Homo Ottomanicus Orientalis (from Greece, Moldavia, Wallachia) versus Homo Ottomanicus Occidentalis (from Hungary, Transylvania, Ragusa) : A Hypothesis Regarding the Cultural Development Gaps between the Western-Christian (Catholic and Protestant) and Eastern-Christian (Orthodox) Vassal Communities and Countries of the Ottoman Empire

Abstract

What is essential and highly relevant for the debate we intend to have in this article is the European and Christian (non-Muslim) side of The Sublime Porte. In our demonstration, both homo christianus orientalis (from Wallachia, Moldavia, Greece) and homo christianus occidentalis (from Hungary, Transylvania and Ragusa) are seen as civilizational subdivision of homo ottomanicus and subjects of the Sultan in Constantinople. In this article we are interested in explaining the massive discrepancies between the way in which homo christianus orientalis on one hand, and homo christianus occidentalis on the other, were connected to modernity. For this reason, we chose to use the phrase homo ottomanicus orientalis when referring to homo christianus orientalis from the Ottoman countries and lands with an Orthodox tradition (Wallachia, Moldavia, Greece). Subsequently, we designated the phrase homo ottomanicus occidentalis for homo christianus occidentalis from the Ottoman countries and lands with a Catholic and Protestant tradition (Hungary, Transylvania and Ragusa). The problem of the Orthodox people from Eastern Europe is not essentially that they belonged, from a political point of view, to the homo ottomanicus species, but rather that they belonged, from a civilizational perspective, to the homo christianus orientalis species. Therefore, homo ottomanicus orientalis proved to be structurally different from homo ottomanicus occidentalis because only the Catholic and Protestant people – Hungarians, Transylvanians and Ragusans –, which were under the suzerainty of The Sublime Porte went through all the stages of modernization at the same time, just as those of Western Europe. Hungarians, Transylvanians and Ragusans – even though they were homo ottomanicus – belonged to the civilizational subdivision of homo christianus occidentalis, just like the Italians, French, English, Spanish, etc. people did. Thus, the fact that Hungarians, Transylvanians and Ragusans belonged to the homo ottomanicus species had no influence on their belonging to the civilizational subdivision of homo christianus occidentalis, because at that time the benefits of modernity were rather transmitted through the means of religion, than through those of politics. In the end, the religious denomination (Catholic or Protestant) played a much more important role in acceding to modernity than the geopolitical integration into pax ottomanica. We also intend to show that the Ottoman Empire had just a small part in the underdevelopment of Oriental Europe. Their Byzantine background was far more damaging for the Eastern societies.