The Turkey, Great Steppe and Central Europe

Dismissing the traditional perspective on the history of Central Europe along the East-West axis helps better understand the wide variety and mutual interpenetration of great civilisational and cultural processes in this part of Europe.

Adam Balcer argues that the impact of the Ottoman Empire is now largely underestimated, and even less common is the awareness of the role of Central Europe as a bridge between the Baltic Sea and Scandinavia and the Middle East and Central Asia. Civilisation of the Ottoman Empire and its Great Steppe made a permanent mark on Central Europe. A reference to this civilisation sheds new light on the history and cultural identity of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, and Albania.