Ottoman policy toward Central Europe during the thirty years’ war: Paul Strassburg’s embassy to constantinople

Abstract

The main concern of this study is to make a foreign policy analysis of the Ottomans, and to try demonstrating how policy-making might have affected the Ottoman take during the ThirtyYears War (1618-1648). Under the light of former studies and primary evidence, I will try to prove that there were concrete instances of Ottoman military intervention in the war. Second, I’ll try to answer why the Ottoman Empire should be regarded as a player on the scene of this continental political crisis, even though they remained largely non-participant, by pointing out to the psychological effect of the Ottoman power on the European states, relying on contemporary diplomatic reports. Lastly, I present the study of a primary source: The final ambassadorial report of Paul Strassburg, the envoy of the Swedish King Gustav II Adolph in Constantinople in 1632 and in 1633 is translated from its original Latin transcription and evaluated in its historical setting.