DiplomatHistory: The Italians were the first to establish permanent missions, in the 15th century. It is not known when the first embassy came to existence. It was Venice which had vast connections in the eastern Mediterranean and was threatened by the rising power of the Turk after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. When its effort to lead an alliance of Christian states against the infidel failed, Venice used diplomatic methods at Constantinople, with great success. Meanwhile Venice had begun to establish permanent missions in western Europe.New types of monarchies were then arising as the power of the pope and of the emperor decliened and new methods of organizing the central power of the state came into existence. These monarchies naturally began to negotiate with one another in the new way. For some time they regarded it with great suspicion. Henry VII of England, Ferdinand of Spain and Louis XI of France considered foreign agents as little better than spies. The language of diplomacy was originally latin. In the 17th century latin was superseeded by French, which remained the principal diplomatic language until the 19th century.English was accepted as the diplomatic language in 1919 at a conference in Paris, largely because of the influence of the United States. Hint: Can be used as spy, ambassador, tradepartner, envoy and saboteur. Specifications:
|