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En 1918 la Grèce se retrouve dans le camp des vainqueurs. Son chef de gouvernement Éleftherios Venizélos, qui dirige la délégation grecque à la conférence de la paix, espère voir aboutir la Grande Idée d’une Grèce dont les frontières coïncideraient avec celles de l’hellénisme. Soutenu par le Britannique Lloyd George ou le diplomate français Jules Cambon, il l’emporte dans les négociations du traité de Sèvres, signé le 10 août 1920. Cette victoire diplomatique n’est qu’éphémère. Quelques années plus tard, le gouvernement de la Grande Assemblée nationale de Turquie avec à sa tête Mustafa Kemal Atatürk obtient une renégociation de cet accord en sa faveur : c’est le traité de Lausanne, signé le 24 juillet 1923. L’histoire de ce retournement se découvre dans les archives politiques du ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères conservées à La Courneuve et à Nantes. La collection des traités lui fournit un complément de sources, de nature juridique. Elle est accessible sous la forme d’une base de données contenant l’intégralité des textes sur le site internet France Diplomatie. In 1918, after World War I, Greece found itself on the winning side. The head of the government, Eleftherios Venizelos, who led the Greek delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, hoped to see the “Great Idea” of a Greek state with borders that coincided with those of Hellenism, come to pass. He had the support of British Prime Minister Lloyd George and the French diplomat Jules Cambon, and succeeded at the negotiations of the Treaty of Sèvres, signed on August 10, 1920. However, this diplomatic victory was to be short-lived. Just a few years later, the government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk obtained a renegotiation of this agreement in its favor with the Treaty of Lausanne, signed on July 24, 1923. The story behind this reversal can be read in the political archives of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs that are preserved in La Courneuve and in Nantes. The collection of treaties provides extra sources of information from a legal standpoint. It is available in a database that contains all of the documents on the France Diplomatie website.

De l’histoire politique ou sociale à celle des idées ou des arts, de nombreux fonds d’archives français, notamment administratifs, offrent un point de vue parfois insoupçonné sur la Grèce au xxe siècle et se prêtent à un jeu de recoupement avec les sources grecques. Les textes du présent volume ouvriront, nous l’espérons, de nouvelles perspectives sur les objets d’étude extrêmement riches que sont les relations franco-helléniques et l’histoire croisée de la France et de la Grèce. La matière e...

Les archives et les fonds de bibliothèques éclairent les écueils rencontrés par les auteurs néo-grecs dans leur ambition de se manifester à part entière sur la scène européenne. S’émanciper du rôle formateur de la culture française et se différencier du collectif balkanique et du modèle antique est pour eux une nécessité. Malgré ses médiateurs de choix, la poésie néo-grecque est souvent dépoétisée par ses traducteurs français dans l’urgence d’une cause à servir ; c’est le cas de Costis Palamas, dont le projet international est compromis par le projet national auquel il est associé. La poésie néo-grecque ne sera en effet nobélisée que dans les éclaircies démocratiques des régimes grecs, à commencer par 1963, lorsque Georges Séféris, de formation française mais proche de la diplomatie britannique, résume l’héritage d’une grande rivalité de l’entre-deux-guerres : celle qui a opposé Palamas, champion du canon national athénien, à Cavafy, qui s’est projeté directement dans le monde des lettres anglophone et francophone depuis la communauté grecque cosmopolite d’Alexandrie. Archives and library collections throw some light on the stumbling blocks encountered by neo-Greek writers in their quest for success on the European stage. It was essential for them to free themselves from the formative influence of French culture and to stand out from both the Balkan collective and the model of ancient Greece. Despite the quality of its chosen go-betweens, the poetic aspect of neo-Greek poetry was often lost in (French) translation due to the ever-present cause. This was the case for Costis Palamas, whose international plans were scuppered by the national plans with which he was always associated. Indeed, neo-Greek poetry was finally recognized by the Swedish Academy during a democratic period of grace in 1963, when the French-taught poet with ties to British diplomacy, Giorgos Seferis, combined the heritage of the great rivalry of the inter-war period: between Kostis Palamas, the champion of the Athens’ national canon, and Constantine P. Cavafy, who connected directly with the anglophone and francophone literary worlds from the cosmopolitan Greek community of Alexandria.

Au sein des volumineuses archives historiques de la préfecture de police de Paris, peu nombreux sont les documents qui s’intéressent à la communauté grecque. Cependant, leur richesse exceptionnelle en fait une source capitale car dès la fin du xixe siècle, la préfecture surveille les ressortissants hellènes de passage ou installés dans la capitale. Les sources présentées dans cet article sont multiples : cabinet du préfet, service des Renseignements généraux, bureau des étrangers, bureau des naturalisations, bureau des associations et enfin service en charge de l’ordre public (protection des visites officielles, sécurisation des manifestations). Les archives offrent au lecteur des dossiers thématiques comme des dossiers nominatifs qui concernent tantôt des personnes physiques, tantôt des personnes morales (associations, partis politiques, mouvements syndicaux, organismes de tous ordres en relation avec la vie politique, économique et sociale). There are very few documents that refer to the Greek community in the extensive historical archive of the Paris Police Prefecture. Nevertheless, they are extremely interesting and are a major source of information as, from the late 19th century onwards, the Paris police had Greek citizens passing through or living in Paris under surveillance. The sources in this article are multiple: the Prefet’s office, the General Intelligence Directorate, the Foreigners bureau, the Citizenship bureau, the Associations bureau and finally the Department in charge of Public Order (security for official visits, security for demonstrations). The archives provide the reader with themed as well as named records regarding both physical people and official bodies (associations, political parties, union movements, all kinds of political, social and economic organizations).

Les Archives nationales conservent dans leur série AG les papiers de fonctions des hommes qui se sont succédé à la tête de l’État de la IIIe République à nos jours, en temps de paix et en temps de guerre. Les fonds des présidents de la République y côtoient ceux du maréchal Pétain, chef de l’« État français », et du général de Gaulle, chef de la France libre, puis président du Comité français de libération nationale et du Gouvernement provisoire de la République française. Ces archives, variées mais d’une richesse inégale selon les époques, renferment un certain nombre de dossiers et de documents relatifs à la Grèce, produits ou reçus par le chef de l’État en personne, ses collaborateurs et les services permanents de la présidence de la République. Même si elles ne sauraient se substituer aux fonds des Archives diplomatiques, de telles pièces offrent un point de vue intéressant et parfois inattendu sur la Grèce, et permettent de se faire une idée de la teneur, au sommet de l’État, des relations franco-grecques de la Belle époque à François Mitterrand. The AG series in the French National Archives preserves the official papers of the men who have held the position of Head of State from the 3rd Republic to the present day, in wartime and peacetime. The archives of the Presidents of France are side by side with those of Marshal Pétain, who was head of the “French State” and of the General de Gaulle, who was head of “Free France”, then President of the French Committee for National Liberation and of the Provisional Government of the French Republic. The archival material is extremely varied but can be patchy depending on the era, including a certain number of files regarding Greece, that were produced or received by the Head of State in person, his staff and the permanent administrative departments of the French Presidency. While these pieces are no substitute for the Diplomatic Archives, such documents provide an interesting, and at times, unexpected point of view on Greece, and a comprehensive idea of the state of France-Greece relations at the most senior level of government, from the Belle époque to François Mitterrand’s presidency.

