Britain's Levantine Empire, 1914-1923

Description

Britain's Levantine Empire, 1914-1923 explains the rise and decline and nature and extent of British military rule in the urban eastern Mediterranean during the course of the First World War and its aftermath. Combining novel case studies and theoretical approaches, the volume reveals the extent of military control that Britain established and anticipated maintaining in the post-Ottoman world, before a series of confrontations with nationalist and socialist anti-imperialists forced a new division of the eastern Mediterranean, still visible in the political borders of the present day. Britain's Levantine Empire, 1914-1923 tells this story through the eyes and ears of the British servicemen who built this empire, analysing the testimony of over 100 such military personnel sent to Alexandria, Thessaloniki, Istanbul, and the towns and islands between them, as they voyaged, made camp, and explored and patrolled the city streets. Whereas histories examining soldiers' experiences in the First World War have almost exclusively focused on their lives at the frontlines, this study provides a much needed in-depth history of soldiers' experience and impact on the urban hubs of the Eastern Mediterranean, where urban planning, nightlife and entertainment, policing, and security were transformed by the presence of so many men at arms and the imperialist interventions that accompanied them. Cover Britain’s Levantine Empire, 1914–1923 Copyright Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures and Table Figures Table Map Introduction A Levantine Empire Interpreting Britain’s Rise Sources Organization of the Book 1800–1914 1: Port to Port: Sea Voyaging and the Logistics of Empire Establishing a Maritime Logistical Network The Affective Resonances of Ship-Life A Sea of People: Soldiers, Labourers, Prisoners, and Refugees Conclusion 1914–1916 2: Exploring the Levantine City Sighting the City and the Power of the Picturesque Exploratory Patterns and the City of the Mind The Street and the Crowd Conclusion 1916–1918 3: City and Camp: Reordering the Levantine City Making Camp: The Governance of Military Space From the Camp to the City: The Militarization of Urban Space Perforating the Levantine City: Ports, Roads, and Military Control Military Resources and Town Planning Conclusion 1918–1920 4: Day and Night: Leisure Routines and Regimes Martial Leisure The Night-time Boom Women in and of the Night Alcohol and Intoxication Silencing and Extinguishing the Night Conclusion 1920–1922 5: Securing the Levantine Empire Extraterritoriality, Martial Law, and Military Policing Pacifying the Levantine City Anti-Imperial Connections, Containment, and the Crisis of Empire Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography Primary sources United Kingdom Bodleian Library (BOD), Oxford British Library (BL), London Cambridge University Library, Cambridge Churchill Archives Centre (CAC), Cambridge Exeter University Library, Exeter Imperial War Museum (IWM), London King’s College London Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (KCL), London Leeds University Library Liddle Collection (LC), Leeds Middle East Centre Archive (MECA), St. Anthony’s College, Oxford National Archives (NA), London National Army Museum (NAM), London National Maritime Museum Caird Library (NMM), London Pembroke College Library (PCL), Cambridge Perth and Kinross Archive Sudan Archive (SAD), Durham Trinity College Library (TCL), Cambridge Cyprus France Centre des Archives Diplomatiques de Nantes (CADN), Nantes Service Historique de la Défense (SHD), Vincennes Turkey Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (BOA), Istanbul Official published sources Newspapers Secondary sources Index