Ottoman-French Relations

Recently, the new diplomatic history has put a particular emphasis on studying the frontiers of the early modern European
société des princes
and historians have progressively taken into account hitherto marginalized diplomatic agents and localities like Moscow or Istanbul. Far from being at the edge of the European diplomatic system, the latter is now seen as one of the most dynamic political venues of Europe and the Mediterranean. Two sorts of scholarship have contributed to this renewal. First, historians of early modern Europe have paid a particular attention to the increasing inclusion of the Sublime Porte into the European system of diplomatic representation. They show how political communication adapted according to the dynamic balance of power established between the Sultan and his interlocutors, and how, in Istanbul, representatives of Christian princes and states competed to get the recognition of the ceremonial precedence of their respective masters. Second, putting an emphasis on ‘intermediaries’, ‘brokers’, and ‘proxies’ like merchants, dragomans, and captives, Mediterranean historians have highlighted the multiple connections framing diplomatic networks in the Eastern Mediterranean and the rich economic, social, political, and cultural resources that diplomatic agents could mobilise in support of their mission. Focusing on Istanbul and its surroundings in the eighteenth century, our workshop proposes to examine the social life of diplomats in a metropolitan and cosmopolitan context in order to gain a better understanding of the functioning of diplomacy in a transcultural context. In the light of a seemingly homogenous Western European ‘diplomatic civilization’, based on the foundations laid in Westphalia, operating at a non-Christian court may have been a challenge for French, German, or English diplomats. However, focusing on the social dimension, we hypothesize that a cross-cultural context could also facilitate diplomatic exchange due to a greater tolerance of difference and thus of ‘unconventional’ methods that could be more easily adapted to the circumstances. This leads to the reassessment of some commonly accepted elements of the history of diplomacy in Istanbul. Did the European diplomatic corps really live isolated from their host society? How much did they depend on the linguistic and social skills of their dragomans? Did their influence reach beyond the limits of the suburb of Pera?
To answer these questions historians have been invited to focus on the everyday life and work of diplomats and diplomatic agents in Istanbul and to pay attention on the different social circles in which they operated. The urban dimension is an essential element to be taken into account in order to understand the availability of social resources for diplomats, how information circulated in the city, how parties/clienteles were formed, how the social bonding functioned, and how and why social bonds were institutionalized (or not). If Pera is at the centre of our analysis, we would like also to reassess the importance of other places of Istanbul’s surroundings as well, like Büyükdere and the village of Belgrad, places where diplomats, and not only them, used to stay during the summer months or at times of plague epidemics. Retreats and places of leisure, these villages constituted distinctive societies where European diplomats and Ottoman officials occasionally mixed. Although Pera and Istanbul’s northern villages are regularly mentioned in dispatches, travelogues, and memoirs, we still now very little about the social life they hosted and about their significance for diplomats and diplomacy.

Fransa, Mehmed Ali Paşa’nın isyanının yarattığı kargaşa ortamında Babıâli’nin Rusya ile ittifak yapmasından oldukça rahatsız olmuştu ve Mısır Meselesi’nin kendi çıkarlarına uygun çözümlenmesini arzu ediyordu. Bunun için Fransız hükümeti, Mehmed Ali Paşa ve Babıâli arasında sürüp giden soruna kendi lehine bir çözüm bulma amacıyla,  dışişlerindeki kabiliyeti nedeniyle Baron de Boislecomte’u Mehmed Ali Paşa nezdinde arabuluculuk yapmak ve dolayısıyla Babıâli üzerindeki Rusya etkisini kaldırmak amacıyla Doğu’ya gönderdi. Mehmed Ali Paşa nezdindeki siyasi misyonu dışında Boislecomte, Dışileri Bakanı Broglie’den artık sona yaklaşan Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ile ilgili çok akıllıca gözlemler yapmak ve bu gözlemlerini raporlar haline getirerek Fransız hariciyesine sunmak talimatı da almıştı. Bu bakımdan Boislecomte imparatorluğu idari, askeri, ekonomik ve ticari açıdan geniş bir incelemeye tabi tuttu. Bu çalışma Boislecomte’un Doğu’ya gönderilme sürecini inceledikten sonra Baron’un Osmanlı ticareti hakkındaki değerlendirmeleri inceleme amacındadır. Çalışmanın kaynağı Fransız Dışileri Bakanlığı Arşivi’nin Paris’teki merkezinde yer alan “Mémoires et Documents: Turquie” kataloğunda yer alan dosyalardır.