À la suite d’une enquête réalisée à Paris en 2013 sur les Grecs architectes, ingénieurs, géomètres, décorateurs et artistes étroitement liés aux arts du bâtiment diplômés d’écoles parisiennes et après d’autres recherches menées à Thessalonique, il s’est avéré qu’une grande partie des architectes impliqués dans le processus de reconstruction de la ville après son grand incendie de 1917 étaient passés par des établissements français. Deux écoles ont coexisté à Thessalonique dans l’entre-deux-guerres : celle qui suivit la tradition académique de l’École des beaux-arts de Paris et le style d’Ernest Hébrard, son unique représentant dans la cité, et celle, entre Art déco et mouvement moderne, pour laquelle optèrent certains diplômés de l’École spéciale, sans jamais cependant s’opposer à l’esprit conservateur des commanditaires, à l’inverse de ce que purent faire à Athènes leurs camarades de classe. Following on from a study carried out in Paris in 2013 on the Greek architects, engineers, surveyors, decorators and artists closely linked to the building arts, all graduates of Parisian schools, and after other research carried out in Thessalonica, it transpired that a great number of the architects involved in rebuilding the city after the great fire of 1917 were graduates of French schools. Two schools co-existed in Thessalonica in the inter-war period: one, that followed the academic tradition of the Paris École des beaux-arts and the style of Ernest Hébrard, its only representative in the city, and the other, between Art Deco and modernism, the option chosen by certain graduates of the École spéciale, without ever standing up to the conservative taste of those who commissioned their work, unlike their classmates who worked in Athens.

Critique d’art et éditeur d’origine grecque, Christian Zervos joua, avec sa revue Cahiers d’art (fondée en 1926), un rôle déterminant dans la formation du climat culturel dans lequel se firent la conception, la production et la diffusion de l’art moderne dans le Paris de l’entre-deux-guerres. En puisant dans des documents d’archives conservés à Paris et à Athènes, cet essai retrace la manière dont le projet éditorial et critique de Zervos s’est défini par rapport à ses études sur la culture grecque. Sont examinées les influences de sa méthode éditoriale sur des artistes grecs, comme Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, Giorgos Gounaropoulos, Michalis Tombros ou Gérassimos Sklavos, afin de déterminer la portée des Cahiers d’art dans le milieu intellectuel athénien. Christian Zervos, the Greek art critic and publisher, played a decisive role in shaping the cultural climate of the conception, production and promotion of modern art in Paris in the inter-war period, thanks to his magazine Cahiers d’art founded in 1926. This essay, based on an examination of archival material in both Paris and Athens, retraces the way in which Zervos’ editorial and critical approach was defined in relation to his study of Greek culture. It examines how his editorial methods influenced Greek artists such as Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, Giorgos Gounaropoulos, Michalis Tombros and Gerasimos Sklavos, in order to determine the reach of Cahiers d’art in intellectual circles in Athens.

Pour de nombreuses raisons maintenant bien étudiées, l’histoire française de la Première Guerre mondiale s’est principalement intéressée à la guerre sur le front considéré à l’époque comme principal, au moins d’un point de vue parisien, c’est-à-dire le front français que le Grand État-major réduisait même au « front du Nord et du Nord-Est ». Et pourtant, de 1915 à 1921, la France participa, après l’échec de la campagne des Dardanelles, à l’ouverture d’un front « périphérique » dont l’épicentre fut la ville grecque de Salonique. Cette participation forte de plusieurs centaines de milliers d’hommes connut des appellations multiples qui ne permirent pas toujours de bien saisir les contours exacts de ce que les historiens qualifient aujourd’hui, de façon synthétique, d’Armée d’Orient. C’est cette « Armée d’Orient » qui est ici étudiée sous trois angles complémentaires : son organisation, parfois complexe en raison d’une participation internationale unique en son genre, son recrutement divers, réunissant des hommes en provenance de France métropolitaine et d’outre-mer, et ses particularités – nombreuses – aussi bien dans la vie courante que lors des opérations militaires. For many reasons that have already been studied at length, French history of the World War I has mainly concentrated on the French front, reduced by the État-major to the “Northern and North-Eastern front”, which was considered at the time to be the main front, at least from a Parisian point of view. However, between 1915 and 1921, after the failed Dardanelles campaign, France took part in the creation of a “peripheral” front with the Greek city of Salonica (now Thessaloniki) as its epicenter. Today, historians refer to these troops collectively as the Allied Army of the Orient, a succinct way of referring to the participation of hundreds of thousands of soldiers under various labels, the contours of which remain relatively nebulous. This article examines the “Army of the Orient” from three complementary angles: the way it was organized, which was at times a complex task given its unique, international make-up, its diverse recruitment policy that brought soldiers from France together with soldiers from French overseas territories, and the various everyday and military practices which made it stand out from typical operations.

Le 3 juillet 1937, le pavillon de la Grèce fut inauguré à l’exposition universelle qui se tenait alors à Paris. Les archives de l’exposition, conservées aux Archives nationales, permettent de mettre en lumière l’histoire de la présence de la Grèce à cet événement international à travers ses aspects diplomatiques, politiques, artistiques ou même techniques. Dans le contexte de la dictature de Métaxas, il s’agissait de promouvoir une image de la culture grecque riche de ses traditions et de sa modernité : architecture, théâtre, paysages ou produits étaient mis en avant. L’histoire de cet épisode peut se lire sur les plans et les photographies du pavillon hellénique, dans les documents administratifs, ceux relatifs aux travaux d’installation et de financement, dans les listes des produits envoyés, les notes, les échanges, la correspondance. Mais si la Grèce fut ainsi présente et visible en France, peu de Grecs eurent accès à l’exposition, malgré la publicité faite dans leur pays, et alors qu’un Palais du tourisme était installé à Paris le long de la Seine : les archives le montrent aussi. The Greek Pavilion at the Universal Exhibition was inaugurated in Paris on July 3 1937. The archives of the exhibition, that are preserved in the French National Archives, give us an insight into the history of the Greek contribution to this international event through its diplomatic, political, artistic and even technical aspects. The aim, in the context of the Metaxas dictatorship, was to promote the richness of Greek culture in both ancient and modern terms by highlighting its architecture, landscapes, theatre and produce. The history of the event can be gleaned from the plans and photographs of the Greek pavilion, and from the administrative documents that deal with the installation and financing, as well as in the lists of produce that were sent, the notes, the exchanges and the correspondence. However, while Greece was present and highly visible in France, very few actual Greeks had access to the exhibition, despite the fact that it was extensively advertised in Greece, and despite the installation of a “Palais du tourisme” in Paris on the banks of the Seine: the archives show this also.

Le linguiste Jean Psichari est une personnalité aux multiples facettes. Grec par ses origines, c’est en France qu’il paracheva ses études et qu’il fit carrière. Ardent défenseur de la langue grecque démotique, l’auteur du livre-manifeste Το ταξίδι µου [Mon voyage] et gendre d’Ernest Renan, influencé par celui-ci et par Hippolyte Taine, devint une figure de premier plan des lettres françaises. S’il s’abstint d’intervenir dans les questions sociales grecques, il fit en revanche partie de ces intellectuels engagés politiquement à la fin du xixe siècle en France et habitués à agir de manière collective, notamment durant l’affaire Dreyfus. La Première Guerre mondiale marqua cependant un tournant dans ses orientations idéologiques, qui se firent alors plus conservatrices qu’elles ne l’avaient été. The linguist Jean Psichari (Ioannis Psycharis) was a multi-faceted character. He was born in Greece but finished his studies and made his career in France. The author of the book-manifesto Το ταξίδι µου [My Journey] was greatly influenced by his father-in-law Ernest Renan as well as by Hippolyte Taine, was a passionate defender of modern Greek, and became an important figure in the French literary world. While he refrained from commenting on Greek social issues, in France, he was very much part of the movement of politically-committed intellectuals in the late 19th century that tended to act collectively, in particular during the Dreyfus affair. However, his ideological stance changed after World War I and he became much more conservative than had previously been the case.

