Social:Sick man of Europe

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Short description: Geopolitical designation
refer to caption
Caricature from Punch, dated November 28, 1896. It shows Sultan Abdul Hamid II in front of a poster which announces the reorganisation of the Ottoman Empire. The empire's value is estimated at £5 million (£536 million in 2016[1]). Russia, France and Britain are listed as the directors of the reorganisation. The caricature satirised the extremely poor state of the Ottoman economy at the time.

"Sick man of Europe" is a label given to a nation located in Europe experiencing economic difficulty or impoverishment.

Emperor Nicholas I of the Russian Empire is considered to be the first to use the term "Sick Man" to describe the Ottoman Empire in the mid-19th century.[2][3] The characterization existed during the "Eastern Question" in diplomatic history, which also referred to the decline of the Ottoman Empire in terms of the balance of power in Europe.[4] After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, the term has been applied to other nations. In modern usage, the term has faced criticism due to its origins and arguable over-usage.[2]

Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, the term was also used for the United Kingdom .

Origin

Early usage

Russian Tsar Nicholas I (r. 1825–1855), seeking to expand into parts of the Ottoman Empire during the Eastern Question, had described Turkey as "sick" or "sick man" during his meeting with Austrian Prince Metternich (in office 1809–1848) in Münchengrätz, two months after the Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi in September 1833. In his own writing, Metternich said he had argued against this characterization.[4][5][6] Conventionally, foreign minister Metternich was opposed to the characterization of the Ottoman Empire as "sick man of the Bosphorus" because this could lead to his country, the Austrian Empire, becoming the "sick man of the Danube".[7] Other historians, evaluating the conservative "Holy Alliance" of the time, have seen Metternich's foreign policy as aligned with Nicholas, including the policy towards the Ottoman Empire.[6]

Crimean War

British statesman John Russell in 1853, in the run up to the Crimean War, reported that Nicholas I of Russia described the Ottoman Empire as "a sick man—a very sick man", a "man who has fallen into a state of decrepitude", and a "sick man ... gravely ill".[8][9][10][11]

There has been some degree of debate about the source of the quotation, which often relies on historical documents held or communicated personally.[10] Historian Harold Temperley (1879–1939) gave the date for the first conversation as 9 January 1853, like Goldfrank.[9][12] According to Temperley, Seymour in a private conversation had to push the Tsar to be more specific about the Ottoman Empire. Eventually, the Tsar stated,

Turkey seems to be falling to pieces, the fall will be a great misfortune. It is very important that England and Russia should come to a perfectly good understanding ... and that neither should take any decisive step of which the other is not apprized [sic].[13][14]

And then, closer to the attributed phrase:

We have a sick man on our hands, a man gravely ill, it will be a great misfortune if one of these days he slips through our hands, especially before the necessary arrangements are made.[14]

Different interpretations existed between the two countries on the "Eastern Question" by the time of the Crimean War.[4] The British Ambassador G. H. Seymour agreed with Tsar Nicholas's diagnosis, but he very deferentially disagreed with the Tsar's recommended treatment of the patient; he responded,

Your Majesty is so gracious that you will allow me to make one further observation. Your Majesty says the man is sick; it is very true; but your Majesty will deign to excuse me if I remark, that it is the part of the generous and strong man to treat with gentleness the sick and feeble man.[15]

Temperley then asserts,

The 'sickliness' of Turkey obsessed Nicholas during his reign. What he really said was omitted in the Blue Book from a mistaken sense of decorum. He said not the 'sick man' but the "bear dies … the bear is dying … you may give him musk but even musk will not long keep him alive."[16]

Christopher de Bellaigue argued that neither Nicholas nor Seymour completed the epithet with the prepositional phrase "of Europe".[10]

The first appearance of the phrase "sick man of Europe" appears in The New York Times (12 May 1860):

The condition of Austria at the present moment is not less threatening in itself, though less alarming for the peace of the world, than was the condition of Turkey when the Tsar Nicholas invited England to draw up with him the last will and testament of the 'sick man of Europe.' It is, indeed, hardly within the range of probability that another twelvemonth should pass over the House of Habsburg without bringing upon the Austrian Empire a catastrophe unmatched in modern history since the downfall of Poland.[17][18]

The author of this article can be seen to be using the term to point to a second "sick man" of Europe, the Habsburg monarchy.[18]

World War One

Later, this view led the Allies in World War I to underestimate the Ottoman Empire, leading in part to the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign.[19][20][21][22] However, the "sick man" eventually collapsed after defeat in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I.

