Notre premier poste de ministre sera fatalement un trou'. Diplomatic postings and their place in diplomatic careers of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries (original) (raw)
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Building large political structures was always closely connected with a fragile balance between military conflicts and peace. Thus, especially in the modern period, diplomats played an extremely important role in managing crisis situations and/or maintaining the status quo. Moreover, they represented the most visible facet of interstate relationships. During the 17th -19th centuries, Europe's tumultuous history, characterised by frequent wars, many of which against the Ottoman Empire, gave the diplomats' services an inestimable value. In this context, Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia usually represented only intermediary points on the route towards the diplomats' final destination, namely the Turks' Empire. The present study aims at revealing the multiple forms of interaction between the Nordic (chiefly Swedish) and Russian diplomats, on the one hand, and the Romanian rulers, on the other hand. In order to achieve this goal, general historical information was intertwined with numerous testimonies pertaining to this special category of foreign travellers, the result being a picturesque depiction of certain typicalities of the diplomatic ceremonial. Rezumat: Realizarea de structuri politice mari a fost întotdeauna strâns legată de un echilibru fragil între conflictele militare și pace. Astfel, mai ales în perioada modernă, diplomații au jucat un rol extrem de important în gestionarea situațiilor de criză și D Revista Română de Studii Baltice și Nordice / The Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies 5 (2) 146 / sau menținerea status quo-ului. Mai mult decât atât, ei au reprezentat fațeta cea mai vizibilă a relațiilor interstatale. Pe parcursul secolelor al XVII-lea -al XIX-lea, istoria tumultoasă a Europei, caracterizată prin războaie frecvente, dintre care multe împotriva Imperiului Otoman, a conferit serviciilor făcute de diplomați o valoare inestimabilă. În acest context, Transilvania, Moldova și Țara Românească au reprezentat, de obicei, doar puncte intermediare pe traseul spre destinația finală a diplomaților, și anume Imperiul Otoman. Studiul de față își propune să dezvăluie formele multiple de interacțiune dintre diplomații nordici (mai ales suedezi) și ruși, pe de o parte, și domnitorii români, pe de altă parte. Pentru a atinge acest obiectiv, informații generale de istorie au fost intercorelate cu numeroase mărturii referitoare la această categorie specială de călători străini, rezultatul fiind o descriere pitorească a anumitor tipicuri ale ceremonialului diplomatic.
CALL FOR PAPERS: THE PERFORMANCE OF DIPLOMACY IN THE EARLY MODERN WORLD - An International Symposium
Diplomacy is a performance. The stage is set on the streets and palaces that centre upon the spaces of political power. The audience is made up of the prince and the court, the pope and the curia, the emperor and the diet, the doge and the senate, the sultan and his viziers. The cast is composed of the diplomats, each grasping for attention, each vying to out-do the other. They follow a plot formed of ceremony and etiquette that defines the spheres of interaction and elevates the smallest issues in precedence and protocol to the status of grave insults and greater rivalries. As this conference will explore, diplomacy as 'spectacle' is no mere metaphor for political interaction, but an elevation of how it was practiced as performance. No other activity in the early modern world allowed for such a cultural exchange to flow, artistic endeavour to be patronised, or expense to be lavished on the aggrandisement of events, entertainments, and festivities. Indeed, these efforts were orchestrated: the ambassadors themselves were both impresarii and lead actors. Ceremonial entries, banquets, masquerade balls, commissions of music or dramatic pieces, naumachie, and festivities of all kinds provided diplomats with the means to display their own value and merit, influence others, and to obtain prestige and standing as a mode to succeed in their negotiations and missions. Comprehending the ambassador as a cultural mediator is more than just conceiving of the diplomatic agent as a conduit of exchange: it is instead the recognition of the power of diplomatic activity to transform culture through the process of mediation, and more, the appreciation of the sphere of diplomatic mediation as a most fertile ground for cultural invention and innovation, the legacies of which are still felt today.