Travailleurs, personnalités de la vie publique, étudiants ou réfugiés politiques, les citoyens originaires de Grèce entrés sur le territoire français au xxe siècle dans des contextes variés ont pu faire l’objet de procédures diverses conduites par le ministère de l’Intérieur dans ses différentes composantes. Les archives conservées aux Archives nationales, qu’il s’agisse du fichier central de la Sûreté conservé dans la sous-série F/7 et dans les archives restituées de Russie (« fonds de Moscou »), du fichier de police administrative, du fichier de la direction de la Surveillance du territoire, du fichier des Renseignements généraux voire du fichier de la Police judiciaire, ou encore des dossiers de la sous-direction de la Circulation transfrontalière du ministère, de la « Section étrangers et minorités » de la direction centrale des Renseignements généraux et des associations étrangères en France, permettent d’appréhender différents types de traces laissées par les Grecs dans les archives du ministère de l’Intérieur. Greek citizens that entered French territory in the 20th century, whether they were workers, public figures, students or political refugees, were subject to various procedures carried out by a number of departments in the Ministry of the Interior. The records kept at the French National Archives, from the central index of the Sûreté in the F/7 sub-series and in the archives sent back from Russia (“the Moscow collection”), from the files of the administrative police, the department of territorial Surveillance, the General Intelligence Directorate, and from those of the Judicial Police, not to mention the Interior Ministry’s files from the Transborder Circulation office, the “Foreigners and minorities section” of the General Intelligence Directorate as well as files from foreign organizations in France, all allow us to understand the different types of traces left by Greek people in the archives of the Ministry of the Interior.

Durant la Première Guerre mondiale, l’Armée d’Orient constitua en son sein un service archéologique, le SAAO, dont l’activité est documentée par de multiples sources. Il fut formé initialement afin de prendre en charge les découvertes survenues dans le cadre des opérations militaires. Toutefois, les ambitions scientifiques furent ensuite élargies à d’autres objectifs archéologiques. À l’issue de trois années d’activité, le bilan du SAAO s’avéra remarquable eu égard au contexte dans lequel il avait opéré. Cette situation s’explique par le profit mutuel que l’armée et l’École française d’Athènes purent retirer de telles démarches. During World War I, the Allied Army of the Orient established the SAAO, an archaeological department, whose activity is documented in a range of archival material. It was initially set up to deal with the archaeological discoveries that occurred during military operations. However, the department’s scientific research ambitions expanded to cover other archaeological objectives. After three years in operation, the SAAO’s status report was quite remarkable given the circumstances in which it operated. This can be explained by the way that the army and the French School at Athens mutually benefited from such an approach.

Sans prétendre à une analyse exhaustive de toutes les sources conservées sur les immigrés et réfugiés grecs d’Asie Mineure en France durant la Grande Guerre et l’entre-deux-guerres, le dépouillement et l’étude croisée de multiples fonds d’archives français permettent de se faire une image relativement bonne de ces mouvements migratoires du xxe siècle, alors même que la communauté hellénique de Paris et l’Union hellénique de Marseille ne possèdent pas d’archives qui s’y rapportent directement. La découverte de sources restées inconnues jusqu’à nos jours peut toutefois modifier les données disponibles sur l’histoire de ces Grecs et apporter de nouveaux paramètres à leur parcours. Une étude de cas de ce type montre de manière exemplaire comment les problèmes et les lacunes constatés dans les archives empêchent parfois de répondre efficacement à des questions simples au premier abord. Without pretending to be an exhaustive analysis of all of the archival material on the subject of Greek immigrants and refugees from Asia Minor during World War I and the inter-war period, a sort through and crossover study of the many collections of French archival material on the subject nevertheless gives us a relatively clear picture of these 20th century migratory movements, even though the Greek community in Paris and the Union Hellénique in Marseille have no records that deal directly with the issue. However, the discovery of heretofore unknown sources could change the data available on the history of these Greeks and cast new light on their journeys. A case study like this is a perfect example of how problems and gaps in archives can, at times, prevent us from answering questions that may, at first, seem simple.

Dans l’histoire de la Grèce moderne, les dernières années de la décennie 1960, ainsi que le début des années 1970 coïncident avec la dictature des colonels instaurée après le coup d’État du 21 avril 1967, qui mit fin brutalement à l’une des périodes les plus intéressantes du point de vue intellectuel que la Grèce ait connue. Par l’étude des riches sources archivistiques conservées par les Archives générales de l’État hellénique, il s’avère possible de déceler la présence des Grecs en France, et plus particulièrement à Paris, en suivant leur action mais aussi les positions officielles exprimées par le régime des colonels. In the history of modern Greece, the late 1960s and early 1970s coincided with the Greek Junta, or “Regime of the Colonels” that came to power after the coup d’état on April 21 1967, putting an end to one of the most interesting periods in intellectual terms that Greece ever knew. A study of the wide-ranging archival documents kept in the General State Archives of Greece allows us to detect the presence of Greeks in France, and in particular in Paris, by following their actions as well as the official position of the Regime of the Colonels.

Depuis son indépendance, la Grèce a entretenu avec la France une relation privilégiée, sans égale avec les autres pays européens. Au cours du xxe siècle, de profondes crises ont pu la distendre mais n’ont jamais effacé les affinités existant entre ces deux nations. Leur résistance à travers le temps invite à interroger la teneur de tels rapports, leur continuité, leur régénération, et à scruter les transferts qui se sont opérés à toute époque entre les deux pays. À Athènes comme à Paris, d’importantes archives, parfois méconnues, forment la matière première de cette enquête unissant archivistes et historiens dans un commun effort pour dépasser les poncifs d’un philhellénisme ou d’une francophilie à tout crin. Ever since it gained independence, Greece has maintained a very special relationship with France, more so than with any other country in Europe. Periods of upheaval during the 20th century may have strained the bonds, but the deep connection between the two nations has never come into question. The staying power of this kinship invites us to examine what underpins their close relationship, how it has endured and regenerated, and to examine the ways in which the two countries have continuously interacted over the years. The resources for this study came from the extensive, sometimes little-known archives, in both Athens and Paris, and brought together archivists and historians in a joint effort to go beyond the usual clichés of Philhellenism and Francophilia.

