On #ThisDayInHistory in 1453, the #Roman capital #Constantinople fell to #MehmetII's #Ottoman forces. To this day, douchey #FarRight weirdos cry like it was some great tragedy. In truth, the #RomanEmpire was wrecked by Western #Christians and the Ottomans preserved what was left.
There were different ways in which #women could play a role in #emdiplomacy: as wives of #diplomats as princesses and queen consort or as ladies-in-waiting. It was often their position between their family of origin and their new family that enabled them to act as diplomatic brokers and person of contact of foreign diplomats.
Women had access to places at #court that were often inaccessible for men and thus were ideal information gatherers and spies. This is especially true for the European diplomats sent to #Constantinople, where the Harem was an important centre of power that remained closed to male diplomats. (4/7)
#NewDiplomaticHistory #CourtStudies #histodons #history #earlyModern
The 1400s and 1500s were centuries of enormous change for Venice, and for the rest of the world. The changing geography moved Venice from a central position in European trade to the margins.
Conquest, empire, naval battles, conspiracies, insurrections. The 1200s and 1300s were interesting times for Venice.
13 Mar: feast #otd St. Euphrasia of #Constantinople d. 410 - noblewoman and nun (BM)
And stomper of devils.
28 Dec 1621: Sir Thomas Roe, ambassador of James VI & I and his entourage arrive in #Constantinople #otd (NPG)
[Higher up in 
] >> Early 1915: #Russia tells #EntentePartners it wants #Constantinople (now #Istanbul) & #Dardanelles; #Britain & #France reluctantly agree.
For centuries, Russia wanted access to warm water ports in the Mediterranean and fought with #Turkey for that access. It finally got one in #Syria after military intervention following #ArabSpring to prop up Bashar #Assad.
Assad's collapse threatens that Russian naval port as well as an air base.
Intelligence update via @hanse_mina
11 Dec: feast of Daniel the Stylite #otd d.493: he spent 33 years on his pillar near #Constantinople Good man himself.
@mohu
The founders of #Instagram pivoted from bar culture to the very visual medium of photos.
IG culture is an optical feast for the eyes.
#Twitter and larger microblogging #culture is of digital writers and readers.
If Twitter was #Rome, Threads is - at best - #Constantinople.
Where is #ThirdRome?
The #fediverse 
The #ThirdRome imperial theology is delusional, destructive, and requires building roads of nihilistic annihilation in order to manifest the prophecy.
9 Feb 1599: Thomas Dallam & Randolph Bull leave #London #otd to deliver a mechanical clock and organ to Sultan Mehmet III in #Constantinople
(National Trust images)
Hippodrome of Constantinople, Sultanament, Istanbul from my childhood trip in 1978 and again with my son 2023 #istanbul #Turkey #travel #photography #sultanahmet #Constantinople #Hippodrome
Everybody is talking about removing #Trump from ballots in #Election2024 based on his role in #Jan6 insurrection. That certainly a good thing.
But also, let's not forget what he did at the #US-#Russia #Summit in #Helsinki in 2018, which #CIA director John #Brennon called #nothingShortOfTreasonous 
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/17/629601233/trumps-helsinki-bow-to-putin-leaves-world-wondering-whats-up
Can't help but compare this to Russia's attempts in #WWI after #ThievesBanquet (below)
Try replacing #DjemalPasha with #Trump & #Constantinople with #Kyiv. What would he do?
11 Dec: feast of Daniel the Stylite #otd d.493: he spent 33 years on his pillar near #Constantinople Good man himself.
At the #ThievesBanquet, #Britain coyly agreed to let #Russia swallow #Constantinople.
After the war, #Kitchener worried that once Russia got Constantinople, it would use the #Caliphate and plot to destroy the #British Empire.
So he wanted to:
1. Cut a swath through #Mesopotamia (#Iraq) into #India
2. Choose an #Arabian Caliph, without regard to #Shia-#Sunni divide in #Islam
He thought since #Mohammad was Arabian, so should his successor. This has rubbed #Shia #Iran & #Iraq the wrong way
>> Turkey, or “ally”
How times have changed since the #ThievesBanquet, and since #Turkey conspired with #Germans in #WWI to give safe harbor to #German Navy in #Constantinople (#Istanbul) so Turkey, with #Bulgaria, could freely attack #Russia!
#Ottoman #Turkey was already scheming to depose Grand Sharif #Hussein of #Mecca
#ThievesBanquet, starting with #Russia coveting #Constantinople (#Istanbul), with #Britain & #France reluctantly agreeing, led to #Kitchener letter offering #Hussein independence from #Ottomans but it was based on vague borders
Separately, #Arab secret societies #AlAhd & #AlFatat jointly conceived #DamascusProtocol, foundation of #ArabRevolt against #Turks, to include #Palestine but British never promised them that
It is remarkable how clever #Russia was (and remains) in using deftful propaganda to wash its hands off its CENTRAL role in the present #MiddleEast crisis.
#Russia wanted #Constantinople at the #ThievesBanquet https://mastodon.social/@rameshgupta/111468965600685892
#Bolsheviks blew up #SykesPicot Agreement and blamed the #West https://mastodon.social/@rameshgupta/111469661225805174
#Britain gave oxygen to #Zionism after rebuffing it earlier in 1913 https://mastodon.social/@rameshgupta/111469738796052504
#BDS #BDSMovement #BDSHorseShoe regurgitate #Russian propaganda and blame #US
#SykesPicot Agreement to redraw the map of the #MiddleEast
Both #Britain and #France coveted #Palestine
Both agree to government by #InternationalCondominium
#Russia endorsed Sykes-Picot Agreement, which then became a tripartite agreement
ALL 3 parties kept the Sykes-Picot Agreement secret from Grand Sharif #Hussein, which created much ill-will and distrust
Sykes-Picot Agreement was never Implemented after #Bolsheviks renounce claims on #Constantinople & expose the secret treaties.
