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The Eastern Question, 1774-1923: A Study in International Relations
Doğu Sorunu - 1774-1923 Uluslararası İlişkiler Üzerine Bir İnceleme
M. S. Anderson, artık kendi konusunda klasikleşmiş bir yapıt sayılan bu kitabında, Doğu Sorunu’nu gizli antlaşma belgeleri, elçilik raporları ve diplomatların anılarından yola çıkarak bütün yönleriyle incelemektedir.
Doğu Sorunu, 18. yüzyıl sonlarından itibaren Avrupalı Büyük Güçler’in, başta Osmanlı İmparatorluğu olmak üzere Yakındoğu’da uyguladıkları emperyalist siyasetin diğer adıdır. Modern anlamda uluslararası diplomasinin ortaya çıkışını hazırlayan bu siyaset biçimi, hassas dengeleri gözeten gizli antlaşmaların, uzun vadeli çıkarların ve hepsinden önemlisi hırslı politikacıların ortak ürünü olmuştur. Süveyş Kanalı’ndan Bağdat Demiryolu projesine, Balkan milliyetçiliğinden Arap ayaklanmasına kadar Doğu Sorunu içinde yer alan bir dizi siyasî ve ekonomik olay, Anderson’un anlatımıyla günümüzün sorunlarına da ayrıca ışık tutmaktadır.
M. S. Anderson, artık kendi konusunda klasikleşmiş bir yapıt sayılan bu kitabında, Doğu Sorunu’nu gizli antlaşma belgeleri, elçilik raporları ve diplomatların anılarından yola çıkarak bütün yönleriyle incelemektedir.
Doğu Sorunu, 18. yüzyıl sonlarından itibaren Avrupalı Büyük Güçler’in, başta Osmanlı İmparatorluğu olmak üzere Yakındoğu’da uyguladıkları emperyalist siyasetin diğer adıdır. Modern anlamda uluslararası diplomasinin ortaya çıkışını hazırlayan bu siyaset biçimi, hassas dengeleri gözeten gizli antlaşmaların, uzun vadeli çıkarların ve hepsinden önemlisi hırslı politikacıların ortak ürünü olmuştur. Süveyş Kanalı’ndan Bağdat Demiryolu projesine, Balkan milliyetçiliğinden Arap ayaklanmasına kadar Doğu Sorunu içinde yer alan bir dizi siyasî ve ekonomik olay, Anderson’un anlatımıyla günümüzün sorunlarına da ayrıca ışık tutmaktadır.
- GenresHistory
463 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1966
4 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
M.S. Anderson
37 books6 followersMatthew Smith Anderson, known as M.S. Anderson, Professor of International History at the London School of Economics, 1972-85, was one of the most successful and influential historical textbook writers of his generation.
Thanks to his reading skill in Russian and several other languages, his treatment of Europe covered East as well as West, whereas previous books had often had (as he once mildly remarked) "a strong French emphasis".
Matthew Anderson was an authentic Scot. Born in Perth and educated at Perth Academy and Edinburgh University, after Second World War service in the RAF between 1942 and 1945 (as navigator, bomber crew) he returned to Edinburgh, completed his degree, began his doctoral thesis, on "British Diplomatic Relations with the Mediterranean, 1763-1778", and became an Assistant.
His departure in 1949 to an Assistant Lectureship at the London School of Economics thus marked a real uprooting, although he never ceased to feel a great debt to his Edinburgh teachers, above all Richard Pares. On Pares's advice, Anderson began learning Russian, and, after completing his thesis in 1952, embarked on his first book, Britain's Discovery of Russia, 1558-1815 (1958). Another of his Edinburgh teachers, Denys Hay, invited him to undertake the 18th-century volume in Longman's History of Europe, and thus led him to discover his métier.
Europe in the Eighteenth Century, 1713-1783 (1961) became a recognised classic, translated into French, Spanish and Italian, with new editions in 1976, 1987 and 2000, each embodying substantial alterations and additions. A briefer volume for Oxford University Press, Eighteenth-Century Europe, 1713-1789 (1966), also proved highly successful, especially in its North American and Spanish editions. By the time of his death, these two volumes together had sold not far short of 150,000 copies. Anderson had indeed "rescued the 18th century from long-undeserved neglect".
In 1972 appeared The Ascendancy of Europe: aspects of European history, 1815-1914. Two other less general books also secured wide readerships: The Eastern Question, 1774-1923 (1966) and Peter the Great (1978). Altogether he published 11 books with the needs of students in mind, and in every case his publishers (most often Longman, now Pearson Education) found themselves dealing with an academic who not only wrote superbly saleable copy, but even delivered it ahead of the date laid down in his contract.
He also published some 20 learned articles, and contributed two chapters to the New Cambridge Modern History and many more to multi-authored volumes, as well as writing in later years personal diaries and memoirs not for publication.
Important though writing always was to him, between 1972 and his retirement in 1985 his growing responsibilities at the London School of Economics took priority. Not only was he much concerned in building up the International History Department (of which he was Convenor in 1972-75), but from 1973 until 1981 he was heavily involved in the work of the school's Publications Committee, while in 1981-85 he chaired the Graduate School Committee, arguably the school's most important committee.
