Date: 2016
Type: Thesis
Politics and watermelons : cross-border political networks in the Polish-Moldavian-Ottoman context in the seventeenth century
Florence : European University Institute, 2016, EUI, HEC, PhD Thesis
WASIUCIONEK, Michal, Politics and watermelons : cross-border political networks in the Polish-Moldavian-Ottoman context in the seventeenth century, Florence : European University Institute, 2016, EUI, HEC, PhD Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/39624
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
This dissertation addresses the cross-border political networks between members of the Polish-Lithuanian, Ottoman and Moldavian political elites in the seventeenth century (1595-1711).Throughout this period, the Porte and the Commonwealth remained locked in an intermittent rivalry for dominance in the principality of Moldavia, with the Moldavian rulers trying to navigate between the two larger powers. In historiography, these developments are usually interpreted as a policy driven by states' geopolitical interests, seeing states as homogenous, undifferentiated actors. However, in an interesting twist, each of respective polities experienced the rise of factions and,correspondingly, a devolution of power from the political center towards patronage-based elite networks. By tying these two phenomena, the present study focuses on instances of cross-border patronage that emerged during this period of the long seventeenth century. The main object of this dissertation argues that rather than 'state interest,' factional interests and the individual agendas of members of Polish-Lithuanian, Ottoman and Moldavian elite shaped the course of the entangled history. Despite religious, social and political differences, the actors involved were embedded in a complex system of political networks that straddled across territorial and religious boundaries. In doing so, this dissertation focuses on the interlocking peripheries of eastern European empires,directing attention to the relationship between the processes of state formation, political infighting and agency of the imperial periphery in shaping political hierarchies and practices in the three polities throughout the seventeenth century, which cannot be accommodated by state-oriented models.
Additional information:
Defence date: 26 February 2016; Examining Board: Professor Bartolomé Yun Casalilla, Universidad Pablo de Olavide (EUI Supervisor); Professor Luca Molà, European University Institute; Professor Dariusz Kolodziejczyk, University of Warsaw; Professor Dr. Michael G. Müller, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg.
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/39624
Full-text via DOI: 10.2870/768337
Series/Number: EUI; HEC; PhD Thesis
Publisher: European University Institute
LC Subject Heading: Poland -- Politics and government; Lithuania -- Politics and government
Published version: http://hdl.handle.net/1814/66584