Flateau, Cosima <br/><br/>
Vice-consuls and traders in Alexandrette: strategic and identity issues (1860-1945) 

 -  2022.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> Alexandretta, a small Mediterranean scale of the Ottoman Empire, yet eclipsed by larger rivals (Smyrna, Cairo, Istanbul), was at the end of the 19th century an important entry and exit point for the Empire’s trade. An outlet for Syrian, Iraqi and Anatolian production to Egypt, Europe and the United States, it was also a major gateway for imported manufactured products. French, British, Italians and Germans were therefore anxious to intensify their economic relations there, by taking advantage of the “decompartmentalization of the world” operating through the seas, and to defend their nationals and protégés there. On the ground, their interests were embodied and defended by a Levantine community made up of a few families of European origin, who held the vice-consulates of the city and had a virtual monopoly on the activity of maritime representation of the large companies serving the port. Thanks to their identity, straddling Europe and the Ottoman Empire, they defended the interests of European powers whilst never forgetting their own business or family affairs. Their history allows us to grasp the strategic and identity interests that Alexandretta has concentrated together for states, from the end of the 19th century to the end of the Second World War.