Post-World War I usage

After the demise of the Ottoman Empire, writers have described many nations as the "sick men" of Europe or the Old World,[2] having at one point or another widespread economic misery, sociopolitical turmoil, lower public morale and (in the case of bigger countries) diminished global status, the 1920s-era Weimar Germany being one example.[citation needed]

The Russian Empire in 1917 was described as the "Sick Man of Europe" in an edition of The New York Times from that year. In the 1917 article by Charles Richard Crane, the illness metaphor is used more directly, with the empire described as "Suffering From Overdose of Exaggerated Modernism in Socialist Reform Ideas", and "the danger for the patient lay in the fact that too many quacks and ignorant specialists were contending for the right to be admitted to the bedside and administer nostrums."[2][23]

Swedish Diplomat and former Prime Minister Carl Bildt once referred to Serbia under the rule of Slobodan Milošević as a candidate for the new "sick man of Europe" in 1997. This is due to political instability in Yugoslavia and its former territories caused by Yugoslav Wars that rocked the Balkan region from 1991 until 2001.[24]

In the late 1990s the foreign press [which?] often labeled Germany with this term because of its economic problems, especially due to the costs of German reunification after 1990, which were estimated to amount to over €1.5 trillion (statement of Freie Universität Berlin).[25] It continued to be used in the early 2000s, and as Germany slipped into recession in 2003.[26][27]

In May 2005, The Economist attributed this title to Italy, describing it as "the real sick man of Europe". This refers to Italy's structural and political difficulties thought to inhibit economic reforms to relaunch economic growth. In 2018, Italy was again referred to as the "sick man of Europe" following post-election deadlock.[28][29] In 2008, in an opinion piece criticizing the country's approach to economic reform, The Daily Telegraph also used the term to describe Italy,[30] as did a CNBC op-ed in 2020.[31]

The post-Soviet Russia has been referred to as such in the book Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the End of Revolution by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser,[32] and by Mark Steyn in his 2006 book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.

In 2007, The Economist described Portugal as "a new sick man of Europe".[33]

A report by Morgan Stanley referred to France as the "new sick man of Europe".[34] This label was reaffirmed in January 2014 by European newspapers such as The Guardian and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.[35][36] They justified this with France's high unemployment, weak economic growth and poor industrial output.[37]

In July 2009, the pejorative was given by EurActiv to Greece in view of the 2008 Greek riots, rising unemployment, and political corruption.[38]

In spring 2011, Eurozine suggested that the European Union was the "sick man of Europe" by entitling an event focusing on the Eurozone crisis, "The EU: the real sick man of Europe?"[39]

In 2015 and 2016, Finland was called the "sick man of Europe" due to its recession and lacklustre growth, in a time when virtually all other European countries have recovered from the Great Recession.[40][41]

United Kingdom

Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, the United Kingdom was sometimes characterized as the "sick man of Europe", first by commentators, and later at home by critics of the third Wilson/Callaghan ministry due to industrial strife and poor economic performance compared with other European countries.[42] Some observers consider this era to have started with the devaluation of the pound in 1967, culminating with the so-called Winter of Discontent of 1978–79. At different points throughout the decade, numerous countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, and Greece were cited by the American business press as being "on the verge of sickness" as well. In the summer of 2017, the United Kingdom was again referred to as the "sick man of Europe" following the results of the supposed negative economic effects of the EU referendum the previous year which led to Brexit.[43]

Scotland has been called the "sick man of Europe" several times, but for health reasons instead of economic.[44]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Kingdom has been termed the "sick man of Europe" after a new strain of coronavirus, the Alpha variant, led to a number of countries closing their borders to UK air travel.[45] With the current political instability and political crisis under the Conservative party, specifically the government crises in July and then in October, trade union disputes in 2022, a falling economy, and the cost of living crisis since 2021, the term "sick man of Europe" has been used to describe the UK under the Conservative Party.[46][47][48]

As of June 2023, the label is still frequently applied to the United Kingdom as inflation and price increases continue to generate economic uncertainty within the country.[49]

