scholarly journals Building on Foreign Expertise. Military and Agricultural Experts and the Eastward Expansion of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Sweden

2022 ◽  
pp. 77-103
Author(s):  
Sebastian Schiavone ◽  
Otso Kortekangas
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Baltic Region ◽  
Foreign Expert ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
The Military

In the second half of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century, the Kingdom of Sweden was almost constantly engaged in armed conflicts with neighbouring kingdoms. Both offensive and defensive wars were characteristic of the Swedish foreign policy from 1550s to 1650s. The same period witnessed the emergence of the Swedish Empire because, due to these conflicts, Sweden was able to acquire new domains in the Baltic region and to expand its territories in both east and south. These geopolitical realities pushed all Vasa kings into multiple projects aiming to rationalise Sweden’s army and its military strategy as well as to develop the acquired areas in various ways. Our article presents two development project examples of this emerging empire (1) Scottish officers (the Swedish Crown acknowledged the military expertise of Scottish troops as well as their officers and tried to harness this experience for Sweden), and (2) the planned modernisation of Ingria through German and Dutch colonisation and agricultural development. The article examines the needs and expertise expectations that the Swedish Crown directed towards these foreign groups. The emergence of Sweden as a European empire did not occur in a geopolitical vacuum. International contacts and the influx of European expertise into Sweden were important factors in the building of the Swedish dominion in the Baltic region. By focusing on these foreign expert groups, one operating in the military world and the other in the agricultural sphere, this article illustrates the functions and roles that the Swedish Crown expected foreign experts to have on the eastern frontier of early modern Sweden.

ON OTTOMAN JUSTICE: INTERPRETATIONS IN CONFLICT (1600 - 1800)

2001 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogaç Ergene
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Central Government ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Court Records ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
The Military

AbstractThis essay investigates the ways in which the notion of "justice" was utilized as a mechanism of political legitimization in the early-modern Ottoman Empire. I claim that there existed alternative definitions of justice and that these were instrumental in the struggle between the central government and those official and unofficial power-holders in the administrative and geographical peripheries of the empire. According to the specialized terminology of the Ottoman administrative system, "justice" was the protection of the rural and urban producers against abuses of the military elite. This definition highlighted the personal benevolence of the ruler who claimed to be the sole protector of the weak against oppression. On the other hand, at least some segments of the ruling elite insisted on representing justice as the recognition of the mutual rights and obligations of the sultan and his "servants." Justice, in this context, referred to the protection of privileges and entitlements of those who were thought to deserve them. While using a variety of sources - including treatises on government and ethics composed by the Ottoman literati, documents from regional court records and correspondence between the imperial center and the officials in the provinces - my primary focus is on Evliya Çelebi's seventeenth-century travel-book, Seyahatname, and a well-known seventeenth century chronicle, Tarih-i Naima.

scholarly journals The Difficult alliance. Military cooperation between the ruthenian king Daniel and the Piasts of Mazovia

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-112
Author(s):  
Michał Skoczyński
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Military Cooperation ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Historical Methodology ◽  
The Military

Abstract The article presents the military cooperation between the King of Galician-Volhynian Ruthenia, Daniel Romanowicz, and the Dukes of Mazovia, Konrad and his son Siemowit. The alliance, based as a counterweight for the cooperation between the King of Hungary and the Piast princes of Lesser Poland, who were trying to conquer Ruthenia and dominate all Piast principalities in then fragmented Poland. It lasted for several decades from the 1220’s to the 1260’s and was primarly aimed at mutual protection against the invasions of the pagan Yotvingians and supporting each other in armed conflicts. The text contains an analysis of war expeditions, tactics and ways of support that were given by both sides of the allianace. It is a new point of view on this aspect of political strategy of both sides that in some ways defined the regional situation. Ruthenians granted masovian Piasts some mobile and political uncommited support in fight with their relatives in Poland, and also secured their border with the Yotvingians. On the other hand, masovian knights were an additional strike force in ruthenian plundering expeditions to Yotvingia. The research was based on the analysis of preserved historical sources and scientific literature using historical methodology.

Bilingual Heaven: Was There a Distinct Persianate Islam in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire?

