scholarly journals Georgian-Austrian Unknown Preludes of the Treaty of Georgievsk

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mamuka Natsvaladze
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Maximum Level ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
Political Background ◽  
Joseph Ii ◽  
Qualitative Dimension

Studying the external policy of the king Erekle II is a topical issue for the modern historiography. The information maintained in the archives of various European cities, namely of Vienna, Vatican and Venice, convey to us the fact that while exercising pragmatic attitude toward relations with the European countries the King of Kartli and Kakheti considered the interests of both his own country and of those European countries as well. Over the years 1781-82 Erekle II sends his ambassadors to Europe twice: first he sends a Capuchin monk Domenique who dies in Constantinople in uncertain circumstances not having reached the destination; after him Erekle II sends another Capuchin Mauro the Veronese who also dies for unknown reasons while still on his way. It is a very important fact that the letters sent by the King Erekle, unlike the ambassadors, reach their destination which is the Emperor’s Court in Austria.The present article shows the international political background that the king Erekle II had at that time and that he attempted to use for the interests of his country.The plan of dividing Europe anew, officially developed by the relevant imperial authorities of Saint Petersburg and Vienna, aimed at neutralizing the Ottoman Empire and dividing its territories. According to the Greek Project, it was supposed to resurrect the Byzantine Empire that would be formally independent from Russia but factually acting as a marionette with the Romanov dynasty ruling in it and build Dacia Kingdom as a buffer between the Ottoman and the Austrian Empires.This project was topical for Erekle II who was trying to get involved in the international political processes to the maximum level as the king of a sovereign and independent country, as in the result of implementation of the Greek Project Georgia would obtain an environment of Christian countries instead of the previous encirclement by Muslim countries. Thus, Georgia would find herself in an absolutely different qualitative dimension that had been a sacred dream of the Georgian Kings at all times. This was why the Greek Plan held such a great importance for Erekle II. This international project was made secret by the empress Catherine the Great and Joseph II, therefore, the official pragmatic reason that Erekle II referred to when sending ambassadors to Austria which was obtaining financial support for two regiments was merely a mask behind which in reality the ambassadorial mission served the purpose of active involvement and participation in the implementation of the Greek Project. The Austrian Emperor’s Court, on its part, was going to use this intension of the Georgian king for its own pragmatic goals which implied strengthening of the Holy Roman Empire that had been actually made fictitious by that time. The widely acknowledged and reputed international level diplomats of the Austrian Empire Kaunitz and Kobenzl were involved in the process.

scholarly journals “GREEK PROJECT” – CLUE TO THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA 50-90-IES OF XVIII CENTURY

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mamuka Natsvaladze ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Xviii Century ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Imperial Court ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Background ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Main Message

Global international project of the 70-80-s of the XVIII century envisaging a new distribution of Europe based on the areas of the Ottoman Empire is reviewed in the article. This topic acquires a final feature in a conceptual form in the correspondence between Catherine II and the Emperor of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire Josephus II under the name of "Greek Project". The article is a scientific fragment of a monograph, reviewing the Greek Project in regard of the Caucasus for the first time in historiography. Initially, Soviet historiography strictly separated itself from the Greek Project, since the objective research of the latter would ensure presenting the Russian Empire as an aggressive state. Afterwards, the research of this project was converted into a narrow political framework and presented as a plan to conquer Crimea. The Greek Project can be unequivocally considered as a key to the history of Georgia of 50-80-ies of the XVIII century. A number of studies have shown that numerous problematic questions remain unanswered until the present day without considering the Greek Project. Patience and tolerance shown by the King of Kartli - Kakheti Erekle II towards the Russian intrigues cannot be explained without the Greek Project. Georgia acquires qualitatively different and desired form of all time through the implementation of the Greek Project. The Greek Project is an attempt to create a Christian global political model, a political background that can serve as a precondition for the restoration of a real united Caucasian Home, ensuring a guarantee of irreversible development and security for all royal principalities and khanate in the Caucasus. This is the reason, the state oriented thinker Erekle II, avoids responding with aggression to the permanent intrigues of Russia. Erekle II tries to get involved in this great political game as a sovereign of a full-fledged political entity. Such attitude of Erekle is a guarantee of success for the Imperial Court of St. Petersburg. However, Russia chooses a completely different way - confronting Erekle's benevolent alliance with hostile, imperial sentiments. The main message of these sentiments is that a united Caucasus, independent Georgian kingdoms for Russia is considered to be an anti-Russian phenomenon. This consistent and hostile attitude towards the Caucasus became the reason for the failure of Russian policy - it could neither establish a model of Christian globalization nor neutralize the Ottomans. Therefore, the study and understanding of the referred problem is rather important to determine the directions and priorities of modern political processes.

