Urgent ! will mark ! promise! you so much, you dont know how much your are me. make sure to write a concise answer as well as an explanation stating why.

text

ogier ghiselin de busbecq was a writer and diplomat. under an austrian king, busbecq was named an ambassador to the ottoman empire during the ottoman golden age under the rule of suleiman the magnificent from 1555 until 1562. an ambassador is someone appointed as an official representative to a foreign country. when busbecq was sent to the ottoman empire, his task was to negotiate a border treaty with the sultan suleiman over a disputed territory.

during his time in the ottoman empire, he wrote the turkish letters, a collection of personal correspondence to his friend about his observations of life in the ottoman empire.

when he returned from the ottoman empire, he readied his letters for publication and they were published together in 1589. his letters are considered an example of travel literature, a form of creative nonfiction in which the narrator's writes about encounters with foreign places from their perspective.

1.) how might the turkish letters be useful evidence in understanding how outsiders viewed the ottoman empire?

2.) what bias might busbecq have about the ottoman empire? explain.

Travel literature is an important historical source. Through the writings of travellers we can have a glimpse of what was it like to visit those places at that time. We can have access to habits, customs and the routines of those countries. It is also important to take in consideration how these texts always reflect in one way or another the authors’ worldviews with their biases and prejudices -- these writings teaches us about their subjects and about their authors. That's why we must keep in mind this literature's historical context: in order to spot bias, prejudices etc.  For example, many times travel literature written by western authors characterize Muslim people as irrational in order to distinguish from them as being more rational and civilized.  

1. The Turkish Letters might help us understand what outsiders thought was interesting about the Empire that was challenging the italian city-states on the sea – during XVI and XVII Ottoman Empire became a naval force and greatly expanded it’s territory. Thus analyzing what Burbecq dedicated attention to – customs, politics, nature, culture – can help us discover what about the Ottoman Empire was more interesting to western politics, besides understanding through his diplomatic mission what was the position of the christians in front of this growing Empire.  We also understand how a well educated man of the Renaissance like Burbecq was grasping the world.

2. The Ottoman Empire was expanding and until the Battle of Lepanto (1571), a battle between catholics and otomans which slowed ottoman expansion, it was threatening to invade more cities around the Mediterranean, having already conquered much of northern Africa. It had blocked main marine trade routes, forcing Spain to look for new routes. All of this was happening at the same time Europe faced religious revolts and wars between protestants and catholics, which made catholics feel like their faith were being challenged by heretics. Busbecq was a catholic man at this moment so we should not take his word at face value, always comparing it with other historical sources from the same period.

for starters, there is the structural trend of rising primary government expenditure as a share of gdp, which reached 36% in 2014, up from 22% in 1991. this increase reflected a political desire to address the poverty and inequality that had gone unaddressed during previous decades. to support the increase, brazil’s government increased taxes on consumption and promoted progress toward labor-market formalization. nonetheless, public investment, particularly in infrastructure, took a hit. in fact, with the exception of the 2005-2008 period, total investment as a share of gdp has remained below 20% since 1991.

your answer would be a) no nation can be economically self-sufficient.

stay in school!