scholarly journals Along the Routes of the Ecumene: The Journey of Sir George Wheler to the Levant (1675–1676)

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-210
Author(s):  
Alberto Castaldini
Keyword(s):  
Travel Literature ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Southeastern Europe ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
French Edition ◽  
The Hague ◽  
Model Author ◽  
Significant Data

The article presents the French edition—printed in The Hague in 1723— of a significant example of travel literature from the end of the 17th century: A Journey into Greece (1682) by Sir George Wheler (1651–1724). The book made a profound mark on the studies of archeology, epigraphy, and the numis­matics of the Balkans, Greece, and the Byzantine world. The article illustrates the significant data collected by the English traveler, botanist, scholar of classi­cal antiquity, and clergyman, relating to the cultural and confessional mosaic in the space of southeastern Europe. His descriptions should be interpreted as a representative portrait of the remains of the ancient Euro‑Mediterranean ecumene. The traveler-churchman’s spirit of observation and sensitivity made Wheler a model author in the scholarly travel literature of the 17th century.

The Culture of Travel in Edo-Period Japan

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Goree
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Travel Literature ◽  
Publishing Industry ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Japanese Culture ◽  
Edo Period ◽  
The Road ◽  
Woodblock Printing

The expansion of travel transformed Japanese culture during the Edo period (1603–1867). After well over a century of political turmoil, unprecedented stability under Tokugawa rule established the conditions for men and women from all levels of the hierarchical society to travel safely for purposes as varied as the cultural consequences of a country increasingly on the move. Starting in the first half of the 17th century, institutionalized forms of compulsory travel for the highest-ranking samurai and a limited number of elite foreigners made for conspicuous political spectacle and prompted the Tokugawa shogunate to develop and maintain an extensive system of roads, post-towns, checkpoints, and sea routes. Prompted by the economic prosperity of the Genroku era (1688–1704) in the late 17th century, an ever-growing portion of the population, including commoners from cities and villages, took advantage of newfound leisure to embark on journeys for pilgrimage, medical treatment, and sightseeing. This change was accompanied by the expansion of tourism, which grew into a sophisticated commercial enterprise in the 18th century. Poets, writers, painters, performers, and scholars took to the road throughout the Edo period for artistic and intellectual pursuits, often as teachers or students, generating and spreading culture where they went. With an astonishing output of travel literature, guidebooks, maps, and woodblock prints featuring landscapes, a thriving commercial publishing industry, which first blossomed in the Genroku era, used woodblock printing technology to popularize travel in increasingly diverse ways. Together with such influential forms of print, the things that people wore, packed, bought, enjoyed, and rode while traveling formed a rich body of material culture that reveals the lived experience of travel for the duration of Tokugawa rule.

What is in Balkan History? Spaces and Scales in the Tradition of Southeast-European Studies

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Mishkova
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
The Other ◽  
Southeastern Europe ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
Historical Times ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Fine Tune

AbstractThis article takes a distance from the debate about 'symbolic geographies' and structural definitions of historical spaces as well as from surveying discrete disciplinary traditions or political agendas of regionalist scholarship in and on Southeastern Europe. Its purpose instead has been two-fold. On the one hand, to bring to light a preexistent but largely suppressed and un-reflected tradition of regionalist scholarship with the hope that this could help us fine tune the way we conceptualize, contemplate and evaluate regionalism as politics and transnationalism as a scholarly project. In epistemological terms, on the other hand, it proposes a theoretical perspective to regionalist scholarship involving rigorous engagement with the scales of observation, and scale shifts, in the interpretation of history. The hypothesis the article seeks to test maintains that the national and the (meso)regional perspectives to history chart differentiated 'spaces of experience' — i.e. the same occurrences are reported and judged in a different manner on the different scales — by way of displacing the valency of past processes, events, actors, and institutions and creating divergent temporalities — different national and regional historical times. Different objects (i.e. spaces) of enquiry are therefore coextensive with different temporal layers, each of which demands a different methodological approach. Drawing on texts of regional scholars, in which the historical reality of the Balkans/Southeastern Europe is articulated explicitly or implicitly, the article discusses also the relationship between different spaces and scales at the backdrop of the Braudelian and the microhistorical perspectives.

