Cornelis Haga: The Network of a Diplomat in the Early Modern Mediterranean
Introduction
In 1612, Cornelis Haga (1578-1654) arrived in Istanbul to become the first official Dutch ambassador in the Ottoman Empire. After studying law school in Leiden, working as a lawyer for a few years in Den Haag and successfully mediating a dispute between the Dutch Republic and Sweden in Sweden, the Staten-Generaal chose him as the right man to represent the Dutch Republic in the Ottoman Empire. This decision came after an invitation by the Ottoman Empire to strengthen the ties between the two of them. This development mirrors an important characteristic of the Early Modern Mediterranean: the opening of the sea to the Atlantic Ocean and the growing influence of capital and merchants from cities like Amsterdam and Londen.
In this way, Haga reflects the growing bonds between the Ottoman Empire and the Dutch Republic. However, the Early Modern Mediterranean is also subject to a broader historical debate about whether the sea could be seen as a so called bazaar or a battlefield. The bazaar here represents a connected sea, with much contact between different cultures and religions in the economical, political and social sphere, whereas the battlefield represents a divided sea, with a clear separation between the Christian West and the Islamic East.
In this research, the life of Cornelis Haga was used like a case study to analyze whether it fits more into the paradigm of the bazaar or of the battlefield. Answering this question attributes to this ongoing historical debate. While one can analyze the life of a historical figure in many ways, in this research Cornelis Haga’s life was analyzed by applying Social Network Analysis (SNA). SNA has only recently been fully applied to historical researches and focuses on networks as a heuristic concept with an explanatory function rather than just a representative value.
The goal here was to reconstruct the diplomatic network of Haga and to see if this can fit in either the paradigm of the Mediterranean of the bazaar or the battlefield. Accordingly, the central research question is: is the life of Cornelis Haga as ambassador of the Dutch Republic in Istanbul from 1612 till 1639, examined by applying Social Network Analysis, more a reflection of the Mediterranean world of the bazaar or of the battlefield? In order to properly reconstruct the diplomatic network of Haga, many old letters of him have been analyzed.
In 1612, Cornelis Haga (1578-1654) arrived in Istanbul to become the first official Dutch ambassador in the Ottoman Empire. After studying law school in Leiden, working as a lawyer for a few years in Den Haag and successfully mediating a dispute between the Dutch Republic and Sweden in Sweden, the Staten-Generaal chose him as the right man to represent the Dutch Republic in the Ottoman Empire. This decision came after an invitation by the Ottoman Empire to strengthen the ties between the two of them. This development mirrors an important characteristic of the Early Modern Mediterranean: the opening of the sea to the Atlantic Ocean and the growing influence of capital and merchants from cities like Amsterdam and Londen.
In this way, Haga reflects the growing bonds between the Ottoman Empire and the Dutch Republic. However, the Early Modern Mediterranean is also subject to a broader historical debate about whether the sea could be seen as a so called bazaar or a battlefield. The bazaar here represents a connected sea, with much contact between different cultures and religions in the economical, political and social sphere, whereas the battlefield represents a divided sea, with a clear separation between the Christian West and the Islamic East.
In this research, the life of Cornelis Haga was used like a case study to analyze whether it fits more into the paradigm of the bazaar or of the battlefield. Answering this question attributes to this ongoing historical debate. While one can analyze the life of a historical figure in many ways, in this research Cornelis Haga’s life was analyzed by applying Social Network Analysis (SNA). SNA has only recently been fully applied to historical researches and focuses on networks as a heuristic concept with an explanatory function rather than just a representative value.
The goal here was to reconstruct the diplomatic network of Haga and to see if this can fit in either the paradigm of the Mediterranean of the bazaar or the battlefield. Accordingly, the central research question is: is the life of Cornelis Haga as ambassador of the Dutch Republic in Istanbul from 1612 till 1639, examined by applying Social Network Analysis, more a reflection of the Mediterranean world of the bazaar or of the battlefield? In order to properly reconstruct the diplomatic network of Haga, many old letters of him have been analyzed.
Bazaar or battlefield?