A Multitude of Actors in Early Modern Diplomacy
Journal of early modern history, 2019
This special issue has been motivated by the drive to contextualize the role of individuals of various backgrounds in early modern foreign relations. All contributions cover a broad geographic scope and stress the impact of non-European practices and stages for the study of early modern foreign relations. Four thematic articles follow diverse diplomatic actors, ranging from non-elite envoys to chartered companies, Catholic friars and ministers on ships, to foreign courts, and behind their desks. They provide insights into these individual actors' functions and achievements and raise questions about social belonging and knowledge channels. The introduction below portrays the development of an actor-oriented research angle in the field of New Diplomatic History over the past decades and addresses blurring concepts and over-generalizations. It attempts to redefine the heterogeneous group of early modern diplomatic actors as products of their involvement in political and material struggles, both at home and abroad.
Diplomats and Diplomacy in the Early Modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (XVII Century)
Eastern European History Review, 2021
Il Comitato redazionale e scienti co è lieto di presentare al pubblico la rivista scienti ca Eastern European History Review. Con un carattere internazionale e interdisciplinare, una cadenza annuale e una fruibilità open access la rivista focalizza i propri interessi sulle dinamiche occorse nell'Europa Orientale durante tutta l'età moderna (XIV-XIX). Eastern European History Review è espressione del Centro Studi dell'Università della Tuscia CESPoM (Centro Studi sull'età dei Sobieski e della Polonia Moderna) nato nel per intuizione del Prof. Gaetano Platania, Direttore Emerito della Rivista. L'iniziativa editoriale che presentiamo nasce dall'evidente mancanza in Italia di una rivista scienti ca relativa alla storia dell'Europa centro-orientale in Età Moderna, nonostante la penisola abbia giocato un ruolo fondamentale per la Storia e la Cultura di una parte integrante del continente, a torto considerata come lontana e periferica. Consapevoli di questo, il Comitato ha posto quale obiettivo primario della Eastern European History Review quello di off rire uno spazio di ri essione e di discussione su temi che appartengono alla storia dell'Europa centro-orientale, e insieme alle relazioni-politiche e culturali-che questa vasta area del Vecchio Continente ha avuto con l'occidente d'Europa, e l'Italia in particolare, incoraggiando il dialogo tra studiosi e esperti di settore, e tra diff erenti approcci della ricerca scienti ca. Il Comitato Redazionale e Scienti co EASTERN EUROPEAN HISTORY REVIEW: THE JOURNAL e Editorial and Scienti c Board are proud delighted to present the Eastern European History Review under the aegis of Sette Città Editore. e Eastern European History Review is an international and interdisciplinary annually online and open access peer-reviewed journal about studies on Ceantral and Eastern Europe in the Modern Age (XIV-XIX). e Journal is also the expression of the Study Center CESPoM (Centro Studi sull'età dei Sobieski e della Polonia Moderna-Center Study on the Age of Sobieski and Modern Poland) of the University of Tuscia, born in , from an idea of Prof. Gaetano Platania, today Director Emeritus of this journal. It publishes articles with signi cant approaches and original interpretations in all research elds concerning Central and Eastern Europe, with speci c attention to the History sciences. e editorial initiative we present comes from the obvious lack of a journal, in Italy, concerning the history of Central and Eastern Europe during the Modern Age, this despite its fundamental role in the history and culture of that part of the continent, wrongly considered distant and peripheral. Quite the contrary is true, in fact. Main objective of the journal is to create a space for re ection and discussion on topics pertaining to Central and Eastern Europe, but also relations with Continental Europe, encouraging dialogue between scholars and experts in the eld, and between diff erent approaches of scienti c research.
Cosmopolitanism and the Career Path of Diplomats in Early Modern Germany
Much has been written on cosmopolitanism and early modern states in the context of the seventeenth-century revival of this ancient idea. Philosophers and theorists like Leibniz, Saint-Pierre, Rousseau and Kant tried to show that perpetual peace was only possible if the ideal of a supranational state (in the form of a confederation, for example) would replace the different European nations, which constantly made war on each other 1 . These theoretical peace projects, of course, also possessed a political dimension. Yet, the more important question for our knowledge of early modern international relations is: what did the practice of early modern diplomacy actually look like? To answer this question we should ask the following ones: To what extent were diplomats themselves cosmopolitans? Why? What was the influence of the cosmopolitan peace theories elaborated by Leibniz, Kant, Rousseau and others, on their professional practices? If the careers of the most famous ambassadors have received extensive treatment in the scholarly literature, the life and actions of most diplomatic actors such as agents, residents,