GEOSTRATEGIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE GOVERNANCE IN LATE HABSBURG EUROPE: RIGAS FERAIOS, POLITICAL MOBILITY AND TRANS-BALKAN NETWORKS
GEOSTRATEGIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE GOVERNANCE IN LATE HABSBURG EUROPE: RIGAS FERAIOS, POLITICAL MOBILITY AND TRANS-BALKAN NETWORKS

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the action of the geostrategic architecture of late Habsburg Europe and Rigas Feraios as a phenomenon of political mobility within the geopolitical and administrative network imperial system of the late Habsburg Monarchy in the late 18th century. The analysis adopts a network approach, treating the empire as an administrative mechanism for managing flows of people, ideas, publications and information, rather than a simple territorial territory. Particular emphasis is given to the nodes of Vienna, Trieste and the Balkan hinterland, which constitute a single system of imperial governance. Vienna as an administrative center, Trieste as a commercial and maritime hub and the Balkans as a zone of transition and mediation. Rigas Feraios’ action is interpreted not as an isolated revolutionary event, but as an expression of the tension between enlightened mobility net-works and mechanisms of imperial surveillance. The dissemination of publications, maps and political ideas is part of underground networks that exploit the same trade and transport routes as state administration. The central concept of the analysis is cartographic sovereignty, with the constitutional “Map of Greece” being approached as a political tool for reshaping the geographical and political imagination of Southeastern Europe. At the same time, the administrative mechanisms of police surveillance, censorship and information networks of the Habsburg Empire are examined. leadership, as a unified system of control of political flows. Overall, the study proposes an Orthodox revisionist reading of Rigas Feraios, where the revolution of the Orthodox Peoples, administration and cartography constitute inter-related dimensions of a unified geopolitical system of trans-Balkan European modernity.

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