Fortification built the Baron de Tott for the Ottoman Empire

François Baron de Tott ( hu, Báró Tóth Ferenc, sk, barón František Tóth) (August 17, 1733,

Chamigny Chamigny () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the Marne valley in a wooded setting, east of the main D603 road. The inhabitants are called ''Chamignots''. Sig ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

– September 24, 1793,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

) was an

aristocrat The aristocracy is historically associated with "hereditary" or "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the upper class of people (aristocrats) with hereditary rank and titles. In some, such as ancient Greece, ancient R ...

and a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

military officer of Slovak origin. Born on August 17, 1733 in

, a village in northern

, the descendant of a Hungarian nobleman, who had emigrated to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

and then moved on to

with the cavalry of Count Miklós Bercsényi, and was later raised to the rank of

baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or kn ...

Career

As a youngster, François joined the regiment his father was serving in, and in 1754 was promoted to the rank of

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

. In 1755 he travelled to Constantinople, the

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...

of the Ottoman Empire, as the secretary of his uncle Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, who had been appointed ambassador. His main duty was to learn the

Turkish language Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...

, to investigate the situation in the Ottoman Empire and to gather information about the

Crimean Khanate The Crimean Khanate ( crh, , or ), officially the Great Horde and Desht-i Kipchak () and in old European historiography and geography known as Little Tartary ( la, Tartaria Minor), was a Crimean Tatar state existing from 1441 to 1783, the long ...

. He returned to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

in 1763, and was sent to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in 1766 by the French government. In 1767, he was appointed

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

in Crimea in order to learn about the country and incite the

Crimean Tatars , flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg , flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars , image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg , caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...

to rebel against the

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...

. François de Tott played a major role during the

Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) The Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 was a major armed conflict that saw Russian arms largely victorious against the Ottoman Empire. Russia's victory brought parts of Moldavia, the Yedisan between the rivers Bug and Dnieper, and Crimea into th ...

. Leaving Crimea for a while, he was commissioned by the Ottoman government with the task of defending the

Dardanelles The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; ...

against the Russian fleet. Following in the footprints of

Claude Alexandre de Bonneval Claude Alexandre, Comte de Bonneval (14 July 1675 – 23 March 1747), was a French army officer who later went into the service of the Ottoman Empire, eventually converting to Islam and becoming known as Humbaracı Ahmet Paşa. Life He was the ...

, known as Humbaracı Ahmed Pasha, François de Tott was involved in the reform efforts for the Ottoman military. He succeeded in having a new foundry built to make

howitzer A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...

s, and was instrumental in the creation of mobile artillery units. He built fortifications on the

Bosphorus The Bosporus Strait (; grc, Βόσπορος ; tr, İstanbul Boğazı 'Istanbul strait', colloquially ''Boğaz'') or Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern Tu ...

and started a naval science course that laid the foundation stone for the later naval school. He travelled across the Ottoman Empire, visiting coastal cities around the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

, mainly

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prom ...

Salonika Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

and

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

. He also prospected the area for the construction of a canal in Suez. Bad Tatzmannsdorf - Friedhof - Grab von Baron Franz von Toth - 1

François Baron de Tott's Memoirs were published in four volumes. He returned to Hungary from Switzerland, where he had moved after the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. He died on September 24, 1793 in Hungary. Tott was the father of artist Sophie de Tott.

Bibliography

* Tott (Baron Ferenc de), ''Memoires du Baron de Tott Sur les Turcs et les Tartares'', Amsterdam, 1784 and 1785, 203 pp., 220 pp., 180 pp. and 152 pp.ILAB
and Paris 1785 in two Volumes, 273 pp., 264 pp. * Deherain (Henri), ''La mission du baron de Tott et de Pierre Ruffin auprès du khan de Crimée'', '' Revue de l'histoire des colonies française'', 1923, 1-32 * Farnaud (Christophe), ''Culture et politique: la mission secrète du baron de Tott au Levant'', mémoire de maîtrise, université de Paris-IV, 1988 * Font-Reaulx (Anne de), ''Présence française dans l'Empire ottoman au XVIIIe siècle: le baron de Tott (1733-1793)'', in Position des thèses de l'Ecole des Chartes, 1964, 65-69 * Laulan (Robert), ''Un artilleur français improvisé à Constantinople au XVIIIe siècle, le baron de Tott'', Revue de l'artillerie, 1932, CX, 343-363, 392-411 et 460-481 * Peyssonnel (Claude Charles de), ''Lettres de M. de Peyssonnel, ancien consul à Smyrne, contenant quelques observations relatives aux mémoires qui ont paru sous le nom de Baron de Tott'', Amsterdam, 1785 * Saman (Edouard), ''François de Tott, diplomate et baron de Louis XVI'', Marseille, 118, 1979, 84-95 * Vissière (I.): " Les Turcs du baron de Tott ", in La Méditerranée au XVIIIe siècle, CAER, Université de Provence, 1987, 251-272

External links

*
Who is who

Centre de Recherche sur la Littérature des Voyages

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baron de Tott, Francois 1733 births 18th-century French military personnel 1793 deaths Hungarian nobility Barons of Tott 18th-century French diplomats French travel writers French political writers French memoirists 18th-century French writers 18th-century French male writers 18th-century Hungarian people French people of Hungarian descent French male non-fiction writers 18th-century memoirists

Career

See also

Bibliography

External links

References