As stated in the introduction, there is a broader historical debate going on about whether the Mediterranean can be seen as a unity or as a divided region. Henri Pirenne was very influential for creating the paradigm of the Mediterranean of the battlefield by stating that the sea was a unity during the rule of the Romans, but after the rise of Islam became separated. Since then he claims that the sea is divided into two blocks: the Christian West and the Islamic East, which are quite hostile to each other. This thesis has had a big influence on for example the discourse of Orientalism by Edward Said and on the concept of a ‘Clash of Civilizations’ by Samuel Huntington. This paradigm of a divided Mediterranean has had a lot of criticism from scientists who claim that the main characteristic of the sea is its unity. Fernand Braudel is one of the most important historians from this group. In his research he looked at the sea as his protagonist and stated that the whole sea has a shared destiny. According to him, the Turkish and the Christian world were strongly interwoven and created one Mediterranean World. These days most historians support this thesis and they analyze the dense networks of interaction and the circulation of people, goods, techniques and ideas that show the great connectivity that persisted also after the rise of Islam. |
Social Network Analysis
Describing Social Network Analysis in short is a hard job, but its main characteristic is that this kind of analysis focuses on the social relations between social entities and on the patterns of this relations. So if this is applied to a historical figure, not his or her behavior and beliefs are being analyzed, but his or her interactions with other entities. These interactions are being depicted as a network: as a collection of dots, which represent the different social entities, and ties, which indicate the interaction between the entities. To analyze the network of Cornelis Haga, the focus therefore had to be on his social interactions which could be reconstructed from his old letters. In this research his diplomatic network in Istanbul was the main subject, so because of that the interactions he had with for example his family at home in the Dutch Republic were not under inquiry. Instead, his relations with other diplomats, Ottoman statesmen and dragomans were subject of the analysis. By using SNA to analyze the life of Cornelis Haga, it is possible to look at the relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Dutch Republic from a new perspective. Instead of looking at the two states as a whole and for example the treaties signed between them, analyzing one persons network and his interactions with other people can give us much more information of how these two states acted towards each other. |
Haga’s network
From 1612 till 1639 Haga became the first official Dutch ambassador in the Ottoman Empire. At this time, the Ottoman Empire was at the height of its power, just like the Spanish Empire, which provoked many conflicts between these superpowers. This was also the time that the Thirty Years War raged through Europe. These historical events influenced Haga’s interaction with other diplomats and statesmen in Istanbul, namely the hostility between him and his Catholic colleagues from countries like France and Spain.
While analyzing Haga’s network from his letters, the first name that came to the fore was that of Halil Pasha, an important Ottoman statesman. He was an ally of Haga and in many letters Haga describes his gratitude towards him. He was of great support for Haga in succeeding in his diplomatic mission. Halil Pasha also provided Haga with the services of the Venetian dragoman Paolo Antonio Bon, who in the beginning was very important for Haga in receiving trade privileges from the sultan, but later on due to a financial conflict became more of an enemy towards him.
Haga did not come alone to the capital of the Ottoman Empire, but brought some Dutch servants as well. They supported him in his diplomatic work. Haga himself was involved in choosing these men and he knew all of them already before. These men were Cornelis Pauw, Andries Suyderhoeff and Cornelis Sijms. The Staten-Generaal also decided to add Lambert Verhaer to his staff, because this man had already lived for a longer time in Istanbul and had some knowledge about the high circles of the Ottoman court. Other allies Haga mentions more often in his letters are Cyrillus Lucaris, the Greek-Orthodox patriarch of Alexandria who Haga already met on his earlier trip to Istanbul in 1602. Moreover he mentions Bayram Bay, who was an important Ottoman statesman, but originally came from Genoa and was a renegade. He also talks about Sheikh Mahmud Hudai, to whom he was introduced by Halil Pasha. He was a very influential leader of a mystical Islamic sect. Lastly Haga declares that he also had good relations with the English ambassador, who as a fellow Protestant was like a natural ally.
In his letters, Haga also complains about people who were working against him. He for example complains a lot about the Gijsbrechtsz brothers Jacob, Carel and Nicolaas. They were jealous of Haga because he got the diplomatic function and not Jacob Gijsbrechtsz. Because of this they spread false rumors about Haga and tried to make his work as hard as possible. Other contacts with whom Haga couldn’t get along were ambassadors from mostly Catholic countries like France, Venetia and the Habsburg Empire. Haga describes that they were very hostile towards him from the beginning and that they put full effort to try to sabotage the strengthening of the ties between the Ottoman Empire and the Dutch Republic.
The above mentioned people were the most important social contacts that came to the fore out of Haga’s letters.
From 1612 till 1639 Haga became the first official Dutch ambassador in the Ottoman Empire. At this time, the Ottoman Empire was at the height of its power, just like the Spanish Empire, which provoked many conflicts between these superpowers. This was also the time that the Thirty Years War raged through Europe. These historical events influenced Haga’s interaction with other diplomats and statesmen in Istanbul, namely the hostility between him and his Catholic colleagues from countries like France and Spain.
While analyzing Haga’s network from his letters, the first name that came to the fore was that of Halil Pasha, an important Ottoman statesman. He was an ally of Haga and in many letters Haga describes his gratitude towards him. He was of great support for Haga in succeeding in his diplomatic mission. Halil Pasha also provided Haga with the services of the Venetian dragoman Paolo Antonio Bon, who in the beginning was very important for Haga in receiving trade privileges from the sultan, but later on due to a financial conflict became more of an enemy towards him.