The [Re]-Generation of Family-Business Entrepreneurship in the Balkans

1997 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panikhos Poutziouris ◽  
Katherine O'Sullivan ◽  
Lumenita Nicolescu
Keyword(s):  
Family Business ◽  
Growth Patterns ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Business Sector ◽  
Southeastern Europe ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Industrial Manufacturing ◽  
Business System ◽  
The Family ◽  
Further Development

This paper explores the development of the family-business sector during the post-socialist era in the Balkans. It establishes the profile of family-business entrepreneurship in the emerging markets of southeastern Europe. By focusing on the Bulgarian and Romanian experience, we present and briefly contrast the transitional variant of family-business entrepreneurship with the contours of the Greek family business system. Next, we map out the growth patterns of Balkan family ventures, including businesses in the agro-industrial, manufacturing and other commercial sectors. We conclude with some tentative policy recommendations aimed at enhancing the further development of family-business entrepreneurship in the Balkans.

scholarly journals Monoctonus leclanti sp. n. (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae) from high-montane areas of southeastern Europe, and key to related species

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Željko Tomanović ◽  
Petr Starý ◽  
Olivera Petrović
Keyword(s):  
Related Species ◽  
Southeastern Europe ◽  
High Mountains ◽  
Aphid Parasitoid ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Additional Member ◽  
Parasitoid Guild

Monoctonus leclanti sp. n., a parasitoid of Delphiniobium junackianum Karsch. (Hemiptera: Aphididae) on Aconitum toxicum bosniacum and Aconitum pentheri in the high mountains of the Balkans is described. The species is an additional member of the high-montane aphid parasitoid guild determined in the area. A key to related species is included.

Wars of Balkan Liberation, 1878–1913

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard C. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Southeastern Europe ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Balkan Wars ◽  
Balkan Countries ◽  
Young Turks ◽  
National Issue

Revolts against Ottoman rule erupted in the Balkans in 1875 and in 1876. Wars in which Montenegro, Romania, Russia, and Serbia fought against the Ottoman Empire broke out soon thereafter. While the Montenegrins and Serbs soon suffered defeat, the Russians overcame Ottoman forces on Bulgarian battlefields. The Treaty of San Stefano of 3 March 1878, imposed by the Russians on the Ottomans, proved to be controversial. In an effort to resolve the national issue of southeastern Europe and to replace the contentious Treaty of San Stefano, the European great powers met at Berlin to forge a new settlement. The Treaty of Berlin of 13 July 1878 established a Bulgarian principality under Ottoman suzerainty. Although the Treaty of Berlin satisfied none of the Balkan countries, rivalries among the Balkan peoples over the disposition of Ottoman territories prevented the formation of a united effort against the Ottomans. After the turn of the 20th century, intra-Balkan rivalries intensified, especially over Macedonia. At the same time, Albanians, Muslim Slavs, and Turks sought to effect reforms within the Ottoman Empire. The seizure of power by the Committee for Union and Progress (Young Turks) in Constantinople and their stated intentions to reform the Ottoman Empire initiated a series of events that led to general conflict. In the immediate aftermath of the Young Turk coup, the Austro-Hungarian government announced the formal annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Concurrently, Bulgaria made a formal declaration of independence. Concerns that Ottoman reform would thwart their nationalist aspirations led many Albanians to revolt in 1910. Two years later, similar apprehensions led the Bulgarians and the Serbs to put aside their rivalries over Macedonia and conclude an anti-Ottoman alliance. The Greeks and Montenegrins subsequently joined this Balkan League. In October 1912, the Balkan League went to war against the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan armies triumphed on all fronts. On 30 May 1913, the Balkan allies signed a preliminary peace with the Ottomans in London. Shortly thereafter, the Balkan alliance collapsed due to disputes over the disposition of Ottoman territory. On 30 June, the Bulgarians attacked their former Greek and Serbian allies in Macedonia. The Ottomans entered the fray against Bulgaria to regain lost Thracian territory, and the Romanians invaded Bulgaria to seize southern Dobrudja (Dobrudzha). Attacked on all sides, the Bulgarians were forced to sue for peace. These wars left Bulgaria with a sense of national frustration and the Balkan allies and Romania with a feeling of inflated national success. Within three years, all the participants in the Balkan Wars would again be at war.

Solving Kosovo’s problems becomes harder without Thaci

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
War Crimes ◽  
Criminal Enterprise ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Joint Criminal Enterprise ◽  
High Profile ◽  
The Hague ◽  
Will Force ◽  
Second Wave

Significance Thaci resigned ahead of extradition to The Hague, following indictment for war crimes, including murder and torture, and participation in a joint criminal enterprise. The charges arise from Thaci’s role as a commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK). Three other high-profile political figures were also indicted and transferred to The Hague. Impacts The prospect of a crisis in Kosovo will force the incoming Biden administration to maintain its predecessor’s focus on the Balkans. The crisis will handicap a government battling a coronavirus second wave, which has already forced the country into partial lockdown. Mounting obstacles to a negotiated solution to Kosovo’s status increase the risk of a chaotic outcome, involving other parts of the Balkans.

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