The Venetian Army on Ottoman Soil 1684-1718. Translocalisation, Experience of War, Transculturation

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Aim of the project remains the investigation and representation of the war experience of the soldiers of the Venetian army in the Ottoman regions of Dalmatia, Albania and Greece, which they conquered, occupied and largely lost again in the two Morea Wars 1684-1699 and 1715-1718. As with other forms, military forms of mobility do not only represent a link between departure and end point. It also includes crossing spaces and the resulting processes of translocalization and transculturalization. The approach of analyzing military mobility as "transcultural entanglement" has proven fruitful and will therefore be pursued in the second phase of the project.The study will be carried out on two levels, which correspond to two different types of sources:On the one hand, there are life-writings from Venetian and recruited representatives of the military elite (from officer cadet upwards). These documents - so far neglected by research - have proven to be exceptional sources for a more in-depth analysis of military mobility and interdependencies. Individual examples show how the soldiers compared their ideas of the war against the Ottomans and the Ottoman Empire itself with the existing reality and how their patterns of interaction and cooperation with "colleagues" of their own and foreign armies and "locals" in conquered territories changed. Production and intercultural transfers of military experience and military knowledge within the ethnically and religiously heterogeneous Venetian army, as well as between the armies of the two hostile camps and with "third" European powers, will also be examined using this material.On the other hand, previously unknown files of the Venetian military administration of the conquered territories were localized in the first phase of the project. These sources by state authorities, to a certain extent replace missing life-writings from Venetian rank and file. The intention formulated for the first phase of the project, to capture as many aspects of the life of non-commissioned officers and ordinary soldiers as possible, should therefore be continued. This applies to everyday life, from recruiting to the way to the theater of war, garrison, camp and field service, billeting and other encounters with the civilian population (including women) and, in a nutshell, experiences, interpretations and processing of combat and violence, desertion and captivity, homecoming or illness, injury and death.