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 214-241
Author(s):  
Aslıhan Gürbüzel
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
The Other ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Sacred Text ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Legal Discourses ◽  
Other World

Abstract What is the language of heaven? Is Arabic the only language allowed in the eternal world of the virtuous, or will Muslims continue to speak their native languages in the other world? While learned scholars debated the language of heaven since the early days of Islam, the question gained renewed vigor in seventeenth century Istanbul against the background of a puritan reform movement which criticized the usage of Persian and the Persianate canon as sacred text. In response, Mevlevī authors argued for the discursive authority of the Persianate mystical canon in Islamic tradition (sunna). Focusing on this debate, this article argues that early modern Ottoman authors recognized non-legal discourses as integral and constitutive parts of the Islamic tradition. By adopting the imagery of bilingual heaven, they conceptualized Islamic tradition as a diverse discursive tradition. Alongside diversity, another important feature of Persianate Islam was a positive propensity towards innovations.

scholarly journals Uwagi na temat gdańskiego budownictwa publicznego drugiej połowy XVI i pierwszej połowy XVII wieku pod kątem zaopatrzenia w materiał kamieniarski

Porta Aurea ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 5-32
Author(s):  
Franciszek Skibiński
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Building Industry ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Baltic Region ◽  
Public Building ◽  
The Public ◽  
Stone Sculpture ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
The City

Works of architecture and stone sculpture would never have been created without the existence of a supply network enabling access to assets crucial for their production, including stone. Based on archive quarries and analysis of existing works of architecture and stone sculpture, this article focuses on the importation of stone for the building and stonecutting industry in early modern Gdańsk. In the second half of the 16th and the first half of the 17th century the city was experiencing an era of economic prosperity and became a major center of architecture and stone sculpture in the Baltic region and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Gdańsk authorities put much effort into securing suitable stone necessary to carry out their ambitious projects. Builders and sculptors based in the Baltic metropolis applied various kinds of stone imported from abroad, including limestone from Oland and Sweden, sandstone quarried in Bückeburg and Bentheim, Belgian marble, and English alabaster. The kind of stone most commonly used in local architecture and sculpture was, however, the sandstone from the Isle of Gotland. To obtain this material the city authorities often approached the Danish king, as revealed by numerous letters preserved in Gdańsk and Copenhagen archives. Each year several shipments of Gotland stone would arrive in the city, the amount of stone reaching up to 10,000 cubic feet. Some of the material destined for the public building works was then prepared by workers supervised by the ‘Bauknecht’. He was an official appointed by the city authorities to support the public building industry and to facilitate the work of specialized building and sculpting workshops by overlooking low-skilled workers and supply of materials. Some of the local builders and stonecutters were also involved in the importation of stone from Gotland. Besides carrying out major architectural and sculptural works, at least some of the guild masters running large workshops were engaged in the supply of necessary materials. For this reason, they had to maintain a network of professional contacts within the Baltic region and beyond. The most prominent among them was Willem van der Meer, called Barth, a stonecutter from Ghent established in Gdańsk. Between roughly 1590 and 1610, he supplied the city with a large amount of Gotland stone, including that used for the building of the Great Arsenal. Other important members of the local milieu engaged in the stone trade were Willem and Abraham van den Blocke as well as Wilhelm Richter, continuator of Van den Blocke’s enterprise often engaged by the city authorities. These findings broaden our understanding of the professional practices of builders and stone sculptors in Gdańsk and the Baltic region in the late 16th and in the 17th centuries.

scholarly journals The Bishop’s Role in Two Non-Catholic States

2015 ◽  
Vol 95 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 245-255
Author(s):  
Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Crucial Aspect ◽  
Religious Reform ◽  
Confessional Identity ◽  
The One ◽  
Catholic Reform

This paper contrasts the very different roles played by the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland, on the one hand, and Turkish-occupied Hungary, on the other, in the movement of early modern religious reform. It suggests that the decision of Propaganda Fide to adopt an episcopal model of organisation in Ireland after 1618, despite the obvious difficulties posed by the Protestant nature of the state, was a crucial aspect of the consolidation of a Catholic confessional identity within the island. The importance of the hierarchy in leadership terms was subsequently demonstrated in the short-lived period of de facto independence during the 1640s and after the repression of the Cromwellian period the episcopal model was successfully revived in the later seventeenth century. The paper also offers a parallel examination of the case of Turkish Hungary, where an effective episcopal model of reform could not be adopted, principally because of the jurisdictional jealousy of the Habsburg Kings of Hungary, who continued to claim rights of nomination to Turkish controlled dioceses but whose nominees were unable to reside in their sees. Consequently, the hierarchy of Turkish-occupied Hungary played little or no role in the movement of Catholic reform, prior to the Habsburg reconquest.