See also

References

  1. ↑ United Kingdom Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the Measuring Worth "consistent series" supplied in Thomas, Ryland; Williamson, Samuel H. (2018). "What Was the U.K. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. http://www.measuringworth.com/datasets/ukgdp/. Retrieved February 2, 2020. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Karaian, Jason; Sonnad, Nikhil (2019). "All the people, places, and things called the 'sick man of Europe' over the past 160 years" (in en). https://qz.com/588958/all-the-people-places-and-things-called-the-sick-man-of-europe-over-the-past-160-years/. 
  3. ↑ Archives, The National. "Exhibitions & Learning online – British Battles". The National Archives. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/battles/crimea/. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Badem, Candan (2010). The Ottoman Crimean War, 1853-1856. citing Eckstädt, 1887. Boston: Brill. pp. 68–69. ISBN 978-90-04-19096-2. OCLC 668221743. https://books.google.com/books?id=DXoYJikZ7ygC. 
  5. ↑ Vitzthum von Eckstädt, Karl Friedrich; Reeve, Henry; Taylor, Edward Fairfax (1887). St. Petersburg and London in the years 1852–64. University of Michigan. London, Longmans, Green & co.. pp. 29–30. http://archive.org/details/stpetersburgand01ecksgoog. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Šedivý, Miroslav (2011). "From Adrianople to Münchengrätz: Metternich, Russia, and the Eastern Question 1829–33". The International History Review 33 (2): 205–233. doi:10.1080/07075332.2011.555387. ISSN 0707-5332. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23032802. 
  7. ↑ Discourses of collective identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770-1945) : texts and commentaries. Vol. II, National romanticism, the formation of national movements. Balázs Trencsényi, Michal Kopeček. Budapest: Central European University Press. 2007. pp. 368. ISBN 978-1-4294-2547-6. OCLC 77601805. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/77601805. 
  8. ↑ de Bellaigue, Christopher. "Turkey's Hidden Past". The New York Review of Books, 48:4, 2001-03-08.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 de Bellaigue, Christopher. "The Sick Man of Europe". The New York Review of Books, 48:11, 2001-07-05.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Bellaigue, Christopher de. "'The Sick Man of Europe'" (in en). The New York Review of Books. ISSN 0028-7504. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2001/07/05/the-sick-man-of-europe/. 
  11. ↑ "Ottoman Empire." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 19 Apr. 2007.
  12. ↑ Harold Temperley, England and the Near East (London: Longmans, Greens and Co., 1936), p. 272.
  13. ↑ Temperley, Harold (2019-05-29) (in en). England and the Near East: The Crimea. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-64054-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=Hu6aDwAAQBAJ. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Harold Temperley, England and the Near East (London: Longmans, Greens and Co., 1936), p. 272. Temperley's translation of the Emperor's comment [spoken in French] is quite accurate. An alternative translation from the original published document follows: "We have on our hands a sick man—a very sick man: it will be, I tell you frankly, a great misfortune if, one of these days, he should slip away from us, especially before all necessary arrangements were made." Source: Parliamentary Papers. Accounts and Papers: Thirty-Six Volumes: Eastern Papers, V. Session 31 January – 12 August 1854, Vol. LXXI (London: Harrison and Son, 1854), doc. 1, p. 2.
  15. ↑ Parliamentary Papers. Accounts and Papers: Thirty-Six Volumes: Eastern Papers, V. Session 31 January – 12 August 1854, Vol. LXXI (London: Harrison and Son, 1854), doc. 1, p. 2.
  16. ↑ Harold Temperley, England and the Near East (London: Longmans, Greens and Co., 1936), p. 272; cites: F.O. 65/424. From Seymour, No. 87 of February 21, 1853.
  17. ↑ "Austria in Extremis." (in en-US). The New York Times. 1860-05-12. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/1860/05/12/archives/austria-in-extremis.html. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Buttar, Prit (2014-06-20) (in en). Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 67. ISBN 978-1-78200-971-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=8knDCwAAQBAJ. 
  19. ↑ Ph.D, David T. Zabecki (2014-10-28) (in en). Germany at War: 400 Years of Military History [4 volumes: 400 Years of Military History]. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-981-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=rCWMBQAAQBAJ&q=leading+in+part+to+the+disastrous+Gallipoli+Campaign&pg=PA524. 
  20. ↑ Tucker, Spencer C. (2014-10-28) (in en). World War I: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection [5 volumes: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection]. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-965-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=DBwTBQAAQBAJ&q=leading+in+part+to+the+disastrous+Gallipoli+Campaign&pg=PA569. 
  21. ↑ Hamilton, John (2015-04-30) (in en). Gallipoli Victoria Cross Hero: The Price of Valour- The Triumph and Tragedy of Hugo Throssell VC. Frontline Books. ISBN 978-1-84832-903-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=M1SuCAAAQBAJ&q=leading+in+part+to+the+disastrous+Gallipoli+Campaign&pg=PR13. 
