Smyrna's Ashes: Humanitarianism, Genocide, and the Birth of the

271 Pages·2012·4.38 MB·English

UC Berkeley
GAIA Books
Title
Smyrna's Ashes: Humanitarianism, Genocide, and the Birth of the
Middle East
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5626s1fw
ISBN
978-1938169-05-2
Author
Tusan, Michelle
Publication Date
2012-11-01
Supplemental Material
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5626s1fw#supplemental
Copyright Information
This work is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License, availalbe at
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Peer reviewed
eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library
University of California
Smyrna’s Ashes
Humanitarianism, Genocide, and the
Birth of the Middle East
Michelle Tusan
Published in association with the
University of California Press
“Set against one of the most horrible atrocities of the early
twentieth century, the ethnic cleansing of Western Anatolia
and the burning of the city of Izmir, Smyrna’s Ashes is an
important contribution to our understanding of how hu-
manitarian thinking shaped British foreign and military
policy in the Late Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean. Based
on rigorous archival research and scholarship, well written,
and compelling, it is a welcome addition to the growing literature on humanitarianism and
the history of human rights.” kEitH dAvid wAtEnpAuGH, University of California, Davis
“Tusan shows vividly and compassionately how Britain’s attempt to build a ‘Near East’ in
its own image upon the ruins of the Ottoman Empire served as a prelude to today’s Middle
East of nation-states.” pEtEr MAndlEr, University of Cambridge
“Traces an important but neglected strand in the history of British humanitarianism,
showing how its efforts to aid Ottoman Christians were inextricably enmeshed in impe-
rial and cultural agendas and helped to contribute to the creation of the modern Middle
East.” dAnE kEnnEdy, The George Washington University
“An original and meticulously researched contribution to our understandings of British
imperial, gender, and cultural history. Smyrna’s Ashes demonstrates the long-standing
influence of Middle Eastern issues on British self-identification. Tusan’s conclusions will
engage scholars in a variety of fields for years to come.” nAncy l. StockdAlE, University
of North Texas
Today the West tends to understand the Middle East primarily in terms of geopolitics:
Islam, oil, and nuclear weapons. But in the nineteenth century it was imagined differently.
The interplay of geography and politics found definition in a broader set of concerns that
understood the region in terms of the moral, humanitarian, and religious commitments of
the British empire. Smyrna’s Ashes reevaluates how this story of the “Eastern Question”
shaped the cultural politics of geography, war, and genocide in the mapping of a larger
Middle East after World War I.
MicHEllE tuSAn is a professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Berkeley Series in British Studies, 5

Smyrna’s Ashes
The Berkeley SerieS in BriTiSh STudieS
Mark Bevir and James Vernon, University of California, Berkeley, editors
1. The Peculiarities of Liberal Modernity in Imperial Britain, edited by
Simon Gunn and James Vernon
2. Dilemmas of Decline: British Intellectuals and World Politics, 1945–1975,

by Ian Hall
3. The Savage Visit: New World People and Popular Imperial Culture in
Britain, 1710–1795, by Kate Fullagar

4. The Afterlife of Empire, by Jordanna Bailkin
5. Smyrna’s Ashes: Humanitarianism, Genocide, and the Birth of the Middle
East, by Michelle Tusan
Smyrna’s Ashes
Humanitarianism, Genocide,
and the Birth of the Middle East
Michelle TuSan
Global, Area, and International Archive
University of California Press
Berkeley loS angeleS london
The Global, Area, and International Archive (GAIA) is an initiative of
the Institute of International Studies, University of California,
Berkeley, in partnership with the University of California Press, the
California Digital Library, and international research programs
across the University of California system.
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished
university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the
world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and
natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press
Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and
institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2012 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of
Congress
Manufactured in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of anSi/niSo z39.48–1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
A Note on Maps xiii
Introduction 1
1. Humanitarianism and the Rise of the Eastern Question 10
2. Mapping the Near East 40
3. Humanitarian Diplomacy 76
4. Missionary Philanthropy 96
5. The Armenian Genocide and the Great War 113
6. Smyrna’s Ashes 144
Epilogue: From Near to Middle East 175
Notes 185
Bibliography 223
Index 243

Illustrations
FigureS
“Smyrna’s Wall of Humanity” xiv
1. Gladstone Speaking at St. James’s Hall 19
2. Toppling the Tree of Turkish Rule 20
3. Graphic Coverage of the Eastern Question Conference 28
4. Punch’s “Old Crusaders!” 32
5. British Cabinet Council Meeting on the Eastern Question 33
6. Latham’s “Ethnographical Map of the World” 44
7. Campbell’s Map of Christian Races 46
8. Stanford’s Map of the Treaty of San Stefano 50
9. Stanford’s Map of the Treaty of Berlin 51
10. Mitchell’s Map of the Treaty of Berlin 52
11. Stratford de Redcliffe’s Map of the Treaties of San Stefano
and Berlin 54
12. Johnston’s Map of the Near Eastern Question 56
13. Miller’s Map of the Near East 60
14. Hogarth’s Ethnographical Map of The Nearer East 62
15. Gleaner, “Moslem Box” Map 69
16. Harmsworth Atlas: The Near East 72
17. One of Lady Strangford’s Hospitals 86
18. Burgess Oversees Workers at Her Factory 104
19. Burgess’s Orphan “Angels” 107
vii