Fundamentals of History of Southeast Europe in Early Modern Times

The course covers the period when, in the area of Southeast Europe, particularly the Ottoman Empire, the Hapsburg monarchy and the Venetian Republic prevailed, spread/lost territory and influence. In connection with the presentation of the role of the metropoles that reached into the area of Southeast Europe – originally Rome and Constantinople (the Latin and Greek worlds), followed in the modern times by Vienna, Venice and Istanbul – not only of the political, economic and military, but also of the social, cultural and religious patterns, the students become acquainted with broader developmental historical (civilisational) trends in the area and with the related concepts of the area's slow development in relation to Western Europe, with the peripheral character and the marginalisation of the area in relation to the metropoles, and with the non-simultaneous development of the parts of this geographically and demographically very diverse area at chronologically the same time. The narrower thematical selection of the historical development discusses the expansion of the Ottoman country at the Balkan peninsula, the position of the subordinate nations, the introduction of the Ottoman government, the feudal system and the Islamisation, and the situation of the vassal principalities. In the case of the weakening of the Ottoman state the students become acquainted with the inner political and economic crisis, and the dissolution of the feudal system related to it, with the migrational movements and the changed ethnical arrangement and with the role of the Catholic and particularly the Orthodox church within the Ottoman state and the Hapsburg monarchy. In connection with the above-mentioned topics, attention is also paid to the presentation of the political, economic, and military growth of the Hapsburg monarchy in the area of Southeast Europe: (the acquisition of the Hungarian and Croatian crown, the enforcement of absolutism and the rebellion against it, peasant uprisings, the establishment of a military balance with the Ottoman Empire, the Austrian-Turkish wars, territorial conquest, and colonisation; the origin and development as well as the inner regime of the Vojna krajina (Military Frontier), the appearance of political thought in the Balkans, the formation of the so-called Eastern Question, a view of the Ottoman Empire and the shaping of the image of the Turks in the Hapsburg monarchy /in the West/), the Venetian Republic in Dalmatia and on the Peloponnese (Venetian-Turkish wars), and the political situation and economic importance of the Republic of Dubrovnik until its dissolution. With the presentation and analysis of the events and processes the students are acquainted with the key sources and relevant literature.