Les travaux existants sur les migrations forcées des Grecs tout au long du xxe siècle semblent indiquer qu’ils ne bénéficièrent pas des statuts internationaux de réfugié ou d’apatride. Afin de documenter cette question, les instruments de recherche des archives de l’Ofpra et un échantillon aléatoire des dossiers de Grecs qu’elles conservent, enregistrés entre 1942 et 1980, ont été étudiés. Trois phases de demande de protection, invoquant les conséquences de la « Grande Catastrophe » de 1922, de la guerre civile de 1946-1949 ou du coup d’État de 1967, ont ainsi pu être identifiées. L’analyse révèle l’importance de la perte ou de la déchéance de nationalité des exilés originaires de Grèce en France, les liens entre les exils des trois périodes et l’octroi de statuts protecteurs, alors même que les catégories juridiques ne semblent guère le permettre. Ce dernier élément montre la souplesse et le pragmatisme du travail juridique et catégoriel, de même que la façon dont les réfugiés et les administrations ont été des acteurs de l’histoire de l’asile. Existing work on the forced migration of Greeks throughout the 20th century seems to indicate that they did not benefit from the international status of refugee or stateless person. In order to document this question, we studied the finding aids of the Ofpra’s archives and a random sample of the files of the Greek nationals recorded between 1942 and 1980, contained therein. Three phases of requests for protection were identified, the first evoked the consequences of the “Grande Catastrophe”, the huge, forced exchange of populations that marked the end of the Greco-Turk war in 1922, the second was the civil war from 1946 to 1949 and the third, the coup d’état in 1967. This analysis reveals the importance of the loss or removal of nationality from Greek exiles in France, the links between exiles in the three periods and the granting of protective status, when even legal categories seemed to make that impossible. This last point shows the flexibility and pragmatism of the legal and categorizing work that went on, in addition to the way refugees and administrations played a major part in the history of this exile.

Le Service central des Archives générales de l’État hellénique conserve des fonds relativement méconnus qui documentent certains aspects des relations franco-helléniques après la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Ces sources permettent notamment d’étudier l’image que la Grèce voulut donner d’elle-même et de ses prises de position diplomatiques à l’opinion publique française à l’occasion des visites officielles des chefs d’État grecs et français à Paris et Athènes. On y découvre les stratégies retenues par le gouvernement grec durant les années 1950, à un moment où ses relations avec la France ne sont pas au beau fixe, puis à une époque faste pour celles-ci – les années qui suivirent la chute du régime des colonels. The Central Service of the General Archives of the Hellenic State preserves relatively unknown archives that document certain aspects of relations between France and Greece after World War II. These sources make it possible, in particular, to study the image that Greece wanted to give of itself and its diplomatic positions, to French public opinion during the official visits of Greek and French heads of state to Paris and Athens. They reveal the strategies adopted by the Greek government during the 1950s, at a time when its relations with France were not in good shape, as well as later when relations improved - the years following the fall of the Regime of the Colonels.

Durant l’entre-deux-guerres, le gouvernement français institua pour la première fois depuis la fondation de l’État hellénique une véritable politique d’octroi de bourses en faveur des étudiants grecs, afin de leur permettre d’entreprendre un voyage d’études en France. Irrégulière dans les années 1920, l’attribution de ces aides économiques destinées à des Grecs de tout âge, sexe et condition sociale, diplômés de l’enseignement secondaire ou titulaires d’un diplôme universitaire, devint annuelle dans la décennie suivante et leur nombre s’accrût. À partir de 1937, une commission spéciale fut, par ailleurs, chargée de procéder à la sélection des candidats en fonction de critères spécifiques, afin d’assurer un meilleur rendement des aides accordées et un choix méritocratique des postulants. L’attribution de « bourses françaises » a suscité vers la fin des années 1930 un véritable engouement auprès de la population locale, comme en témoigne, entre autres, la forte croissance du nombre des candidatures, ainsi que les tentatives d’ingérence menées par les autorités helléniques. De manière générale, la politique des bourses du gouvernement français s’est avérée être un des principaux moyens par lesquels son influence hégémonique s’est exercée en Grèce et une source de consolidation et d’enrichissement à plusieurs niveaux des relations franco-helléniques. During the inter-war years, the French government introduced a proper student grant policy for Greek nationals, for the first time since the foundation of the Greek State, in order to allow them to travel to France to study. In the 1920s, the grants were sporadic, but the following decade, this financial support aimed at Greek secondary school or university graduates irrespective of age, sex or social status, was awarded annually and to more applicants. In addition, from 1937 onward, a special commission was put in charge of selecting candidates according to specific criteria in order to ensure the aid was more efficiently awarded and that the students were chosen on merit. “French grants” were exceedingly popular among the population near the end of the thirties as is evident from the jump in applications, as well as the attempts by the Greek authorities to interfere in the process. In general, the policy of French government grants turned out to be one of the main ways that France retained an influence in Greece and was the reason that Franco-Greek relations thrived so extensively on many levels.

Byzance était à la mode en France à la fin du xixe siècle, alors que la byzantinologie scientifique se développait rapidement en Allemagne. En 1899, une chaire d’histoire byzantine fut créée à la faculté des lettres de Paris au profit de Charles Diehl. Depuis cette date, les byzantinistes universitaires ont connu une belle longévité : exerce actuellement, après l’auteur de ces lignes, la sixième titulaire de ce poste, qui a cessé d’être une chaire dans la terminologie administrative. Tandis que la byzantinologie s’implantait dans diverses autres institutions académiques françaises, universités, EPHE puis EHESS, Collège de France, CNRS, c’est le second successeur de Charles Diehl, Paul Lemerle, qui, à l’EPHE puis en Sorbonne et au Collège de France, donna, sur la base d’un programme scientifique paru dans deux articles de la Revue historique et des Annales, une impulsion décisive à l’école française de byzantinologie. At the end of the 19th century in France, Byzantium was very fashionable while Byzantine studies were rapidly developing in Germany. In 1899, a chair of Byzantine studies was created at the Paris university for Charles Diehl. Since then, Byzantine studies have thrived as the sixth holder of the job, which is no longer a chair in administrative terminology, is currently in place, the successor to the writer of these lines. As Byzantine studies spread to a wide range of French academic institutions, universities, the EPHE followed by the EHESS, the Collège de France and the CNRS, it was Charles Diehl’s second successor, Paul Lemerle, who built a scientific program at the EPHE, then the Sorbonne and at the Collège de France that was outlined in two major articles he wrote for the Revue historique and the Annales who gave the French school of Byzantine studies a decisive boost.

Parmi les nombreux fonds d’institutions créées à l’issue de la Grande Guerre pour faire appliquer les traités de paix, les Archives nationales conservent au sein de leur sous-série AJ 28 quelque 145 dossiers relatifs à des dommages de guerre subis à Constantinople et en Asie Mineure par des congrégations, des sociétés, des citoyens ou des protégés français vivant dans l’Empire ottoman. Les pièces justificatives fournies par les particuliers sinistrés sont les seules traces subsistantes de milliers de demandes similaires portées, à la suite du traité de Lausanne, devant la « Commission spéciale d’évaluation des dommages de guerre subis en Turquie ». Elles permettent d’esquisser le profil socio-économique de ces habitants d’un Empire disparu et offrent un éclairage français sur les exactions ottomanes commises entre 1914 et 1918 mais aussi sur la destruction de Smyrne en 1922. Au détour des listes de biens perdus, on découvre en effet les pillages et les destructions qui accompagnèrent la reconquête turque de l’Ionie sur les Grecs et le grand incendie de sa capitale cosmopolite, par l’armée de Mustafa Kemal, prélude au déracinement brutal de l’hellénisme d’Asie Mineure. Among the numerous archives from institutions set up after World War I to enforce the peace treaties, the French National Archives preserve some 145 files (in the AJ28 sub-series), relating to war damages suffered in Constantinople and in Asia Minor by congregations, societies, French citizens or protectees living in the Ottoman empire. The supporting documentation supplied by those who suffered damages are the only traces that remain of the thousands of similar demands made to the “Special commission to evaluate war damages suffered in Turkey” after the Treaty of Lausanne. They provide an overview of the socio-economic profiles of these inhabitants of an Empire that no longer exists and bring a French perspective to the exactions committed by the Ottomans between 1914 and 1918, but also to the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922. In fact, the examination of these lists of lost belongings reveals the extent of the pillage and destruction that accompanied the Turkish conquest of Ionia over the Greeks and the huge fire in its cosmopolitan capital caused by Mustafa Kemal’s army, a prelude to the brutal uprooting of all Hellenism from Asia Minor.

