather had the crown transported from Budapest to Vienna like a museum piece.  That enraged the class-conscious Hungarian nobility and started a prolonged conflict with the nobility, whose help Joseph II needed urgently, as he tried to diminish the conflicts between Catholic and Protestant in Hungary.  His predecessors had tried to strengthen the Roman–Catholic religion in mainly Calvinist Hungary.

In 1781 Joseph II signed the Edict of Tolerance (Toleranz-Edikt). Protestants were therefore admitted to the Third Swabian Colonization. The region south of Temeswar had not yet been fully settled.  Shortly after his accession to the throne on 21 September 1782, Joseph started with the settlement campaign that lasted until 1787. The imperial settlement proclamation promised freedom of religion and conscience, a new and comfortable house with garden for each family, and in addition, land, fields, farming tools, Graught and breeding animals for the families working in agriculture.  Craftsmen received an additional 50 gulden for the purchase of tools, as well as free boarding and fare for all, from Vienna to their destination.  Fourteen new villages were established. About 3,000 families are said to have found accommodation in these villages, as well as in already existing villages that were now on Hungarian territory.  As the southern Banat became battlefield again (Joseph II and Catherine II of Russia declared war on Turkey) the colonization had to cease.  After 1789 the government-sponsored settlement was discontinued. Individual settlers came to private estates until 1829. Whoever wanted to immigrate after that, had to prove possession of 500 gulden in cash.

The "French" colonization

Many settlers, among them many from Luxemburg, were recruited 1765/66 by baron Franz Valerius von Hauer, working for the margrave of Baden.  Between 1765 and 1766, 3,141 families with about 14,000 persons came to the Banat.  The granted loan (called "Antizipation") had to be paid back after three free years.  It was controlled with the help of so-called "Antizipations-Büchel" (loan booklets).  The village of Billed was the first village to be established in the Banat heath ("Banater Heide") which was gradually being developed.  The "hunger year" 1769 caused an unforeseen wave of emigration from south western Germany and its bordering regions. 781 families came to the Banat, more than originally expected.  Despite a prohibition on emigration and massive interventions by the French government, emigrants from Luxemburg and Lorraine again formed the main part of the French colonists when colonization reached its apogee in 1770-71.

Often the settlers had to leave in secrecy, because the local authorities refused to give them permission to emigrate.  But the hope of achieving personal freedom in the new homeland and owning their house and land in hereditary tenure, challenged many oppressed subjects to pack their bags and disappear into the night.  By the end of 1770 3,276 families with more than 10,500 persons (half of them from Lorraine and Luxemburg) immigrated to the Banat.  It became nearly impossible to provide housing for them in the overcrowded existing villages.

From 1770 to 1773 4,935 families with 16,889 persons came into the Banat.  Overall, French subjects with German and French mother tongue constituted the majority of settlers during the colonisation under Maria Theresa. French settlers found accommodation in Mercydorf, Bruckenau,⁴⁹ Jarmatha,⁵⁰ Mastort, Heufeld, Neu-Beschenova, Hatzfeld, Groß-Jetscha, Csatad, Bogarosch, Grabatz, Deutsch-Beschenova,⁵¹ Billed, Marienfeld, Neu-Arad,⁵² Segenthau, Weißkirchen⁵³ and Szöllös.⁵⁴  Albrechtsflor⁵⁵ was founded in 1770.  The French villages of St. Hubert, Charleville and Seultour came into being in 1771.  The villages of Ostern, Gottlob and Triebswetter were established by French settlers in 1772.  More settlers from Luxemburg came to Deutsch-Rekasch; the village Reschitze was founded in 1771; and the village Steierdorf⁵⁶ in the Banat Hill Country in 1773/74.  Soon after, the Vienna Court was forced to temporarily stop colonization.  The administration in charge of settlement had failed at the exact moment when mass immigration from Lorrain and Luxemburg where flooding the Banat.

