Ottoman Supremacy and the Political Independence of the Balkan and Central European States

The article deals with the nature of the political relationship between the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan states. The various forms of dependency led to varied limitations on the functioning of these states, espe­ cially in the field of their international politics. The Ottoman Empire’s relations with weaker, allied, vassal and subordinate states were shaped by the following factors: the historical period, the political and legal nature of the mutual relations, religion, the current political and military situation. On the basis of analysis of the sources and scientific literature, it has been shown that the Ottoman Empire was unable to prevent more or less official poli­ cy by its subordinate centres, as long as they had any state structures (even if they were only of a self-governing nature). In the 14^th century, most of the Balkan states found themselves as allies and tributaries of the Ottoman Empire. The alliance with the Ottomans did not limit political relations with countries uncommitted against the Ottomans. In the 15^th century there was a process of more and more clearly political subordination of the Balkan states which added two important elements to earlier financial and military obligations — investment and obe­ dience. In the 16^th century, it was extremely important to surrender to the King of Hungary John Zápolya un­ der the authority of Sultan Suleiman. It also resulted in the Ottoman Empire taking over direct political control of the Romanian principalities: Wallachia and Moldavia. The Sultan was not able to fully control them, they of­ ten carried out independent political activities, connected with the Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Holy Empire, and Transylvania. In the 18^th century the process of building the Balkan nation states launched, albeit very slowly. In the 19^th century, any independence, even very limited, was conducive to the rapid formation of their own independent statehood.