Sick man of Europe
"Sick man of Europe" is a label given to a state located in Europe experiencing economic difficulties, social unrest or impoverishment.
Throughout the 1960s to the 1980s, the term was also most notably used for the
Origin
Early usage
Russian
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".[9][10][11][12]
There has been some degree of debate about the source of the quotation, which often relies on historical documents held or communicated personally.[11] Historian Harold Temperley (1879–1939) gave the date for the first conversation as 9 January 1853, like Goldfrank.[10][13] 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].[14][15]
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.[15]
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.[16]
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."[17]
Christopher de Bellaigue argued that neither Nicholas nor Seymour completed the epithet with the prepositional phrase "of Europe".[11]
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.[18][19]
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.[19]
World War One
Later, this view led the
Post-World War I usage
After the demise of the Ottoman Empire, writers have described many countries as the "sick men" of Europe or the Old World.[2]
France
During the 1950s, France was characterized as the "sick man of Europe," due to a combination of economic issues and a fading optimism since the country was reestablished after World War II.[24] In 1953, Paul Reynaud described France as such to the National Assembly.[25]
A 2007 report by Morgan Stanley referred to France as the "new sick man of Europe".[26] This label was reaffirmed in January 2014 by European newspapers such as The Guardian and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.[27][28] They justified this with France's high unemployment, weak economic growth and poor industrial output.[29]
Germany
In the late 1990s,
Italy
In 1972, PSDI politician Luigi Preti wrote a book titled Sick Italy (Italia malata). In it, he says that Italy was at risk of becoming "the sick man of Europe who has proved unable to keep in step as soon as he reached the first milestone on the road to well‐being."[34]
In May 2005, this title was again attributed to Italy, with The Economist 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.[35][36] In 2008, in an opinion piece criticizing the country's approach to economic reform, The Daily Telegraph also used the term to describe Italy,[37] as did a CNBC op-ed in 2020.[38]
Russia
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][39]
Post-Soviet
In the aftermath of the Wagner Group rebellion during the Russian invasion of Ukraine (and Vladimir Putin's perceived weakness in confronting it), political scientist Aleksandar Đokić said in 2023 that the "sick man of Europe" moniker "seem[ed] fitting for Putin’s Russia." While acknowledging the term itself to be simplistic, Đokić stated that:
"The poetic justice of the imperialistic, orientalising and commonly overused term coming back to haunt its place of origin aside, Putin’s Russia has decidedly found itself in a military, economic, political, demographic, and even conceptual dead end."[42]
United Kingdom
Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, the
In the summer of 2017, the United Kingdom was again referred to as the "sick man of Europe" due to the immediate impact of the EU referendum results.[5] The term was used frequently by the early 2020s with regards to the economic effects of Brexit, ongoing industrial action in the public sector, leadership turmoil within the Conservative party, and the cost of living crisis.[44][45][46] 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.[47]
The term was also more literally applied during the COVID-19 pandemic after a new strain of coronavirus, the Alpha variant, led to a number of countries closing their borders to UK air travel.[48]
Other uses
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.[49]
In 2007, The Economist described Portugal as "a new sick man of Europe".[50]
In July 2009, the pejorative was given by EurActiv to Greece in view of the 2008 Greek riots, rising unemployment, and political corruption.[51]
In spring 2011,
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 had recovered from the Great Recession.[53][54]
See also
References
- Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth "consistent series" supplied in Thomas, Ryland; Williamson, Samuel H. (2018). "What Was the U.K. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
- ^ a b c d Karaian, Jason; Sonnad, Nikhil (2019). "All the people, places, and things called the 'sick man of Europe' over the past 160 years". Quartz. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
- ^ Archives, The National. "Exhibitions & Learning online – British Battles". The National Archives. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
- ^ OCLC 668221743.
- ^ a b Branchflower, David (2017-07-24). "'Britain is fast becoming the sick man of Europe' – experts debate Brexit data". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
- ^ 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.
- ^ S2CID 154635816.
- )
- ^ de Bellaigue, Christopher. "Turkey's Hidden Past". The New York Review of Books, 48:4, 2001-03-08.
