12.01.2021

New English translation of EGO article "Istanbul as a hub of early modern European diplomacy" by Christine Vogel

On European History Online (EGO) a new translation has been published under the editorship of the IEG: "Istanbul as a hub of early modern European diplomacy" by Christine Vogel. The article is now available in both German and English.
By the 16th century at the latest, Istanbul had become a hub of early modern diplomacy that radiated to points far beyond Europe. The capital of the Ottoman Empire, which stretched over three continents, was a gateway for east-west trade and communication routes and thus at the same time an important site of transcultural integration and cross-border politics.


If there was anything like a "diplomatic world capital" in the early modern era, it was arguably Istanbul rather than Vienna or Versailles. In any case, the capital of the Ottoman Empire was a dynamic testing ground for transcultural diplomatic procedures and practices, which provided essential impulses to the development of modern diplomacy.

Credits: Jean-Baptiste Vanmour (1671–1737), Ambassador Cornelis Calkoen in Audience with Sultan Ahmed III, September 14, 1727, oil on canvas, c. 1727–1730; source: Rijksmuseum, https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-A-4078, public domain.