Thanks to his reading skill in Russian and several other languages, his treatment of Europe covered East as well as West, whereas previous books had often had (as he once mildly remarked) "a strong French emphasis".
Matthew Anderson was an authentic Scot. Born in Perth and educated at Perth Academy and Edinburgh University, after Second World War service in the RAF between 1942 and 1945 (as navigator, bomber crew) he returned to Edinburgh, completed his degree, began his doctoral thesis, on "British Diplomatic Relations with the Mediterranean, 1763-1778", and became an Assistant.
His departure in 1949 to an Assistant Lectureship at the London School of Economics thus marked a real uprooting, although he never ceased to feel a great debt to his Edinburgh teachers, above all Richard Pares. On Pares's advice, Anderson began learning Russian, and, after completing his thesis in 1952, embarked on his first book, Britain's Discovery of Russia, 1558-1815 (1958). Another of his Edinburgh teachers, Denys Hay, invited him to undertake the 18th-century volume in Longman's History of Europe, and thus led him to discover his métier.
Europe in the Eighteenth Century, 1713-1783 (1961) became a recognised classic, translated into French, Spanish and Italian, with new editions in 1976, 1987 and 2000, each embodying substantial alterations and additions. A briefer volume for Oxford University Press, Eighteenth-Century Europe, 1713-1789 (1966), also proved highly successful, especially in its North American and Spanish editions. By the time of his death, these two volumes together had sold not far short of 150,000 copies. Anderson had indeed "rescued the 18th century from long-undeserved neglect".
In 1972 appeared The Ascendancy of Europe: aspects of European history, 1815-1914. Two other less general books also secured wide readerships: The Eastern Question, 1774-1923 (1966) and Peter the Great (1978). Altogether he published 11 books with the needs of students in mind, and in every case his publishers (most often Longman, now Pearson Education) found themselves dealing with an academic who not only wrote superbly saleable copy, but even delivered it ahead of the date laid down in his contract.
He also published some 20 learned articles, and contributed two chapters to the New Cambridge Modern History and many more to multi-authored volumes, as well as writing in later years personal diaries and memoirs not for publication.
Important though writing always was to him, between 1972 and his retirement in 1985 his growing responsibilities at the London School of Economics took priority. Not only was he much concerned in building up the International History Department (of which he was Convenor in 1972-75), but from 1973 until 1981 he was heavily involved in the work of the school's Publications Committee, while in 1981-85 he chaired the Graduate School Committee, arguably the school's most important committee.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 27, 2019
Not best but must-read books on the subject of Eastern Quest. This book covers 150 years of international affairs round Ottomans. And leads to disintegration of Ottoman Empire and creation of Modern Turkey
April 27, 2021
A classic case of, 'can't see the forest for the trees'. This gives a coverage mainly of the Balkans but more generally the wider area ruled by the disintegrating Ottoman Empire (so also including Iraq through to Egypt although with less detail) - through the 19th century and on until the post WW1 settlement when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist. The problem is the immense coverage of the minute diplomatic nuances and variances of the great and the non powers, but no real sense of the whole. In the conclusion chapter Anderson tells us that really the whole thing was a fuss over nothing and that certainly comes through in the whole narrative, but why then all this fuss? What we have here is a great source for undergraduates to quote in their essays (which is how I obtained the book so many years ago) but no real overall understanding.
What is made clear is that it is impossible to divorce context from actions in relating to this 'Eastern Question'. For example the political shifts in Britain are at least as relevant as actual events in say Serbia, as of course is the Italian and German unification's. However no attempt is made to put things in perspective in relation to these seismic changes. Even less, with respect to the actual Eastern Question participants; there is too much concentration on narrating of actions, rather than giving us any picture of why. The book is already extremely dense and detailed and the topic hardly affords lengthening; but really what is needed was additional chapters describing each of the main nation participants and an overview of character and drivers.
While there is a huge amount of background information, Anderson doesn't draw the reader's attention to what is significant versus the insignificant. With all the detail we also needed more and better detailed maps. However there is an excellent bibliographic summary, again leading to the conclusion this is actually a technical text book, not an explanation of an historical question at all.
What is made clear is that it is impossible to divorce context from actions in relating to this 'Eastern Question'. For example the political shifts in Britain are at least as relevant as actual events in say Serbia, as of course is the Italian and German unification's. However no attempt is made to put things in perspective in relation to these seismic changes. Even less, with respect to the actual Eastern Question participants; there is too much concentration on narrating of actions, rather than giving us any picture of why. The book is already extremely dense and detailed and the topic hardly affords lengthening; but really what is needed was additional chapters describing each of the main nation participants and an overview of character and drivers.
While there is a huge amount of background information, Anderson doesn't draw the reader's attention to what is significant versus the insignificant. With all the detail we also needed more and better detailed maps. However there is an excellent bibliographic summary, again leading to the conclusion this is actually a technical text book, not an explanation of an historical question at all.
June 9, 2019
I love a history book with dense footnotes, this one leads in that area. It remains the leading text in defining the Eastern Question, a subset of which was the Armenian Question.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews