Enlightened Declarations: Ottoman and Russian Proclamations in the Ottoman‐Russian War of 1768–1774

This article analyses the Ottoman and Russian proclamations during the Ottoman‐Russian War of 1768–1774 to understand their similarities and differences in discourse and their intended audiences, with a special focus on the elites of the Ottoman Empire. The article shows that Ottoman diplomacy pract...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal for eighteenth-century studies Vol. 47; no. 3; pp. 259 - 278
Main Author Karabıçak, Yusuf Ziya
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hatfield Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.09.2024
Subjects
18th century
Age of Enlightenment
Diplomacy
enlightened absolutism
Enlightenment
Military history
Nobility
Ottoman‐Russian War
Polish nobility
Russian history
War
Poland
Russia-pre-1917
Ottoman Empire
Russia
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Summary:This article analyses the Ottoman and Russian proclamations during the Ottoman‐Russian War of 1768–1774 to understand their similarities and differences in discourse and their intended audiences, with a special focus on the elites of the Ottoman Empire. The article shows that Ottoman diplomacy practiced Enlightenment diplomacy in the same way as its rivals, using the language of enlightened absolutism to win the hearts and minds of the Polish nobility. However, the war made diplomacy and its accompanying discourses an internal affair, and the imperial elite rejected the idea of fighting for Polish liberties. This had a lasting impact on how Ottoman power was framed and understood by both the imperial elite and its subjects. This was the main difference between the Ottoman and Russian empires; the former had already created an elite consensus based on shared European cultural signifiers that depended on the European Enlightenment, while the latter never did.
ISSN:1754-0194
1754-0208
DOI:10.1111/1754-0208.12942