In the year 361 the Romans already used the Danube for transporting their soldiers.  The crusaders valued the Danube as a transportation route originating in Ulm.  During the Carolinian, Theresian and Josephine Colonization's, Ulm played only a secondary role as a hub for the assembly and embarkation of colonists headed for the Banat or Hungary.  It became the main departure point for all German settlers (mostly from Württemberg), that travelled to Russia and the Black Sea, starting about 1880.  Their "ships" were essentially rafts made of wood, popularly known during the nineteenth century as "Ulmer Schachteln" - "Ulmer Zillen" or "Ulmer Plätten."  Even so, about 30 persons arrived in Ulm every day wanting to travel to the Banat.  The voyage on the Danube toward Hungary and the Banat started mostly in Ehingen, Biblingen, Lauingen, Marxheim, Donauwörth, Günzburg (belonging to Swabian Austria) or in Regensburg.  Günzburg und Regensburg were the main hubs for the assembly and embarkation of colonists headed for the Banat.  The travel passes for continuing their journey on the Danube were issued by Austrian Commissioners in Regensburg.  These passes permitted the entry of the colonists to the Imperial States at Engelhartzell.  The activity in Regensburg was hectic.  Many folks from south and west Germany gathered there, from Hessen, Franconia, Nassau, Westphalia, from the Rhineland Palatinate, from Luxemburg, Elsaß and Lothringen.  The means of transportation on the Danube soon had to be upgraded.  Not enough "ships" were available.  Uneven water levels, rapids, sandbanks, and rocks in the navigation channel presented insurmountable difficulties for large ships with deep draught.  The only practical "ships" were light rafts-type vehicles, steerable by oars, usable only for down-river travel.  Various sizes could carry 20, 80, or 150 passengers.  They were also known as "Zillen" or "Kehlheimer Plätten."

The rafts were carpenter-made, unrefined and untarred.  Upon their arrival in Vienna, Pest, or any Hungarian port, they were dismantled and the logs could be sold for firewood, or used as building material for the houses of the settlers in the Banat.  In the middle of the rafts there was 10-foot high shack, divided into two rooms.  In the rooms, things were lying, sitting, or standing on top of each other.  In addition to household utensils, the settlers took along farming utensils, scythes, saws, axes, clothing, and domestic animals.  For their overnight stays, passengers that could not afford to pay for room and board at the inn, carried along their own straw mattresses, kettles, pans, and groceries.  As they did not travel at night, the trip took six to nine days to Vienna.  Under adverse conditions such as rain and fog, it could take 12 to 14 days. Most emigrants chose the months of May and June for their departure, when it was neither too warm nor too cold for travelling.  The emigrants needed to have a lot of patience, as they often had to wait days for their departure. Those who helped with the rowing did not pay a fare and received free food (although the sailors were not exactly gourmets!). The others paid one Kreuzer for each person and mile.  The complete trip from Regensburg to Vienna cost 4 Gulden per person.  That was a lot of money in those days, for a river voyage that not without considerable risks.  Because of the light construction of the rafts, the lives of the passengers were at risk especially while on the upper Danube.  Cliffs, rapids, and sandbanks hampered the trip.  During floods or high water levels, the cliffs could not be seen.  Many rafts were smashed or capsized in the rapids and travellers drowned in the waters of the Danube.

The rafts travelled via Straubing to Passau.  In Passau they stopped for a day, and the emigrants received the first installment of their travel allowance from the Austrian administration: 3 Gulden per person for the travel to Vienna; in Vienna they received another 3 Gulden per person for the travel to Hungary.  At Engelhartzell, on the Bavarian/Austrian border, the boats rested another day for customs clearing.  The Austrian customs agents collected duty and subjected the emigrants to a thorough inspection.  Lutheran Bibles were confiscated and burned.  The voyage continued to Linz.  From there it was only three days to Vienna.   Before getting there, they had to pass the most dangerous part of the trip: the cliffs of Düppstein (two days after passing Engelhartzell).  A large rock in the middle of the Danube caused the vortices feared by passengers and sailors alike.  The oars were pulled in and the sailors asked the passengers to pray an "Our Father" each in his own language.  Then the raft was left to the floods, as no steering was possible.  After another day they reached Vienna.  The rafts entered the Donaukanal at the Nußdorf customs station and landed in Rossau, a suburb of Vienna.  Here the colonists had to stay close to the river port and wait for information regarding their departure.  Since most could not afford to stay over night at the inn, they to eat and sleep in the open.  Bad weather caused many colonists to get sick and died later.  Also in Vienna, the emigrants had to present themselves at the Imperial Chamber to receive their documents for the Banat (a warranty certificate or even a settler’s pass).  When the time for departure came and the emigrants were already gathered on their raft, an employee of the Imperial Chamber appeared and handed them the second installment of their travel allowance (3 Gulden per person) for the their continuing journey to Ofen (Budapest).  To keep track of the costs, the names of all colonists were entered in a clearing list ("Wiener Abfertigungslisten"). These lists play a major role in genealogical research. The colonists were expected to make true statements about their place of origin, occupation, and religion.