Les Archives diplomatiques françaises conservent dans leurs fonds un certain nombre de documents permettant à l’historien d’examiner différents aspects de l’attitude de la France vis-à-vis de l’évolution de la situation politique intérieure grecque dans les années qui suivirent la Grande Guerre. Grâce à ces sources, il est notamment possible de retracer les relations agitées du gouvernement de la République française avec les souverains grecs à partir de 1920, à une époque où il est hostile au maintien de l’institution monarchique en Grèce. La question de l’indemnisation réclamée par celle-ci du fait de la présence de l’Armée d’Orient sur son territoire pendant la Première Guerre mondiale traverse également les premières années de l’entre-deux-guerres. Malgré un engagement formel de la part des Alliés, le processus d’indemnisation s’avéra particulièrement épineux et suscita de multiples problèmes. The collections of the French diplomatic archives contain a certain number of documents that allow historians to examine different aspects of the French attitude to the changing domestic political situation in Greece in the years that followed World War I. These documents allow us to retrace the unsettled relations between the French government and the Greek sovereigns from 1920 onwards, at a time when France was opposed to the continuation of the Greek Monarchy. Another issue on the table during the early inter-war years was the Greece’s demand for compensation due to the presence of French troops in its territory during World War I. Despite a formal commitment from the Allies, the compensation process was particularly fraught and caused a range of issues.

Hubert Pernot occupa la chaire de grec moderne à la Sorbonne de 1912 à 1937. Il avait suivi à l’École des langues orientales les cours d’Émile Legrand et de Jean Psichari et prit, très jeune, la « résolution de [se] consacrer définitivement à la Grèce moderne ». Ses archives permettent de retracer l’histoire de la fondation de l’Institut néo-hellénique de la Sorbonne et celle de l’enseignement du grec moderne dans cette université, de la veille de la Grande Guerre à celle de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Une partie de sa correspondance et ses notes de cours de littérature et de langue révèlent le contenu et l’orientation de ceux-ci. L’institution d’un enseignement du grec moderne à la Sorbonne devait être, selon lui, la preuve de la réunion « dans une même ardeur » des éléments hellénique et philhellénique. Favorable à la Grande Idée, Pernot fit partie de ces hommes de sciences qui, depuis le début de la IIIe République, affirmaient les droits de la Grèce en Orient tout en revendiquant une place prépondérante de la France et de ses vertus citoyennes et civilisatrices dans la région. Hubert Pernot was professor of modern Greek at the Sorbonne from 1912 to 1937. At the School for Oriental languages, he had studied under Émile Legrand and Jean Psichari (Ioannis Psycharis) and, very early on, he had decided “to dedicate himself definitively to Modern Greece”. His archives give us an insight into the history of the founding of the Institut néo-hellénique and the teaching of modern Greek at the Sorbonne, from just before World War I up until World War II. Part of his correspondence and his notes for his literature and language classes reveal the content and orientation of his work. For him, the creation of a modern Greek school at the Sorbonne had to be the proof of the coming together, “with a shared passion”, of the Hellenic and philhellenic elements. Pernot was in favor of the “Megali Idea”, and was, from the start of the Third Republic, one of the academics that supported Greece’s rights in the East while calling for a major role for France and its civic and civilizing virtues in the region.

La France a apporté dans la seconde moitié du xxe siècle une contribution essentielle à la réussite du projet d’intégration graduelle de la Grèce au sein de l’Europe unie que s’était fixé le gouvernement hellénique après la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Les contacts diplomatiques et la coopération entre les dirigeants français et grecs eurent un impact décisif sur les négociations qui aboutirent dans un premier temps à l’association, puis à l’adhésion de la Grèce à la Communauté économique européenne (CEE). Des sources très diverses, conservées aux Archives générales de l’État hellénique, aux archives du ministère des Affaires étrangères grec et à la fondation Constantin G. Caramanlis, documentent ce processus sur plusieurs décennies et le rôle capital joué par le Premier ministre Caramanlis avec ses collaborateurs dans la conception et la mise en œuvre de la politique européenne grecque. In the second half of the 20th century, France contributed greatly to the success of the gradual integration of Greece into a unified Europe which was the aim of the Greek government after World War II. Diplomatic contact and cooperation between the French and Greek governments had a decisive impact on the negotiations that led, first of all to the association, then to the membership of Greece of the European Economic Community (EEC). The process is documented over a number of decades in the diverse collections in the Greek government’s General Archives, in the archives of the Greek Ministry for Foreign Affairs and those of the Constantin G. Caramanlis foundation, which chronicles the major role played by Prime Minister Caramanlis and his team in the elaboration and implementation of Greek European policy.

Que recouvre exactement l’« histoire de la Grèce moderne » ? Dans un contexte de forte valorisation de la pluridisciplinarité (et même de l’interdisciplinarité), mais aussi dans un environnement marqué (en France tout au moins) par la « nouvelle histoire », il n’est pas toujours facile d’identifier les lignes de démarcation entre « histoire » et « civilisation » ou « histoire » et « culture ». Les frontières entre disciplines ont tendance à se brouiller à l’ère du dialogue et de l’ouverture épistémologiques. Cette étude vise, en premier lieu, à dresser un bilan, aussi exhaustif que possible, tant de l’enseignement que de la recherche en France concernant l’histoire de la Grèce moderne : cadres institutionnels, programmes et thématiques, individus, débouchés. À première vue, celui-ci paraît modeste. Mais, si l’on retient le sens le plus large du terme « histoire », le tableau s’enrichit considérablement, notamment grâce aux travaux réalisés au sein des formations universitaires spécialisées dans l’enseignement de la langue et de la civilisation. Cette rétrospective laisse en outre à voir que l’historiographie de la Grèce moderne en France demeure marquée par les visions philhellènes telles que celles-ci ont émergé à la fin du xviiie siècle. Des thématiques inscrites dans des problématiques plus contemporaines (histoire du travail, mouvements sociaux, histoire des institutions…) sont encore relativement rares. What exactly does the “History of Modern Greece” mean? In a context where multi-disciplinarity and even inter-disciplinarity, are on the up and up, but also in an environment that is marked (in France in any case) by “new history”, it is not always easy to define the lines of demarcation between “history” and “civilization” or between “history” and “culture” as the lines between disciplines are increasingly blurred in an era of epistemological dialogue and openness. This article aims, first of all, to give as exhaustive a rundown as possible, of both teaching and research in France regarding the history of Modern Greece: the institutional framework, the programs and themes, the individuals and the prospects. At first glance, it would appear to be a modest undertaking, but, if we take “history” to mean something broader, the picture is much more interesting, in particular thanks to the work that was done in university courses specialized in teaching the language and civilization. In addition, this retrospective reveals that the historiography of Modern Greece in France remains marked by the philhellenic visions that emerged at the end of the 18th century. Themes that deal with more contemporary issues (labor and work history, social movements, the history of institutions…) remain relatively rare.

Sur l’ensemble des chefs d’État étrangers qui se sont rendus en visite officielle en Grèce depuis la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale jusqu’à nos jours, seuls cinq ont été invités à venir s’exprimer dans l’enceinte du Parlement hellénique devant la représentation nationale : Dwight D. Eisenhower en 1959, le général de Gaulle en 1963, George H. W. Bush en 1991, Nicolas Sarkozy en 2008 et François Hollande en 2015. En chacune de ces occasions, les dirigeants grecs ont voulu, par l’accueil spéc...