Haga did not come alone to the capital of the Ottoman Empire, but brought some Dutch servants as well. They supported him in his diplomatic work. Haga himself was involved in choosing these men and he knew all of them already before. These men were Cornelis Pauw, Andries Suyderhoeff and Cornelis Sijms. The Staten-Generaal also decided to add Lambert Verhaer to his staff, because this man had already lived for a longer time in Istanbul and had some knowledge about the high circles of the Ottoman court. Other allies Haga mentions more often in his letters are Cyrillus Lucaris, the Greek-Orthodox patriarch of Alexandria who Haga already met on his earlier trip to Istanbul in 1602. Moreover he mentions Bayram Bay, who was an important Ottoman statesman, but originally came from Genoa and was a renegade. He also talks about Sheikh Mahmud Hudai, to whom he was introduced by Halil Pasha. He was a very influential leader of a mystical Islamic sect. Lastly Haga declares that he also had good relations with the English ambassador, who as a fellow Protestant was like a natural ally.
In his letters, Haga also complains about people who were working against him. He for example complains a lot about the Gijsbrechtsz brothers Jacob, Carel and Nicolaas. They were jealous of Haga because he got the diplomatic function and not Jacob Gijsbrechtsz. Because of this they spread false rumors about Haga and tried to make his work as hard as possible. Other contacts with whom Haga couldn’t get along were ambassadors from mostly Catholic countries like France, Venetia and the Habsburg Empire. Haga describes that they were very hostile towards him from the beginning and that they put full effort to try to sabotage the strengthening of the ties between the Ottoman Empire and the Dutch Republic.
The above mentioned people were the most important social contacts that came to the fore out of Haga’s letters.
Conclusion
To analyze whether the network of Cornelis Haga fits more in the paradigm of the bazaar or of the battlefield, his contacts have been divided into two groups: his positive relations and his negative relations (Image 2 and 3). This has been done because the paradigm of the battlefield is build on the central thesis of a hostile separation between the Islamic East and the Christian West. If the network of Haga indeed fits into this paradigm, his positive relations should consist of mostly European and Christian contacts, while his negative relations should consist of mostly Ottoman and Islamic contacts. As is shown by the analysis of Haga’s letters however, his positive contacts consists of a mixture of people with different religions and from different origin, while his negative relations are mostly Catholics. From this can be concluded that Haga’s network is clearly not a reflection of the Mediterranean of the battlefield. As stated, the positive relations of Haga consists of a big variety of people. This would fit perfectly in the paradigm of the bazaar. Interestingly, almost all of his negative relations were Catholics. This can be seen mostly as a reflection of the historical context of the reformation and the contra reformation and the Thirty Years War. Moreover, a Catholic like Paolo Antonio Bon shows that working for a Protestant for good economical reasons were not rare in the Early Modern period. For these reasons, it can be concluded that the network of Cornelis Haga is more a reflection of the Mediterranean of the bazaar than of the battlefield. Author: M.W. van Dijk |
Bibliography
The original letters Cornelis Haga wrote can be found in:
Heeringa, K. Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis van den Levantschen Handel: Eerste Deel 1590-1660. ’s-Gravenhage, 1910
For further reading on the life of Cornelis Haga:
Boogert, M. van den. en Roelants, J.J. eds. De Nederlands-Turkse Betrekkingen: Portretten van een vierhonderdjarige Geschiedenis. Hilversum, 2012
Heeringa,K. De Eerste Nederlandse Gezant bij de Verheven Porte. Utrecht, 1917
Sloot, H. van der. en Vlis, I. van der. Cornelis Haga 1578-1654: Diplomaat en Pionier in Istanbul. Amsterdam, 2012
Other works on the Mediterranean and the Ottoman-Dutch relations:
Abulafia, D. The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean. Londen, 2011
Bosscha Erdbrink, G.R. At the Threshold of Felicity: Ottoman-Dutch Relations During the Embassy of Cornelis Calkoen at the Sublime Porte, 1726-1744. Ankara, 1975
Bulut, M. ‘The Ottoman Approach to the Western Europeans in the Levant during the Early Modern Period.’ Middle Eastern Studies 44 (2) (2008): 259-274
Bulut, M. ‘The Role of the Ottomans and Dutch in the Commercial Integration between the Levant and Atlantic in the Seventeenth Century.’ Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 45 (2) (2002): 197-230