- ^ a b de Bellaigue, Christopher. "The Sick Man of Europe". The New York Review of Books, 48:11, 2001-07-05.
- ^ ISSN 0028-7504. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
- ^ "Ottoman Empire." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 19 Apr. 2007.
- ^ Harold Temperley, England and the Near East (London: Longmans, Greens and Co., 1936), p. 272.
- ISBN 978-0-429-64054-4.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-78200-971-9.
- ISBN 978-1-59884-981-3.
- ISBN 978-1-85109-965-8.
- ISBN 978-1-84832-903-4.
- ISBN 978-1-4738-3377-7.
- S2CID 156469824.
- ^ "THE SICK MAN OF EUROPE". The New York Times. 20 June 1953. p. 16. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
- ^ Berner, Richard (2 March 2007). "Does Market Turmoil Change the Outlook?". Morgan Stanley. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
- ^ Finkenzeller, Karin (21 January 2014). "Der kranke Mann Europas" [The sick man of Europe]. Die Zeit (in German). Archived from the original on 14 May 2023.
- ^ "Frankreich holt sich Rat von Peter Hartz" [France seeks advice from Peter Hartz]. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). Frankfurter Allgemeine. 28 January 2014. Archived from the original on 10 May 2023.
- ^ Elliott, Larry (2014-01-14). "France: the New Sick Man of Europe". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
- ^ "The real sick man of Europe", The Economist. May 19, 2005.
- ^ "The sick man of the euro". The Economist. 1999-06-03. Retrieved 2017-07-02.
- ^ Oltermann, Philip (2016-11-19). "Angela Merkel and the revival of the sick man of Europe". The Guardian. Retrieved 2017-07-02.
- ^ Böhme, Henrik (1 August 2023). "Germany: The return of the 'sick man' of Europe?". Deutsche Welle.
- ^ Hofmann, Paul (26 November 1972). "Spreading Malaise Vexes Italy". The New York Times. p. 1.
- ^ Mehreen Khan. "Italy's populists are Juncker's big headache". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
- ^ "Addio, dolce vita". The Economist. 24 November 2005.
- ^ "Italy: The sick man of Europe". The Daily Telegraph. 2008-04-15. Archived from the original on 2009-12-20. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
- ^ "Op-Ed: Italy, the 'sick man of Europe', tries to administer its own medicine". CNBC, 3 March 2020.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
- ^ Peter Baker, Susan Glasser, Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the End of Revolution (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2007), pp. 179–176.
- ISBN 978-0-89526-078-9.
- ^ Đokić, Aleksandar (19 July 2023). "An empire on its deathbed can still cause pain and suffering". Euronews.
- ^ "The real sick man of Europe", The Economist. May 19, 2005.
- ^ "Tories turning UK into 'sick man of Europe', says top party donor". The Independent. October 24, 2022.
- ^ "UK set to be sick man of Europe, says Tory backer". MSN.
- ^ "UK doomed without Brexit rethink, warns City boss". BBC News. October 24, 2022.
- ^ "Why does Britain have the worst inflation in the G7? - BBC Newsnight". BBC News. 5 June 2023. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
- ^ Mey, Gerhard; Makori, Ben (2020-12-21). "'Sick man of Europe': UK cut off over fears about new COVID strain". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
- ^ "Western Press Review: Milosevic And The New 'Sick Man Of Europe'". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 1997-01-09. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
- ^ "A new sick man of Europe". The Economist
- ^ "Greece to appear 'sick man' at EU summit". 11 December 2008. Archived from the original on 2023-05-03. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
- ^ "The EU: the real sick man of Europe?". Eurozine. Archived from the original on 2022-07-02. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
- ^ Khan, Mehreen (2015-11-13). "Finland emerges as the 'new sick man of Europe' as euro's worst performing economy". Telegraph. Retrieved 2017-07-02.
- ^ Walker, Andrew (2016-02-29). "Finland: The sick man of Europe?". BBC News. Retrieved 2017-07-02.
External links
- Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. .