Making Sense in a World That Is Falling Apart: Imperial Narratives of State, Diversity and Modernity

Abstract

This chapter strikes a bridge from current-day imaginations to pre-modern concepts of empire. It shows how, on the one hand, modern visions of empire are echoing political and religious notions of an all-encompassing rule that go back to Antiquity. On the other hand, it stresses how such modern conceptualizations tend to fall short on understanding diversity in a world where state penetration and identity articulation were dependent on various intermediaries. This paper shows how pre-modern Habsburg and Ottoman approaches to unity and diversity came into conflict with modernisation projects that tried to reduce the number of intermediaries and thus created a need for narratives of power that connected rulers to subjects in a new way. The emergence of articulate, interconnected and self-aware classes in both empires that tied hopes for political progress to narratives of nation created both challenges and possibilities for the two dynasties. This created the premise for media discourses where the empire was envisioned as a nation of many peoples.

I am indebted to various friends, colleagues and students throughout the years who have increased my interest and deepened my focus on this topic, and especially to my co-editor Johanna Chovanec who provided me with the opportunity to put my thoughts to paper in this way. I also want to thank Matthew Goldman and Iva Lučić for their valuable feedback.