Liberty's Folly by Jerzy Lukowzski mentions a very small anecdote that interested me. From his book, we learn that when Selim III refused to recognize the Partitions of Poland, a small group of Poles approached the Sultan in 1797 asking permission for Polish emigration into the Ottoman Empire. Selim III however, knowing his shaky position next to Russia, declined, but what if Selim III accepted? What would be the impact of a larger Polish community in the Ottoman Empire and its territories?
The Ottoman Empire as Little Lehistan - What if Poles immigrated to the Ottoman Empire?
- Thread starter Sarthak
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- ottoman empire poland
A few more Catholics in the Balkans, mostly? Romania would be the closest territory to Poland, but that was deeply Orthodox so who knows if they would want to settle there, so close to the Russians. If they were a small enough number, they could maybe get settled in and around Constantinople (a successor to the old Italian city-state quarters?). Maybe some of them give enough of a shit about being Catholics that they go all the way to Jerusalem? Or if they're just looking for co-religionists, there's enough Melkite Catholics around to get in with them. Given the Latinization of the Melkite Catholic community that started in the 1800s, it could be a big boost for that situation if enough Poles migrate deep enough into the empire.
Maudoldu00
Banned
How many would the pole migrate? 1 million?? The Pole would undoubtly support the sultan and if they settle anywhere in the balkans it would probably became like a double edge sword. They can help reduce racial tension by making it more diverse or even more rebellion from the locals.
According to Selim III's Imperial Archives, eh, Thrace and Macedonia was where the settlement was to be kept, considering the areas were relatively lightly populated in comparison to other places in the OE.
1 Million seems a little to large to me. 50K - 100K as a lowball estimate, 200K - 250 K as a medium estimate, and 350 K - 500 K as a high estimate seems realistic to me. Historically a sizeable amount of Poles did end up in the OE after all (around 10K), so I am using that as an estimating scenario.
Well, I think that they would be still minority like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovaks_in_Serbia, though their ranks would be probably boosted by later immigrants after failed uprisings.
Their language would be under heavy Bulgarian and Macedonian influence and what happens to them is dependent on Balkan's political development. Maybe Greeks (apart from Ottomans) would be rather pro-Balkan Polish, considering they'd weaken Macedonian consistency by having different religion.
This is an interesting scenario... I'd agree with your lowball-to-medium estimates - 1 million would've been a quarter of the population left to Poland after the Second Partition!
My 1st thought was that Selim would settle them somewhere there were already Catholics - namely the Mount Lebanon district or nearby somewhere in the Levant. The further I thought on it though, I began to think of another instance when the OE took in large numbers of a "refugee" population - the Circassians. The Empire's policy wasn't to settle them all in one place... the Circassians wound up scattered all the way from the Balkans to Amman.
Now, there is a difference in scale - likely over half a million Circassians were resettled in the OE, the overwhelming majority of whom were Muslims. The fact that the Poles, though much smaller in number, would be overwhelmingly Catholic might would make a difference in Selim's "resettlement strategy" , but I'm not sure.