Les archives de l’École française d’Athènes éclairent l’histoire complexe de deux institutions qui ont marqué, chacune à sa manière, les relations franco-grecques au xxe siècle : l’EFA, établissement scientifique, dédié à la recherche et à la formation, et l’Institut français d’Athènes (devenu Institut français de Grèce en 2010), établissement culturel se consacrant essentiellement à l’enseignement du français et à la diffusion en Grèce de la culture française. Au-delà d’une histoire partagée durant les premières décennies de ce siècle, ces archives mettent en lumière l’évolution de la vocation de chacune de ces deux institutions au fil du temps. L’enseignement du français, par exemple, qui relevait à l’origine des missions de l’École française, devient après 1907 l’apanage de l’Institut supérieur d’études françaises annexé à l’EFA, puis de l’IFA. Une autre des missions de l’EFA, en revanche, l’étude de la Grèce moderne et contemporaine, après avoir été envisagée comme un champ de recherche privilégié pour l’ISEF puis l’IFA, est finalement réinvestie, à partir des années 1990, par l’EFA. The archives of the French School at Athens (EFA) throw some light on the complex history of two institutions that marked, each in their own way, France-Greece relations in the 20th century: the EFA, a scientific establishment dedicated to research and teaching, and the Institut français d’Athènes (that became the Institut français de Grèce in 2010), a cultural establishment that focuses essentially on teaching French and promoting French culture in Greece. In addition to their shared history in the early 20th century, these archives highlight the changes in the vocations of each institution over time. For example, the teaching of the French language, which was originally one of the missions of the École française, after 1907, was to come under the remit of the Institut supérieur d’études françaises which was an annexe of the EFA, and became later the IFA. However, after plans were elaborated to make the study of modern and contemporary Greece, another of the EFA’s missions, into a field of research specifically for the ISEF and then the IFA, it was eventually transferred back to the EFA in 1990.

La France a été au xxe siècle l’un des plus fidèles soutiens de la Grèce, dans les moments critiques comme en temps de paix. Dans les années 1950 et 1960, elle s’est aussi avérée être un ardent partisan de l’association entre la Grèce et la Communauté économique européenne. Les excellentes relations qu’entretenaient le président Charles de Gaulle et le Premier ministre Constantin Caramanlis sont bien connues, tout autant que l’estime du général pour la lutte menée par les Grecs contre le fascisme durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Par conséquent, lorsque la démocratie fut abolie et qu’une dictature militaire s’instaura en Grèce en avril 1967, l’attitude initiale de la France ne put être empreinte que d’embarras. La présente contribution qui repose sur des archives diplomatiques du ministère des Affaires étrangères grec vise à donner un aperçu des relations diplomatiques entre la Grèce et la France pendant la dictature des colonels. In the 20th century, France was one of Greece’s most loyal supporters, both through critical periods and during peacetime. In the 1950s and 1960s, France also proved to be an ardent partisan of Greece’s association with the European Economic Community. It is well known that President Charles de Gaulle and Prime Minister Constantin Caramanlis had a great relationship, as is the fact that the general thought very highly of the Greeks for the way they fought fascism during World War II. Consequently, when democracy was abolished and the military dictatorship took over in Greece in April 1967, France’s initial attitude was one of sheer embarrassment. This article, based on the diplomatic archives of the Greek Ministry for Foreign Affairs aims to provide an insight into diplomatic relations between Greece and France during the Greek Junta (Regime of the Colonels).

Au lendemain de la Grande Guerre, la démolition des fortifications de Paris libère près de 30 hectares de terrain au sud du xive arrondissement de la capitale. Sous l’impulsion d’André Honnorat, le projet de créer à cet emplacement un campus universitaire international est lancé. Son but : remédier au problème du logement des étudiants étrangers et favoriser l’amitié entre les peuples. Au cours de la décennie 1920, plusieurs « maisons » sortent de terre. Le « foyer des étudiants grecs » est édifiée de 1930 à 1932 grâce à une souscription panhellénique. Œuvre de l’architecte Nikolaos Zachos, ce bâtiment moderne au regard des techniques de construction reçoit une forme classicisante. Son programme décoratif, qui ménage une part à l’Art déco, se veut une synthèse de la Grèce ancienne et de la Grèce contemporaine. Vétuste dès les années 1960, la Fondation hellénique fait l’objet dans les années 1970 d’une rénovation intérieure énergique, où la volonté de modernisation l’emporte sur l’esthétique originelle, qui est effacée. Elle ne sera rétablie que par les ambitieux travaux de restauration engagés à partir de 2007, qui ont consacré la patrimonialisation de ce lieu symbolique des relations gréco-françaises. Just after the end of World War I, the demolition of the fortifications of Paris freed up about 30 hectares of land in the south of the capital’s 14th arrondissement. This led to the launch of a plan to build an international university campus, led by André Honnorat. The idea was to remedy the housing problem of foreign students and encourage friendship between nations. The 1920s saw a number of “houses” emerge from the ground. The Greek student house was built between 1930 and 1932 thanks to funding from all over Greece. It was designed by architect Nikolaos Zachos, with a classical appearance despite its modern construction. The decoration was intended to blend Ancient Greece and contemporary Greece with a touch of Art deco. By the 1960s, it was rundown, and in the 1970s, the Fondation hellénique was given an energetic renovation where the urge to modernize won out over the original aesthetic, that all but disappeared. It was only restored after ambitious renovation work that was carried out from 2007 onwards, when this symbolic place for Greece-France relations was given heritage status.

À l’hiver 1945, Octave Merlier, directeur de l’Institut français d’Athènes, obtint du gouvernement français un grand nombre de bourses pour des étudiants grecs. Après avoir réussi aux examens, plus de 150 jeunes gens furent sélectionnés pour aller étudier à Paris. Le 22 décembre 1945, le paquebot néo-zélandais Mataroa les transporta du Pirée à Tarente, d’où ils rejoignirent en train la Suisse et enfin Paris le 28 décembre. Ce voyage mythique auquel le nom du Mataroa reste attaché peut se lire comme le dépassement et la guérison de la blessure ouverte par les préludes de la Guerre civile grecque ou comme une version particulière au sens conceptuel des migrations grecques continues du xxe siècle. La présente étude met en valeur les documents en lien avec l’initiative historique d’Octave Merlier conservés dans le fonds éponyme du Centre d’études d’Asie Mineure. In the winter of 1945, the director of the Institut français d’Athènes, Octave Merlier, obtained a large amount of grants for Greek students from the French government. After successfully passing exams, over 150 young people were selected to go to Paris to study. On December 22, 1945, the Mataroa, a New Zealand-registered liner, transported them from Piraeus to Taranto in Italy from where they travelled by train to Switzerland and finally on to Paris on December 28. This legendary voyage, that ever since, has retained the name of the Mataroa, can be seen as an attempt to overcome and heal the open wounds of the prelude to the Greek Civil War or, in conceptual terms, as a particular version of Greek migration in the 20th century. This article highlights the documents related to Octave Merlier’s historic initiative that are preserved in the eponymous collection of the Centre for Asia Minor Studies in Athens.

Cher ami, C’est à Aix-en-Provence, il y a déjà un certain nombre d’années, que j’ai fait votre connaissance. Vous prépariez alors votre thèse sur le commerce français d’Istanbul au xviiie siècle sous la direction de Robert Mantran. C’était le début de vos recherches en histoire économique, mais aussi culturelle et sociale, puisque vous avez montré l’importance de ce commerce, et en même temps sa dimension relativement marginale par rapport à l’ensemble des activités commerciales ottomanes. Ap...