Dursteler, E. ‘On Bazaars and Battlefields: Recent Scholarship on Mediterranean Cultural Contacts.’ Journal of Early Modern History 15 (2011): 413-434
Groot, A.H. de. The Ottoman Empire and The Dutch Republic: A History of the Earliest Diplomatic Relations 1610-1630. Leiden/Istanbul, 1978
Horden, P. en Purcell, N. The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History. Oxford, 2000
Huntington, S.P. ‘The Clash of Civilizations?.’ Foreign Affairs 72 (3) (Zomer, 1993): 22-49
Husain, A.A. ‘Introduction.’ in A Faithful Sea: The Religious Cultures of the Mediterranean, 1200-1700. ed. Adnan A. Husain en K.E. Fleming. Oxford, 2007
Pirenne, H. Mohammed and Charlemagne. New York, 2001
Rothman, N. ‘Interpreting Dragomans: Boundaries and Crossings in the Early Modern Mediterranean.’ Comparative Studies in Society and History 51 (4) (2009): 771-800
Saïd, E. Orientalism. New York, 1978
Troost, W. Istanbul en Den Haag: De Betrekkingen tussen het Ottomaanse Rijk en de Republiek (1668-1699). Dordrecht, 2014
Readings on Social Network Analysis:
Lemercier, C. 'Formal Network Methods in History: Why and How?.' in G. Fertig (ed.). Social Networks, Political Institutions, and Rural Societies. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010
Malkin, I. ‘Introduction: Networks and History’ in A Small Greek World: Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean. Oxford, 2011
Malkin, I. Constantakopoulou, C. en Panagopoulou, K. ‘Preface: Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean.’ Mediterranean Historical Review 22 (1) (2007): 1-9
Wasserman, S. en Faust, K. Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge, 1994
Wasserman, S. en Galaskiewicz, J. eds. Advances in Social Network Analysis: Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. California, 1994
Heeringa, K. Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis van den Levantschen Handel: Eerste Deel 1590-1660. ’s-Gravenhage, 1910
For further reading on the life of Cornelis Haga:
Boogert, M. van den. en Roelants, J.J. eds. De Nederlands-Turkse Betrekkingen: Portretten van een vierhonderdjarige Geschiedenis. Hilversum, 2012
Heeringa,K. De Eerste Nederlandse Gezant bij de Verheven Porte. Utrecht, 1917
Sloot, H. van der. en Vlis, I. van der. Cornelis Haga 1578-1654: Diplomaat en Pionier in Istanbul. Amsterdam, 2012
Other works on the Mediterranean and the Ottoman-Dutch relations:
Abulafia, D. The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean. Londen, 2011
Bosscha Erdbrink, G.R. At the Threshold of Felicity: Ottoman-Dutch Relations During the Embassy of Cornelis Calkoen at the Sublime Porte, 1726-1744. Ankara, 1975
Bulut, M. ‘The Ottoman Approach to the Western Europeans in the Levant during the Early Modern Period.’ Middle Eastern Studies 44 (2) (2008): 259-274
Bulut, M. ‘The Role of the Ottomans and Dutch in the Commercial Integration between the Levant and Atlantic in the Seventeenth Century.’ Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 45 (2) (2002): 197-230
Dursteler, E. ‘On Bazaars and Battlefields: Recent Scholarship on Mediterranean Cultural Contacts.’ Journal of Early Modern History 15 (2011): 413-434
Groot, A.H. de. The Ottoman Empire and The Dutch Republic: A History of the Earliest Diplomatic Relations 1610-1630. Leiden/Istanbul, 1978
Horden, P. en Purcell, N. The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History. Oxford, 2000
Huntington, S.P. ‘The Clash of Civilizations?.’ Foreign Affairs 72 (3) (Zomer, 1993): 22-49
Husain, A.A. ‘Introduction.’ in A Faithful Sea: The Religious Cultures of the Mediterranean, 1200-1700. ed. Adnan A. Husain en K.E. Fleming. Oxford, 2007
Pirenne, H. Mohammed and Charlemagne. New York, 2001
Rothman, N. ‘Interpreting Dragomans: Boundaries and Crossings in the Early Modern Mediterranean.’ Comparative Studies in Society and History 51 (4) (2009): 771-800
Saïd, E. Orientalism. New York, 1978
Troost, W. Istanbul en Den Haag: De Betrekkingen tussen het Ottomaanse Rijk en de Republiek (1668-1699). Dordrecht, 2014
Readings on Social Network Analysis:
Lemercier, C. 'Formal Network Methods in History: Why and How?.' in G. Fertig (ed.). Social Networks, Political Institutions, and Rural Societies. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010
Malkin, I. ‘Introduction: Networks and History’ in A Small Greek World: Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean. Oxford, 2011
Malkin, I. Constantakopoulou, C. en Panagopoulou, K. ‘Preface: Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean.’ Mediterranean Historical Review 22 (1) (2007): 1-9
Wasserman, S. en Faust, K. Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge, 1994
Wasserman, S. en Galaskiewicz, J. eds. Advances in Social Network Analysis: Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. California, 1994