Around the late 18th century and early 19th, mainly three languages the Italian, Greek and French were those that dominated the Balkans in commercial areas such as shipping, foreign policy and religious life in Rum Millet, with French predominating.
The emergence of the New Hellenism on the threshold of our Independence as a nation-state, the dominant European treaty was the French language. International shipping was clearly using the Italian language because of the Venetian maritime empire before. On the contrary, the Greek language was dominant only among the Orthodox inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, in foreign policy, diplomats used French almost exclusively after the Treaty of Rastati at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
The Treaty of Rastati is one of the three treaties (Utrecht, Rastati, Baden), which both ended the war of the Spanish succession and marked changes in the balance of power in Europe. The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) ended with the signing of three peace treaties: the first treaty was made in Utrecht and was written in English, Spanish and Latin (Traité de Utrecht, 11 April 1713); the second treaty was made in Rastatt and was written only in French (Traité de Rastatt, 6 March 1714); and the third treaty was finally made in Baden and was also written only in French (Traité de Baden, 7 September 1714).
At the same time, the French language spread rapidly within Ottoman rule, while the demand for learning the language of the French Philhellenes increased. French became the ultimate medium in the rising social fabric for the Phanarians, who throughout the seventeenth century and especially with the Treaty of Karlowitz from 1699, as C.T. Dimaras in his important book on the Modern Greek Enlightenment, the Phanariots emerged as a major force in the 18th century.ο century.
The Phanariots have since seen the learning of French as a vehicle for professional and social advancement within the administrative fabric of the Ottoman Empire. From the ranks of the Phanariots we will later have the first translations of French dramatists, such as Voltaire and of course Rakina, into Greek plain and simple language, plays as the precursor of the Renaissance of the Nation on stage in the Paradunavian Dominions.