Monsieur l’Administrateur,Chers collègues,Mesdames et Messieurs, C’est un honneur insigne qui m’est donné de m’adresser à une telle assemblée dans cet amphithéâtre dont le prestige est à l’image de la vénérable institution qui m’y accueille. Je ne trouve guère les mots pour dire à quel point je me sens privilégié d’avoir été admis au sein de ce Collège vieux de près de cinq siècles. Prétendre que c’était un rêve d’enfance ou de jeunesse serait mentir éhontément. Il suffira probablement de dir...

Mr Minister,Your Excellencies,Mr Rector and Chancellor of the Universities,Mr Administrator,Ladies and gentlemen Professors,Ladies and gentlemen,My dear friends, A month ago I returned to the Place de la République, incredulous and sad, like so many others, with so many others. The November sun was almost insolent in its brightness, scandalous in its sovereign indifference towards human grief. Since January 2015, like waves crashing against a cliff, time had swept over the white stone base ac...

This article begins by tracing Ethiopia’s recognition as a member of the “family of nations,” the community of (Western) states in international law. It then analyses Ethiopia’s position under international law during the First World War, when the ruling elite decided not to join the war on either side. A number of sources, however, suggest that conflicting parties within the Ethiopian elite were divided on whether to take part in the war or not. While one side considered the war as a means to gain access to the Red Sea, others, with the fall of the Crown Prince Lij Iyasu, wished to support the Allies in their struggle against the Ottoman rule in the area. When a small group of Germans left Addis Ababa and attempted to break the Allied blockade of the Red Sea, the Allied consuls charged Ethiopia with a violation of neutrality. Nevertheless, considering the sources on the international law of neutrality, such violation did not take place.

This paper analyses how the Italian settlers in the French protectorate of Tunisia reacted to the Libyan war and to WWI. The case of this Italian community between 1911 and 1915 is particularly interesting regarding its position in terms of migration, nation-building, and colonialism. Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, the Kingdom of Italy experienced mass migration of its workers to foreign countries and, at the same time, it aspired to colonial expansion in Africa. Nationalists wanted to make Italian migrants a tool for national imperialism. According to them, the large number of Italians living in foreign colonial possessions, as in the case of French Maghreb, justified colonialist claims towards Libya. Italian migrants were mobilised by homeland institutions and by the nationalist upper-class in order to take part in a wider national project that involved expatriate communities. The Libyan war and the Great War exacerbated social tensions in the Tunisian society and affected the living conditions of the Italians. Living under French colonial rule, some Italian settlers considered the Libyan conquest as an opportunity for social improvement of their migrant working-class status. After the declaration of war of Italy in 1915, the community was directly involved in the war effort, sending soldiers and money to the motherland. A kind of welfare system was created in order to provide aid to the poorest members of the community, strengthening the migrants’ nationalist feeling. Ultimately, this paper emphasises the community-building function of the war effort, highlighting how social classes and colonial dynamics are intertwined in the Italian nation-building process in Tunisia.

The article discusses the pre-war period, the war, and its aftermath in the larger regional context of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. The main premise is that new movements emerged in the decades prior to the war in this area. They redefined societies and politics, and did so in terms that would later herald modern nationalism in various forms. Some of these movements were led by newly educated young generation; some were of more traditional and of more religious nature. After discussing the military stages of the war in this arena, the article presents the diplomatic dimensions of the war. In general, the two rival European camps developed diplomatic dialogues with these various local movements. Commitments and promises, which turned out to be important in shaping the post-War history of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, were made. The pre-War movements went from ideas to reality, and the new League of Nations was involved in this transformation. The case of Ethiopia was somewhat different. The Christian empire was independent before the war, and no foreign army invaded her. Yet the developments during the war affected Ethiopian history and the entire Horn. Moreover, in the longer run, post-WWI Ethiopia had a profound impact on global history. It was the only entity in the area in question to enter the League of Nations as an independent state. It was the beginning of a long story that culminated in the 1935 Fascists invasion of Ethiopia, the ensuing destruction of the League of Nations, and the global deterioration towards World War II.

The Libyan war of 1911-1912 and the Great War in general were marked by a political deployment of religion. During the conflict, not only the Ottoman Empire – who called for a global ğihād against the Allied powers – but also the European powers and Muslim elites in the Mediterranean and Red Sea regions claimed legitimisation of their political positions with an appeal to the authenticity of the Islamic faith. This paper focuses on the agency of one of these actors, the Ḫatmīya Islamic brotherhood, and looks at its role at a transnational level. It considers the discourses that were mobilised within the framework of the rivalry among transnational Sufi orders. While the Sanūsiya tackled the pan-Islamic positions associated with the Ottoman Empire and led a ğihād against the European colonial powers, notably in Egypt and Libya, one of its rival orders, the Ḫatmīya, supported the war against the “Turks,” whom they accused of being the illegitimate heirs of the caliphate and “false Muslims.”The political position of the Ḫatmīya was pursued through a series of actions, including a call to Muslims to enroll in European armies and diplomatic and intermediation activities with other political and religious authorities in the Red Sea region. The involvement of both the order’s representatives and affiliated members was finally rewarded in the post-war period. Indeed, thanks in part to their military service in the European armies; its affiliated members became leading actors in the colonial economy in Eritrea and Sudan.

For a long time now it has been common understanding that Africa played only a marginal role in the First World War. Its reduced theatre of operations appeared irrelevant to the strategic balance of the major powers. This volume is a contribution to the growing body of historical literature that explores the global and social history of the First World War. It questions the supposedly marginal role of Africa during the Great War with a special focus on Northeast Africa. In fact, between 1911 and 1924 a series of influential political and social upheavals took place in the vast expanse between Tripoli and Addis Ababa. The First World War was to profoundly change the local balance of power. This volume consists of fifteen chapters divided into three sections. The essays examine the social, political and operational course of the war and assess its consequences in a region straddling Africa and the Middle East. The relationship between local events and global processes is explored, together with the regional protagonists and their agency. Contrary to the myth still prevailing, the First World War did have both immediate and long-term effects on the region. This book highlights some of the significant aspects associated with it.

This article provides a general overview of the military events around Djibouti during the First World War. It then details Ethio-French relations at the beginning of the 20th century, before turning to the study of three concrete events within this territory when strategic and very local rationalities interfered. After the War, conflicting memories are an occasion to validate new conceptions of this territory. Beyond the available literature, this study is based mostly on French colonial archives in order to explain territorial conceptions.

On 18 November 1914, Abubakar Garbai, the Shehu of Borno, sent a letter to Frederick Lugard, the Governor General of Nigeria, announcing that the Bornoans would fight alongside the British despite the fact that they were fighting against the Ottomans. This article uses the letter sent by Shehu Garbai to analyse the global, trans-Saharan and trans-Sahelian layers of conflicts in the Lake Chad region at the beginning of the First World War. This document is a perfect illustration of the pragmatic alliance formed by the British colonial officers and the elite of Borno (Nigeria) to defeat the German troops in Northern Cameroon. This article concludes that it is impossible to write the history of the First World War in central Africa without understanding the long term and localised conflicts in the Lake Chad area.

