Diplomatic encounters: a cultural-historical analysis of Belgian-Ottoman relations (1838-1914).

In the literature on contacts between Europe and the East in the nineteenth century, the period appears invariably (and correctly) as the age of European colonial and imperial rule. Therefore, European relationships with non-European Others are described along hierarchic lines of dominance and oppression. It may be questioned, however, whether these relations can always be reduced to similar oppositions between a superior patronizing West and an inferior silent East. In this respect, the diplomatic contacts between Belgium and the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century offer an interesting case for the study of intercultural relations without a priori assumptions about the hierarchic dichotomy 'West versus Rest'. By using a twofold researchperspective ¿ zooming in on the otherness-experiences of both the Belgian diplomats in Istanbul and the Ottoman envoys in Brussels ¿ this project therefore aims at 1) throwing new light on the complex dynamics of these diplomatic encounters; and 2) rethinking the ways in which the relationships between Europe and the East have been generally represented.

Keywords:CULTURAL HISTORY

Disciplines:Anthropology, History