Those falsely claiming to be farmers, only to obtain land and fields in the Banat, were whipped and turned away.  Religion was also taken very seriously.  Only Catholics were accepted, as the Crown wanted to reinforce the Catholic element in Protestant Hungary.  If somebody was suspected of being Evangelical, he was either beaten up and chased away, or taken to the priest at the church Maria am Gestade for religious instruction.  If he did not bring back the proper attestation, he did not get a settler’s pass.

Often the journey on the Danube came to an end in Vienna or Ofen (old designation of Budapest).  Every raft was dismantled and sold, as it could not travel up the Danube to its home.  The sooner the owners of the raft could sooner journey was ended and the raft was sold. When they arrived in Vienna, many “raft-dismantlers” were waiting to take the rafts apart and sell the wood.  Many rafts never made it beyond Vienna.  The raft personnel returned home by land, and the “captain” lived dangerously because he carried the money received from the sale of the wood.  Some rafts continued down the Danube, past Ofen and Peterwardein⁵⁷ to Titel⁵⁸ on the river Theiß/Tisza and then up the Bega canal to Temeswar.  The Bega canal had been built in the 1728 to 1733 period for the purposes of draining the extensive swamplands in the Banat and providing a waterway between Temeswar and the Theiß. During the early years of colonization, the settlers left their “ships” at Pantschowa⁵⁹ and Neupalanka.⁶⁰  From 1736 to 1748 they were taken over by the Banat authorities at Titel and pulled up the Bega on different rafts. Eventually locks were built to connect the rivers Bega and Temesch.  Pulling the rafts upriver was excruciatingly hard work, often performed by prisoners when wageworkers were unavailable.

A comparison of the Viennese clearing lists with the settling lists indicates that the settlers mostly arrived in the Banat 4 weeks after their departure from Vienna.                                       

The Grim Reaper

At the time of the colonization, extensive swamplands were part of the Banat.  During the summer, the shallow standing waters rotted away, spreading a horrible stench around the area (in Italian: bad air = mal-aria). The anopheles mosquitoes had their breeding nests in the swamps.  In the evening swarms of mosquitoes entered the villages and spread malaria, called "Hungarian sickness" by the colonists. Those infected suffered from headaches, stomach pains, diarrhea, delirium, thirst, and rashes.  They were in a continuous febrile, dull and indifferent state and lost consciousness. At the time, there was no treatment for the disease. The Banat was became commonly known as "The grave of the Germans."

Dying of an unimagined magnitude began in the summer of 1770. The disease (typhus) affected thousands of people in the Banat.  Just in tiny, overcrowded Mercydorf, more than 220 persons died in 1770, among them 144 new arrivals.  The number of deaths in the following year was not much smaller.  Repeated requests from the villages were ignored by the administration in Temeswar.  The extent of the dying was hushed up by the administration.  Only a few hundred cases were reported to the Viennese Court.  The administration feared that an investigation against those responsible would be carried out.  They did not build the housing required for the colonists on time.  The colonists were squeezed into overcrowded villages and houses, creating catastrophic conditions of hygiene.

Rediscovering the "French" Banaters by their Motherland

The interest of their motherland in the descendants of the French colonists was re-awakened only in 1835.  French travellers to the orient (writers and scholars), who passed through the Banat, reported back about the French-Lorraine settlements they visited or in which they had stayed overnight.  One of the first to report about French villages was baron Charles d`Haussez in 1835.  The baron was in transit to the orient. After him, prince Henri de Artois, duke of Chambord-Bourgon stopped in Triebswetter, again in transit to the orient.  The prince  paid 1,3 million Gulden for  the Prädium Toba and the settlements St. Hubert (initially 75 settlers); Charleville (initially 62 settlers); Seultour (initially 62 settlers); Mastort; and Heufeld that had been established by French colonists, and owned them as lord of the manor until his death in 1883.

In 1876 professor Louis Hecht from the University of Nancy undertook a study trip to the French of the Banat.  He was disappointed that from the middle of the nineteenth century French was no longer spoken anywhere in the Banat and almost all the French name had been bowdlerized.

Until 1944, numerous descendants of the colonists from German and French-Lorraine, Alsace, from Luxemburg and Southern Belgium (the province called Luxemburg) were living in the former French villages. Many "French" were expelled after WWII and scattered all over.  About 7000 of them were welcomed in France and settled in 20 different Departements. Only in La Roque-sur-Pernes near Avignon there is a single compact "Danube-Swabian" settlement.