Dangerous Gifts : Imperialism, Security, and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798-1864

From Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt in 1798 to the foreign interventions in the ongoing civil wars in Syria, Yemen, and Libya today, global empires or the so-called Great Powers have long assumed the responsibility to bring security in the Middle East. The past two centuries have witnessed their numerous military occupations to 'liberate', 'secure' and 'educate' local populations. They staged first 'humanitarian' interventions in history and established hitherto unseen international and local security institutions. Consulting fresh primary sources collected from some thirty archives in the Middle East, Russia, the United States, and Western Europe, Dangerous Gifts revisits the late eighteenth and nineteenth century origins of these imperial security practices. It explicates how it all began. Why did Great Power interventions in the Ottoman Levant tend to result in further turmoil and civil wars? Why has the region been embroiled in a paradox-an ever-increasing demand despite the increasing supply of security-ever since? It embeds this highly pertinent genealogical history into an innovative and captivating narrative around the Eastern Question, emancipating the latter from the monopoly of Great Power politics, and foregrounding the experience of the Levantine actors. It explores the gradual yet still forceful opening up of the latter's economies to global free trade, the asymmetrical implementation of international law in their perspective, and the secondary importance attached to their threat perceptions in a world where political and economic decisions were ultimately made through the filter of global imperial interests. Cover 1 Dangerous Gifts: Imperialism, Security, and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798–1864 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Foreword 8 Contents 12 List of Figures and Maps 14 Note on Transliteration 16 Introduction 18 Historicizing the Eastern Question 22 Silence, Civil Wars, and Lives 27 PART I: AVANT LE MOT 36 1: Crossing the Mediterranean 38 Defining the ‘Eastern Question’ 41 France and the Ottoman Empire 48 Preparation for the Egyptian Expedition 52 2: The Circle of Justice and the Napoleonic Wars 59 The Circle of Justice 60 The Sultan’s Bafflement 71 The Wrecked Victory 82 3: The Chase in the Desert: Empires and Civil War in Egypt, 1801–1812 91 Ottoman Egypt before the Eastern Question 92 Useful Allies, Dangerous Enemies 98 The Tripartite Civil War 105 PART II: THE INVENTION OF THE EASTERN QUESTION 120 4: A New Era?: The Vienna Order and the Ottoman World 122 The Eastern Question in the 1810s 125 A ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention: Navarino 1827 132 5: Old Enemies: Cairo, Istanbul, and the Civil War of 1832–1833 149 Hüsrev and Mehmed Ali 150 ‘The Civil War of Islamism’ 163 6: The Russian Peace in the Levant 175 The Russian Intervention: ‘We Have Been Sick, You the Medicines’ 176 Preaching to the Winds: The Disconcert of Europe and the Diplomatic Impasse 187 7: An Unusual Quest for Revenge: Civilization, Commerce, and Reform 194 Civilization 195 Commerce and Security: A Capo d’Opera? 209 ‘We Are Still Called Barbarians!’ 214 8: Return of the Ashes: The Concert of Europe and the 1840 Intervention 228 The Quadruple Alliance and France 229 The 1840 Intervention 234 PART III: THE MOUNTAIN 244 9: Beginnings: Mount Lebanon before 1840 246 The Land of the Muqatadjis 248 When the Egyptians Came 256 10: The Age of the Eastern Question 262 ‘The Old Days Have Passed’: The Civil War of 1841 and its Aftermath 263 The Racing Clouds: The Stand-Off and the Civil War of 1845 282 11: The Two Wars: Crimea and Mount Lebanon 294 The Crimean War and a Perilous Peace 295 Anno 1860: The Civil War in Mount Lebanon 308 12: An Untimely Return of the Eastern Question? 319 Responsibility Towards Humanity: Thouvenel’s Démarche 320 Against Intervention: Propaganda and Diplomacy 326 13: Returning the Sense of Security: The International Commission on Syria 335 Reluctant Imperialists 336 Securing Hearts: Relief and Reparations 343 The Scapegoats? Retributive Justice and Règlement Organique 351 Epilogue 370 Select Bibliography 386 Archives and Frequently Cited Primary Sources 386 Periodicals 387 Published Primary Sources 388 Secondary Sources 390 Index 412 'Dangerous Gifts' is a text about the strategic, economic, legal, and religious undertones of Great Power interventions and violence in the Levant Dangerous Gifts is a book about the strategic, economic, legal, and religious undertones of Great Power interventions and violence in the Levant.