  22. ↑ Atkin, Malcolm (2015-09-18) (in en). Fighting Nazi Occupation: British Resistance 1939-1945. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-4738-3377-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=ZKSgCgAAQBAJ&q=leading+in+part+to+the+disastrous+Gallipoli+Campaign&pg=PA180. 
  23. ↑ "CRANE DIAGNOSES RUSSIA'S AILMENT; She Is Suffering From Overdose of Exaggerated Modernism in Socialist Reform Ideas." (in en-US). The New York Times. 1917-09-26. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/1917/09/26/archives/crane-diagnoses-russias-ailment-she-is-suffering-from-overdose-of.html. 
  24. ↑ "Western Press Review: Milosevic And The New 'Sick Man Of Europe'". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 1997-01-09. https://www.rferl.org/a/1083031.html. Retrieved 2021-11-19. 
  25. ↑ "The real sick man of Europe", The Economist. May 19, 2005.
  26. ↑ "The sick man of the euro". The Economist. 1999-06-03. https://www.economist.com/node/209559. Retrieved 2017-07-02. 
  27. ↑ Oltermann, Philip (2016-11-19). "Angela Merkel and the revival of the sick man of Europe". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/18/angela-merkel-sick-man-of-europe-germany-economy-chancellor. Retrieved 2017-07-02. 
  28. ↑ Mehreen Khan. "Italy's populists are Juncker's big headache". https://www.ft.com/.../ac7e7446-20c9-11e8-9efc-0cd3483b8b80. Retrieved 6 March 2018. 
  29. ↑ "Addio, dolce vita". The Economist. 24 November 2005. https://www.economist.com/surveys/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5164061. 
  30. ↑ "Italy: The sick man of Europe". The Daily Telegraph. 2008-04-15. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3557277/Italy-The-sick-man-of-Europe.html. 
  31. ↑ "Op-Ed: Italy, the 'sick man of Europe', tries to administer its own medicine". CNBC, 3 March 2020.
  32. ↑ Peter Baker, Susan Glasser, Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the End of Revolution (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2007), pp. 179–176.
  33. ↑ "A new sick man of Europe". The Economist
  34. ↑ "What We Do – Research". Morgan Stanley. http://www.morganstanley.com/views/gef/archive/2007/20070302-Fri.html#anchor4498. Retrieved 16 February 2015. 
  35. ↑ Finkenzeller, Karin. "Der kranke Mann Europas" (in de). Die Zeit. http://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2014-01/frankreich-reformen-europa-hollande. Retrieved 19 April 2014. 
  36. ↑ "Frankreich holt sich Rat von Peter Hartz" (in de). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Frankfurter Allgemeine). https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/wirtschaftspolitik/arbeitsmarktreformen-frankreich-holt-sich-rat-von-peter-hartz-12773174.html. Retrieved 19 April 2014. 
  37. ↑ Elliott, Larry (2014-01-14). "France: the New Sick Man of Europe". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/14/france-sick-man-europe-economy. Retrieved 19 April 2014. 
  38. ↑ "Greece to appear 'sick man' at EU summit". 11 December 2008. https://www.euractiv.com/section/social-europe-jobs/news/greece-to-appear-sick-man-at-eu-summit/. 
  39. ↑ "The EU: the real sick man of Europe?". Eurozine. https://www.eurozine.com/the-eu-the-real-sick-man-of-europe-2/. 
  40. ↑ Khan, Mehreen (2015-11-13). "Finland emerges as the 'new sick man of Europe' as euro's worst performing economy". Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11993040/Finland-emerges-as-the-new-sick-man-of-Europe-as-euros-worst-performing-economy.html. Retrieved 2017-07-02. 
  41. ↑ Walker, Andrew (2016-02-29). "Finland: The sick man of Europe?". BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35656150. 
  42. ↑ "The real sick man of Europe", The Economist. May 19, 2005.
  43. ↑ Branchflower, David (2017-07-24). "'Britain is fast becoming the sick man of Europe' – experts debate Brexit data". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/24/britain-is-fast-becoming-the-sick-man-of-europe-experts-debate-brexit-data. Retrieved 24 July 2017. 
  44. ↑ Whyte, Bruce; Ajetunmobi, Tomi (2012-11-01). "Still the 'sick man of Europe'?". Glasgow Centre for Population Health. http://www.gcph.co.uk/publications/391_still_the_sick_man_of_europe. Retrieved 2017-07-02. 
  45. ↑ Mey, Gerhard; Makori, Ben (2020-12-21). "'Sick man of Europe': UK cut off over fears about new COVID strain". Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-britain/sick-man-of-europe-uk-cut-off-over-fears-about-new-covid-strain-idUSKBN28V0OT. Retrieved 2020-12-21. 
  46. ↑ "Tories turning UK into 'sick man of Europe', says top party donor". October 24, 2022. https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/uk-news/tory-party-leadership-race-brexit-guy-hands-b2209460.html. 
  47. ↑ "UK set to be sick man of Europe, says Tory backer". https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/uk-set-to-be-sick-man-of-europe-says-tory-backer/ar-AA13je8Y. 
  48. ↑ "UK doomed without Brexit rethink, warns City boss". BBC News. October 24, 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63371743. 
  49. ↑ "Why does Britain have the worst inflation in the G7? - BBC Newsnight". BBC News. 5 June 2023. https://theglobalherald.com/news/why-does-britain-have-the-worst-inflation-in-the-g7-bbc-newsnight/. 

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