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A dramatic intellectual biography of Victorian jurist Travers Twiss, who provided the legal justification for the creation of the brutal Congo Free State Eminent jurist, Oxford professor, advocate to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Travers Twiss (1809–1897) was a model establishment figure in Victorian Britain, and a close collaborator of Prince Metternich, the architect of the Concert of Europe. Yet Twiss’s life was defined by two events that threatened to undermine the order that he had so stoutly defended: a notorious social scandal and the creation of the Congo Free State. In King Leopold’s Ghostwriter, Andrew Fitzmaurice tells the incredible story of a man who, driven by personal ev...
This book aims to analyze the international policies of Viscount Palmerston and Prince Metternich during the years 1830–1841. The focus of this work is on the pivotal role of British diplomacy in Europe during a period marked by the outbreak of the July Revolution, the dissolution of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the November Uprising, significant events in the German Confederation and the Papal States, as well as the civil wars in Portugal and Spain, and the two Egyptian-Ottoman wars. The clash between Palmerston and Metternich stands out. Both men were at the forefront of European foreign relations and were symbols of two different political currents. This work aims to challenge the ‘traditional’ view of Palmerston as a progressive statesman who defended the freedom of European liberalism and Metternich as a reactionary who opposed social modernization. The text highlights the motives behind British foreign policy, which were centred on promoting national interests, often at the expense of cooperation among the Great Powers, in contrast to the Austrian Chancellor’s efforts to foster the best possible relations within the Concert of Europe.
This book examines mid-Victorian discourse on the expansion of the British Empire’s role in the Middle East. It investigates how British political leaders, journalists and the general public responded to events in the Ottoman Empire, which many, if not most, people in Britain came to see as trudging towards inevitable chaos and destruction. Although this ‘Eastern Question’ on a post-Ottoman future was ostensibly a matter of international politics and sometimes conflict, this study argues that the ideas underpinning it were conceived, shaped, and enforced according to domestic British attitudes. In this way, this book presents the Eastern Question as as much a British question as one re...
Diplomats had multiple tasks: not only negotiating with the representatives of other states, but also mediating culture and knowledge, and not least elaborating reports on their observations of politics, society, and culture. Culture, according to the studies featured in this book, is defined as a complex sphere including aspects like systems of communication, literature, music, arts, education, and the creation of knowledge. This edition containing contributions from six conferences held in Vienna and Istanbul by the Don Juan Archiv Wien focuses on the complex diplomatic and cultural relations between the Ottoman Empire and Europe from the time of the early embassies to Istanbul up to "Tanzimat".
Despite the large number of books and studies written about Metternich, there is still a period of his political career that scholars neglect to this day, the 1840s. This book offers an analysis of Metternich's German policy in the years 1840–1848 and thus fills a gap in Metternich studies. Analysing this period is important due to the fact that over the course of those less than nine years, Metternich lost his influence within the German Confederation. He represented a certain way of behaving – moderate, calm and reconciliatory – but it was an attitude which was rejected during the period of rising mass nationalism. Nevertheless, he continued to endeavour to steer this escalating nati...
Vols. 3- include Bulletin of the Czechoslovak Oriental Institut, no. 1-