‘That Horrid Electorate’ or ‘Ma Patrie germanique’? George III, Hanover, and the Fürstenbund of 1785

1977 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. C. W. Blanning
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
European Perspective ◽  
Eastern Question ◽  
Founder Member ◽  
Domestic Affairs ◽  
Joseph Ii ◽  
George Iii

The League of Princes (Fürstenbund) was founded on 23 July 1785, when the representatives of Prussia, Hanover and Saxony signed at Berlin a main treaty and several secret articles relating to the domestic affairs of the Holy Roman Empire. During the following months a number of other German princes joined the League, notably the elector of Mainz, the landgrave of Hessen-Kassel, the margrave of Baden and the dukes of Brunswick, Saxony-Gotha and Saxony-Weimar.s Its general objective was the preservation of the imperial status quo. More specifically, it was aimed at the Emperor Joseph II and the innumerable schemes of expansion popularly attributed to him, not always without justification. More specifically still, the League was designed to prevent any renewal of Joseph's most cherished ambition - the exchange of the Habsburg possessions in the Netherlands (which embraced the larger part of present-day Belgium) for the Electorate of Bavaria. From the European perspective, the League was soon overshadowed by the reopening of the Eastern Question in 1787, eclipsed by the formation of the Triple Alliance in 1788 and finally extinguished by the Austro-Prussian rapprochement in 1792, but during 1785–6 it assumed great importance. Not the least affected was Great Britain, whose king - albeit in his capacity as elector of Hanover - was a founder-member of the League and one of its most enthusiastic protagonists. Despite the official British view - repeated ad nauseam to sceptical foreign diplomats - that Georg Kurfürst von Hannover and George III King of England were two entirely separate beings and that consequently the actions of the former could have not the least effect on the latter's domains, British policy could not help but be influenced.

scholarly journals Germany and the French Revolution

1916 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 51-76
Author(s):  
G. P. Gooch
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
General Level ◽  
Wars Of Religion ◽  
The World ◽  
Joseph Ii ◽  
The French Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

During the years immediately preceding the French Revolution Germany presented a curious spectacle of political decrepitude and intellectual rejuvenescence. The Holy Roman Empire, of which Voltaire caustically remarked that it was neither holy nor Roman nor an Empire, was afflicted with creeping paralysis. Its wheels continued to revolve; but the machinery was rusty and the output was small. ‘No Curtius,’ remarked Justus Möser, ‘leaps into the abyss for the preservation of the Imperial system.’ The prolonged duel between Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa destroyed whatever shadowy sentiment of unity had survived the wars of religion, and the short but stormy reign of Joseph II revealed to the world that the Imperial dignity had sunk into the tool and plaything of the house of Hapsburg. The Fürstenbund formally registered the emergence of a rival claimant for the hegemony of central Europe. But the springtime of Prussian greatness was merely the reflection of her ruler's dazzling personality. Mirabeau, who knew them both, described Frederick as all mind and his nephew all body. His death left Germany without a leader or a hero. Among the countless rulers who owed a nominal allegiance to the Emperor a few men of capacity and conscience, such as Ferdinand of Brunswick, Karl August of Weimar and Karl Friedrich of Baden, could be found; but the general level of character and intellect was low, and the scandals of courts and courtiers provoked disgust and indignation. The most docile people in Europe watched with impotent despair the orgies of the last Elector of Bavaria, the capricious tyranny of Karl Eugen of Württemberg, the insanity of Duke Karl of Zweibrücken, and the Byzantine decadence of the ecclesiastical Electors on the Rhine. On the eve of the Revolution the larger part of Germany was poor, ignorant, ill-governed and discontented.

A State May Be Rational and Ideological at the Same Time

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Owen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
The Soviet Union

This chapter considers the fourth lesson: a state may be rational and ideological at the same time. Islamism is the ruling ideology of several countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Iran. In non-Muslim countries such as the United States, the question that often arises is whether Islamist states, or their governments, are rational or fanatical. In truth, a state may appear irrational to outsiders, but may be rationally pursuing goals shaped by its ideology. The chapter looks at three such states: the Palatinate, a German estate in the old Holy Roman Empire; the Soviet Union; and the United States. It concludes with an assessment of the rationality of Islamist states by distinguishing their ends from their means.