Episcopal Tombs in Early Modern England

2004 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 654-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER SHERLOCK
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The Reformation simultaneously transformed the identity and role of bishops in the Church of England, and the function of monuments to the dead. This article considers the extent to which tombs of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century bishops represented a set of episcopal ideals distinct from those conveyed by the monuments of earlier bishops on the one hand and contemporary laity and clergy on the other. It argues that in death bishops were increasingly undifferentiated from other groups such as the gentry in the dress, posture, location and inscriptions of their monuments. As a result of the inherent tension between tradition and reform which surrounded both bishops and tombs, episcopal monuments were unsuccessful as a means of enhancing the status or preserving the memory and teachings of their subjects in the wake of the Reformation.

Baltic Sea

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Schnakenbourg
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Baltic Sea ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Baltic Region ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
The 19Th Century

In the Early Modern era, the Baltic Sea was called the Nordic Mediterranean because of its unique outlet on the high seas and its narrowness. Like its southern counterpart, the Baltic is at the crossroads of several peoples and cultures. Also like the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic had different populations on each of its shores, yet in another way facilitated relations and became a space for interconnections. Throughout its history, peoples from Scandinavia, Poland, Germany, Russia, and the Baltic lands developed not only all sorts of peaceful relations and exchanges, but also competed with each other in long-lasting rivalries or military confrontations. Between the 16th century and the first half of the 19th century, the Baltic region experienced dramatic internal and external changes resulting from its ever-growing connections with the rest of Europe. Baltic issues, however, did not have the same importance for all the surrounding countries: it was the only horizon for Sweden, which enjoyed sovereignty over Finland until 1809, and the main horizon for Denmark, which ruled Norway until 1814. For Scandinavians, the Baltic Sea was a necessary interface for various kinds of exchanges with the external world, whether regional neighbors or continental Europe. In one way or another, the history of the Swedish and Danish kingdoms is interwoven with the history of the Baltic. Scandinavians devoted great attention to this neighboring sea for their shipping and trade, as well as for their security and political influence. The situation is somewhat similar for the Baltic provinces (Estonia, Livonia, and Ingria), which were always under foreign rule, first Swedish then Russian, in the Early Modern period. On the other side of the sea, for the German states, the Polish Republic, and the Russian Empire, the Baltic was simply one theater of foreign policy among others, even though its importance changed over time according to the political or economic context. As for commerce, while during the Middle Ages the Baltic region traded with the rest of Europe, starting in the 16th century, the situation changed as the continental economy shifted from the Mediterranean to the northwest. European population growth and the development of long-distance shipping and commerce meant increasing needs for grain and naval stores. This created new demand for Baltic economic resources and products and for transporting those exports. Consequently, new international rivalries and struggles occurred in the Baltic. At first, these conflicts were among the regional countries, but increasingly the main European powers as well. The Baltic Sea then became an important theater for European international politics, and almost every continental war had a Baltic component. The history of the Baltic Sea from the 16th century to the middle of the 19th century must be considered from two perspectives: first, relations among the regional countries and peoples; and second, relations with the world outside the Baltic, whether foreign powers and regions or even other seas, for political, military, and trade matters.

Theatrical torture versus dramatic cruelty: subjection through representation or praxis1

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frans-Willem Korsten
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
The Other ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Political Event ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Peculiar Case

The distinction between the theatrical and the dramatic is pivotal for different modes of subjection in the early modern era. Institutionally speaking, society was organized ideologically, theatrically by the introjection of what was shown publicly to private, but equally collective, theatres of the mind. This could be described as a logic of torture. In contrast, and on the other hand, the dramatic application of punishment on ships, and the pain it involved, served what Robert Cover called a ‘balance of terror’, based on a logic of what Deleuze defined as ‘cruelty’. In order to clarify this distinction, and the implication it has for our ideas on gouvernmentalité, this chapter will propose a close reading of a painting by Lieve Verschuier that either depicts a peculiar case of keelhauling or, allegorically, the lynching of the brothers De Witt in 1672. Although the painting is clearly theatrical, formally speaking, it superimposes a dramatic logic on the traumatic political event of the lynching of the brothers De Witt. This will be considered in the chapter as one instance of a more general shift in the seventeenth century: a shift away from the theatrical logic of torture to the dramatic logic of cruelty.

Grain Prices and Subsistence Crises in England and France, 1590–1740

1979 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 865-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew B. Appleby
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Modern Europe ◽  
Grain Prices

In early modern Europe the major concern of many people was getting enough food to stay alive. The “problem of subsistence” varied considerably, however, between one country—or one region—and another. England, for instance, was free of major subsistence crises during the later seventeenth century, when France was hard hit by repeated and deadly famines. In this essay I shall point out some of the differences between these two countries that might explain the success of one and the failure of the other to feed its people.

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