“The Turkish Threat” and Early Modern Central Europe: Czech Reflexions

STEHLÍK, Petr and Ladislav HLADKÝ. “The Turkish Threat” and Early Modern Central Europe: Czech Reflexions. In Central Europe and Balkan Muslims: Relations and Representations. 2017.

Basic information

• Original name: “The Turkish Threat” and Early Modern Central Europe: Czech Reflexions
• Authors: STEHLÍK, Petr and Ladislav HLADKÝ.
• Edition: Central Europe and Balkan Muslims: Relations and Representations, 2017.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 60101 History
• Country of publisher: Czech Republic
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts

Abstract

The Ottoman expansion into Central Europe was widely reflected in the Czech lands of the early modern period. This was the case in spite of the fact that this territory – with the exception of peripheral parts of Moravia in the seventeenth century – did not experience the direct intrusion of Ottoman troops. The aim of this paper is to review how the Czech lands contributed to the defense of the Habsburg Monarchy and to comment on the image of the “Turkish threat” present in the local discourse at the time. Was it only derived from the image created in the lands directly exposed to the Ottoman invasion? Did it contain any local peculiarities and original motifs? Does the early modern image of the “Turkish threat” have any impact on present-day Czech society? These are some of the key questions tackled in the paper.