Putting Transylvania on the Map: Cartography and Enlightened Absolutism in the Habsburg Monarchy

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 141-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madalina-Valeria Veres
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The State ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Real Difference ◽  
Habsburg Monarchy ◽  
Joseph Ii ◽  
Lack Of Knowledge

After touring Transylvania in 1773, Joseph II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and co-regent of the Habsburg monarchy, wrote to Empress Maria Theresa complaining about the state of the province's economy and its administrative corruption. Such problems required urgent reform of the sort that could be carried out only by a strong, centralized government acting in the spirit of Enlightened Absolutism. However, success in these endeavors required something more. In Joseph II's words: “We have to remember that the best intentions fail often and the lack of knowledge of local realities makes such a real difference in governance, that what is often considered the best and wisest decisions, cannot be applied locally efficiently; the total ignorance of Your Majesty's advisers at the court and the Transylvanian Chancellery is a real hindrance and harm for the administration.”

Epilogue

2018 ◽  
pp. 121-128
Author(s):  
Joachim Whaley
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
World War I ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
European Countries ◽  
World War ◽  
German Empire ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Third Reich

‘The legacy of the Holy Roman Empire’ describes the region’s history after 1806. The empire’s dissolution in 1806 effectively partitioned its territory into four zones. Would ‘Germany’ ever be united again? Napoleon’s defeat by the Austrians is discussed along with the creation of the German Confederation, the failure of the Frankfurt Parliament, the 1866 Austro-Prussian war, the creation of the German Empire in 1871, the aftermath of World War I, and the rise of the Third Reich. Is the empire relevant as a model for the present? There is no doubt that its traditions of law and of rights contributed, alongside the traditions that evolved in other European countries, to the development of modern Europe.

Lordship and Administration

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Hardy
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Urban Elites ◽  
Interconnected Networks ◽  
Territorial States

The Holy Roman Empire, and especially Upper Germany, was notoriously politically fragmented in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. A common way to interpret this fragmentation has been to view late medieval lordships, particularly those ruled by princes, as incipient ‘territories’, or even ‘territorial states’. However, this over-simplifies and reifies structures of lordship and administration in this period, which consisted of shifting agglomerations of assets, revenues, and jurisdictions that were dispersed among and governed by interconnected networks of political actors. Seigneurial properties and rights had become separable, commoditized, and highly mobile by the later middle ages, and these included not only fiefs (Lehen) but also loan-based pledges (Pfandschaften) and offices, all of which could be sold, transferred, or even ruled or exercised by multiple parties at once, whether these were princes, nobles, or urban elites. This fostered intensive interaction between formally autonomous political actors, generating frictions and disputes.

Borders and Freedom of Movement in the Holy Roman Empire

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Scholz
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Free Movement ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Territorial Expansion ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
German Nation ◽  
New Perspective

Abstract: Borders and Freedom of Movement in the Holy Roman Empire tells the history of free movement in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, one of the most fractured landscapes in human history. The boundaries that divided its hundreds of territories make the Old Reich a uniquely valuable site for studying the ordering of movement. The focus is on safe conduct, an institution that was common throughout the early modern world but became a key framework for negotiating free movement and its restriction in the Old Reich. The book shows that attempts to escort travellers, issue letters of passage, or to criminalize the use of ‘forbidden’ roads served to transform rights of passage into excludable and fiscally exploitable goods. Mobile populations—from emperors to peasants—defied attempts to govern their mobility with actions ranging from formal protest to bloodshed. Newly designed maps show that restrictions upon moving goods and people were rarely concentrated at borders before the mid-eighteenth century, but unevenly distributed along roads and rivers. In addition, the book unearths intense intellectual debates around the rulers’ right to interfere with freedom of movement. The Empire’s political order guaranteed extensive transit rights, but apologies of free movement and claims of protection could also mask aggressive attempts of territorial expansion. Drawing on sources discovered in more than twenty archives and covering the period between the late sixteenth to the early nineteenth century, the book offers a new perspective on the unstable relationship of political authority and human mobility in the heartlands of old-regime Europe.

The Bounds of Empire

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Lee
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Italian Nationalism ◽  
To Come

Scholars have long believed that ‘medieval’ universalism was supplanted by ‘Italian’ nationalism over the course of the fourteenth century. As this chapter demonstrates, however, nothing could be further from the truth. Although the humanists were often more concerned with the fate of Italy, or of individual cities, than of mankind as a whole, they did not waver in their belief that the Holy Roman Empire enjoyed universal dominion. Only at the very end of the Visconti Wars, when the Empire was seen to threaten the peace and liberty of the peninsula did ‘Italianness’ at last begin to come to the fore. Yet this is not to say that their universalism was unvarying. Depending on whether they chose to view it more as the successor of the ancient imperium Romanum or as an instrument of providence, they could paint it in idealistically ‘Roman’ colours, or endow it with a more ‘hegemonic’ tinge.

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