HISTORY 593: STUDIES IN EUROPEAN DIPLOMATIC HISTORY

THE EASTERN QUESTION
 
 

Instructor: Nicholas Pappas

Office: Estill 326

Office hours: By appointment

Office phone: 294-3617

Home phone: 295-4985

E-Mail address: his_ncp@pop.shsu.edu

URL: http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/593Main

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This seminar will study of one of the most complex and convoluted problems in European diplomatic history--The Eastern Question. The Eastern Question emerged as a problem in European diplomacy in the late 17th century following the first major defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the hands of European powers. By the late 18th Century the Ottoman Empire, threatened with both partition by Russia and Austria and economic vassalage to England and France, had been transformed from the "Grand Turk" to the "Sick Man of Europe". The steady decline of Ottoman fortunes created an arena of potential conflict in the Near East and Southeastern Europe. Thoughout the 19th and early 20th century the issue of the continued existence and territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire, with its spawling domain along the eastern Mediterranean, was a constant factor in European international politics. This course will investigate the shifting roles of the European powers in the Eastern Question in times of war and peace. The colloquium will look at the problems, crises, wars, treaties, and conferences surrounding the Eastern Question by having each member of the class represent the point of view or interests of one of the powers involved. Among the topics to be covered will be: The capitulations of the Ottoman Empire, the Treaties of Karlowitz and Passarowitz, Austrian and Russian partition plans, English and French commercial penetration, the impact of the French Revolution and the Naopleonic Wars upon the Eastern Question, the Treaties of Unkiar Iskellesi and London, the Crimean War and the Treaty of Paris, Balkan nationalism and the Eastern Question, the Eastern Crisis of 1875-1878 and the treaty of Berlin, Germany and the Eastern Question, Anglo-French Imperialism in North Africa and Egypt, the Macedonian problem, the Bosnian Crisis, the Balkan Wars, the partition treaties of World War I, the Paris Peace Conference, the Treaties of Sevrés and Lausanne. The colloquium will conclude with a discussion of the role of the Eastern Question in the making of the modern Middle East and Southeast Europe and their problems.

 

REQUIRED READINGS:

David Fromkin. A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. New York.: Avon Books, 1990. (Fromkin).

J. A. R. Marriott. The Eastern Question: An Historical Study in European Diplomacy. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1917. (Marriott). On the Web.

               

Other selected secondary and primary source readings will be available on the Internet.
 
 

GENERAL READINGS AND COURSE OUTLINE:

Week 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE COLLOQUIUM

Week 2: THE EASTERN QUESTION IN THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES.

Week 3: THE EASTERN QUESTION IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY.

Week 4: THE EASTERN QUESTION IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY.

 

  • Week 5: THE EASTERN QUESTION AND THE ROAD TO WORLD WAR.

    • Week 6: FROM THE EASTERN QUESTION TO THE MODERN BALKANS AND MIDDLE EAST.