Ottoman worlds: Spaces and boundaries of intercommunal encounters

The Turkey Europe Center (TEZ)
Would like to invite you to the next event in the lecture series organized in cooperation with the State Center for Political Education in Hamburg.

The lecture by Andreas Guidi (Constance)
Italian Fascism in Rhodes as a Post-Ottoman Empire: Confessional Diversity, Politics of Difference, and Ideologies in the Modern Mediterranean
will be held on Wednesday 19 January 2022 at 6pm ct.
held via zoom .

Access link (zoom): https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/j/68883840814?pwd=enF0QWE1TXpBQS9GaE05MHhXcUVFQT09  Meeting ID: 688 8384 0814
Identification code: 63153867

Please see their website for updates on the event:
https://www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/tuerkeieuropa/veranstaltungen/aktuelle-veranstaltungen.html .

Lecture :
Italian Fascism in Rhodes as a Post-Ottoman Empire: Confessional Diversity, Politics of Difference, and Ideologies in the Modern Mediterranean
by Andreas Guidi

Rhodes was occupied by Italian troops in 1912 as part of the war against the Ottoman Empire over what is now Libya. Centuries of Ottoman rule over this multi-denominational provincial capital ended with an Italian military occupation that lasted until the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which in turn transitioned to internationally recognized Italian sovereignty. Just a year before Lausanne, Italy experienced a political earthquake when Benito Mussolini came to power with the “March on Rome”. The official fall of the Ottoman Empire thus coincides with the rise of the Fascist Empire in Rhodes. What did it mean for Italian colonialism to rule over a former Ottoman society? Conversely, how did the population of a former Ottoman provincial town adapt to colonial rule?

The lecture aims to think these questions together. First, an alternative to the Empire-into-Nation narrative is outlined. Second, the transformation of the imperial politics of difference – which began already in the last years of Ottoman rule – is offered through an insight into denominational communities. Finally, it will be examined how colonial fascism tried to create a “new generation” of young loyal subjects, which, however, was limited by the perception of alternative ideologies such as Kemalism and Zionism among the youth.

short bio

Andreas Guidi is a research associate in the Modern and Contemporary History working group at the University of Konstanz and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the DHI Washington.
His research interests include the history of the modern Mediterranean, Italian-Ottoman ties, the history of youth and generations, and the history of maritime smuggling. His first monograph Generations of Empire: Youth from Ottoman to Italian Rule in the Mediterranean will be published by University of Toronto Press in 2022. He has published articles in English, French, German and Italian, including in the International Journal of Middle East Studies. Andreas Guidi is the founder and editor of The Southeast Passage podcast and host on several episodes of Ottoman History Podcast.

Publications (selection)
Generations of Empire: Youth from Ottoman to Italian Rule in the Mediterranean , University of Toronto Press, forthcoming Fall 2022. 

“School protests and the making of the post-Ottoman Mediterranean: Pupils’ politicization in Rhodes as a challenge to Italian colonialism, 1915-1937,” in International Journal of Middle East Studies , published as FirstView. “Démarcation générationnelle et divergence mémorielle: Sur l’émigration des juifs et des Grecs de Rhodes vers les États-Unis au long du XXe siècle”, in Slavica Occitania 52, pp. 233-260.

“Who made fascism in Zadar? Activist trajectories as an interpretative key for post-imperial politics”, in Ante Bralić and Branko Kasalo (eds.), The Eastern Adriatic between the Collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Creation of New States , Zadar: University of Zadar, p. 243 -272.