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The paper discusses the Catholic Reform as a period of change in the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th and 17th centuries, which opposed the Reformation, and which contained a symbiosis of religion and politics. On the path of consolidation, the Roman Catholic Church did not opt for a gospel approach, and therefore implemented a significant part of its measures precisely through political means, which were sometimes aggressive and at times sophisticated. Significant aspects of the Reform were closer to political action than internal reconstruction and reorganization, with such measures the Roman Catholic Church sought to consolidate and protect against Protestantism.

The British government did not appoint its representative in Rome, so the British in Venice were obliged to regularly inform on the developments in the Papal States. For this reason, their reports contain data that reveal certain aspects of the daily life in the Papal States, primarily those related to epidemics, hunger, and natural disasters. Our research is based on the archival material and relevant histories of this era, as well as the contemporary results of historical science for comparative analysis and the creation of an objective scientific picture of the epidemics and other natural disasters that affected the inhabitants of the Papal States in this short period at the beginning of the 18th century.

In the last decades of the eighteenth century, the Porte endeavoured to preserve the control over the territory endangered by the particularistic tendencies of the provincial administrators, which marked the period of Ottomans history known as period of ayans. Mahmud-pasha Bušatlija (1779-1796), who at certain moments managed to establish independent power in the Sanjak of Scutari, belonged to this milieu. The Venetian and French sources provide a new light in interpreting the position and behaviour of Sanjak-bey of Scutari Mahmud-pasha Bušatlija. Aware of the position in which the Ottoman state found itself, he subordinated the Sultan's interests to the regional, trying to establish an independent authority in the relation to the Porte in the area that was entrusted to him. In this, he was helped by the occurrence that was happening in Europe, in which relations were shaken by the consequences of the French revolution. In that period, the Ottoman state was confronted with the intentions of Austria and Russia to reduce its territory in the Balkans, but also by the rebellions in the eastern provinces, which was the by-product of the rise of the new ruling dynasty in Persia. However, the strengthening of the movement of Ali-pasha, another Albanian rebel, which, as time will show, was much more serious and with deeper consequences on the international plane, the hands of the Porte remained tied in the final settlement with the Scutari Sanjak-bey, which for the second time offered him forgiveness in 1795. The choice of the priorities that needed to be resolved certainly influenced the Porte's decision at a time when a much greater danger to the Ottoman state came from the surrounding of Edirne, where the Ali Pasha Tepeleni movement was strengthened, and also from Russia, which sought to obtain the epithet of the Mediterranean force by opening the Straits and through occupation of maritime bases in the Mediterranean.

This work analysess the opinion of Vatican and Pope Clement XI (1700-1721) about new relations in Italy, that are consequences of Rastatt and Utrecht treaties. Archive materials from the National Archives in London, specifically reports of an England's representative in Venice were used. Since he regularly received reports from Rome, Naples and Sicily, Christian Cole regularly and dutifully informed London of occurrences in these states. Due to the mentioned fact, his correspondence provides a certain overview of events in Vatican, and some dispositions are opposed to those revealed by the historiography of this period. The Utrecht Peace caused significant changes in the Apennine Peninsula, and Vatican was not prepared to accept them. Break-through of Austria into this part of Europe is, by all means, one of its most important consequences. One of pontiff's responses to changes on the political map of Italy was his approaching to Charles VI, whom he saw as a protector of the Catholic Church, in the period when the conflict with Louis XIV culminated because of his efforts to achieve autonomy for the Gallican church. After Rastatt, the Pope became deeply disappointed with Charles VI. This was bound to happen, since Charles VI tried to introduce the Kingdom of Naples into his sphere of interest, which was in conflict with Vatican's interest, and the approaching noticed during 1713 could not last for long, in the circumstances when the Pope had to fight for his endangered privileges.

This study is based on research that provided precise insights into changes in social relations in Venice during the last war with the Ottoman Empire, known as the Second Morean War 1714–1718. The focus is on very complex relations between Daniel IV Dolphin (1656–1729) and Andrea Pisani (1662–1718), as representatives of the two strongest factions in the patriciate. British sources, more precisely than Venetian contemporaries, related the general crisis of government with most important personalities on whom the war efforts were based. This study seeks to underline the credibility and precision of British sources while using achievements of contemporary Italian historiography, with respects to the visible progress over the past decades in research of the various phenomena of the Venetian patriciate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research is based on documents from the National Archives in London, State Papers, Foreign, Venice (n° 99), folders n° 60 i 61. These documents contain precious information on political changes in Italy after 1714 in the light of British interests and from the perspective of British contemporaries as the Treaty of Rastatt has ordered a shift of authorities in the Naples and Sicily. The Austrian takeover of these Spanish possessions has produced important consequences for British interests in the Mediterranean. This research reconstructed the events from the perspective of these interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

„Saggio delli Commerciali Rapporti di Veneziani colle Ottomane Scale di Durazzo ed Albania" by Giovanni Antonio Maria Morana, printed in Venice in 1816, is used in this study as a first class source in attempt to track significant changes in local businesses of the the so-called Turkish Albania, within the general framework of Venetian economy, in the circumstances that followed the abolition of the Republic in 1797. Document offers concrete answers to the question, whether this area, with Durrës as an export port, could be a compatible partner to the Venetian economy. At the time this treatise was published, the region came under the rule of Austria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]