This article explores the motivations behind the Italian occupation of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica in 1911-1912, a conflict which, some scholars claim, ignited a chain of events that eventually led to the outbreak of the war in Europe at the end of July 1914. It illustrates the attitude of the political forces in Italy but also the international context in which the war was decided and took place, and it confronts the question of whether, from a military point of view, the war was modern or not.

From 1912 to 1920, Yemen echoed the European imperial competition by suffering from continuous blockades by the Italians and by the British, leading to a dispersion of powers and deep political tension. This article, which is based on the analysis of the chronicle of Ismā'īl b. Muḥammad al-Washalī (1867/1868-1937), explores the idea of an extended social and political affirmation of the Yemeni local elite, namely the sayyid-s (local Hashemites), on the ground of the local context of World War I. More than a simple witness, this Shāfi'ī scholar of the Tihāma uses his historical work to assert the position and status of the social group he belongs to. This can be seen as a performative means allowing him to ensure his own shift away from Ottoman allegiance in favour of the Hashemite order that seems to settle in the region through the growing influence of the key figures such as the Emir al-Idrīsī, the sharif of Mecca or the Imam Yaḥyā. Al-Washalī defends the old local social order threatened by the overwhelming development of modern liberalism as the perspective of the Ottoman defeat becomes clearer, namely after the launching of the Great Arab revolt by Sharif Ḥusayn in 1916, using moral arguments on the effects of the war over the populations, and very particular explanations of the facts and events. This chronicle can help explain how the Shāfi’ī elite participated in the handover of the Ottoman power, first to Emir al-Idrīsī’s state and then to the Zaydī Imam Yaḥyā.

After the First World War, a nationalist movement quickly gained momentum in Sudan, eventually leading to the outburst of the 1924 Revolution. While the peculiar status of Sudan as an Anglo-Egyptian Condominium and the political struggle between Egypt and Great Britain have often been seen as the main reasons behind the uprising, this article seeks to reinterpret the international factors leading to the Revolution, first by connecting it to the transnational diffusion of both ideas and techniques of protest that went well beyond Egypt and Great Britain, and second by analysing it in light of that peculiar global moment which occurred in many sites of the colonial world during and after the Great War. Moreover, contrary to the tendency of global history to focus mostly on transnational elites, the case of Sudan has the merit of showing the impact of international diffusion on local political cultures “from below.” Various aspects of this “transnationalism from below” will be explored: the role of international news and the press in feeding the 1924 Revolution and the way in which the activists “wrote back” to reach an international audience; the creation of secret societies in Sudan, another highly transnational structure of protest; but also how this era of mass protests caused the transformation of the structure of secret societies so that they would become tools to mobilise the masses.

The Horn of Africa was deeply affected by WWI. Thousands of askaris were sent to the Libyan front while on the Red Sea trade and traffics were disrupted by the confrontation between the Allied and the Ottomans forces. The impact of war was felt by the population that had to confront a steep increase in prices and food shortages. Eritrea was asked to provide to the Italian army some twelve million cans of meat, an exorbitant request that was met only through the use of quotas, the introduction of controlled prices and requisitions. Once the Eritrean livestock was exhausted, the Italians turned to the Ethiopian and Yemeni markets, from where cattle started to be imported and processed in the “Torrigiani Cannery” based in Asmara. The story of canned meat production during the WWI is an interesting example of how the maelstrom of WWI was felt across the Horn of Africa. Eritrea, although largely untouched by combats, was deeply affected by the war, which had a profound impact on the country’s productive and social system.

As the First World War went global, both Britain and Germany pursued similar strategies in the Red Sea, trying to stir up revolts and policy changes among each other’s allies and interests on opposite sides of the Red Sea, Britain to the east, Germany to the west. The British succeeded, almost by accident, in organising the Arab revolt in mid-1916, ultimately destroying the Ottoman Empire. Germany and the Ottomans, after failing in their attempt to attack Egypt directly, also failed in their attempt to ally with Ethiopia and use it to threaten British Somaliland or Eritrea and the route to India. The effort to lure Ethiopia to their side and counteract British influence in the lower Red Sea revolved around the young, uncrowned Emperor, Lij Iyasu, who had his own plans to break the power of the traditional ruling Christian Amhara nobility and involve the peripheral Muslim peoples of the empire, i.e. Somalis, Afars and Oromos, more centrally in government, aiming to create a more inclusive imperial administration. Together with the moves of the Ottoman Empire against Aden, this posed the possibility of a real threat to the British route to India. The successful putsch against Lij Iyasu in September 1916, welcomed by the allied powers, meant this threat disappeared; it also laid the basis for the long rule of Emperor Haile Selassie.

The aim of this paper is to shed some light on the way WWI was experienced by colonial subjects living in Eritrea or abroad. The attempt is to offer a glimpse of the gaze of colonial subjects on this global and dramatic turmoil, resorting to novels, poetry, and correspondence written in Tigrinya by colonial subjects living in Eritrea or abroad. These materials provide a rare opportunity to check alternative narratives that go beyond the conventional colonial representations of the conflict. This is even more significant as the literature dealing with original African voices talking about the First World War remains scanty. The material I will discuss is composed of correspondence among Eritreans living abroad and their relatives and friends at home as well as abroad. They are mainly original archival materials which I have collected during research in Italian and Swedish archives.

Between January and February 1915 an Ottoman army of 25,000 men tried in vain to invade Egypt. Subsequently the Ottoman Empire gave a hand to any Senussi military activity in neighbouring Cyrenaica (in particular the oases inland of the Libyan-Egyptian border and along the Mediterranean coast). Italy had been at arms with the Senussi resistance since as early as 1914 and had actually been dragged into the world war in Libya way earlier than the official date of 24 May 1915. In light of this, the recruitment policy of Italy and its political and military decisions in the face of war become extremely interesting. This article explores a few key issues: the increased number of soldiers from the Horn of Africa sent to Libya; the Libyan troops sent to Sicily between summer 1915 and spring 1916; and the debate over the use of African troops on the Italo-Austrian front.

General. Made with Scribble Maps. The idea that WWI was a global conflict is now accepted by the academic community, and it constitutes a real leitmotif for most recent literature on this topic. As a consequence of this development, some scholars have started investigating the impact of WWI on Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. The Great War, to name it by its other name, deserves to be remembered not just by Europeans, but also by the peoples of the rest of the world whose dest...

For France, the Côte Française des Somalis represented a sea port of call on the way to the more prestigious colonies of the Indian Ocean or the Far East. Thanks to the railway from Djibouti to Addis Ababa, it also became a major route of the Ethiopian foreign trade. When the Great War broke out, it nonetheless found itself threatened by the Turkish presence on the shores of Yemen, the uncertainties regarding the position of Ethiopia in the conflict, and the rebellion in the name of Islam in Somaliland and Ogaden. The French authorities first tried to watch the populations of the small territory by reinforcing the security of the colony. But they also tried to mobilise the population for the war effort. The most visible part of this effort was the enlisting of over 2,000 men in the colonial army to go to war in France.How can the stability of this colony during the world conflict be explained? How to account for the fact that hundreds of young men enlisted in a foreign army so easily? The article proposes to answer these questions using the study of the individual records of the recruits, which reveal these young men’s individual strategies in a fragile political, social and ecological context.

La société française d’Ancien Régime demeure une société d’ordres, chrétienne dans son écrasante majorité. Cette définition schématique a été fortement nuancée par les historiens qui se sont davantage intéressés aux minorités et à ce que l’on nomme les « marges » de la société mais elle reste un repère ou une généralité utile. Ainsi, on était noble, ecclésiastique ou membre du tiers-état, et catholique ou protestant, très rarement d’une autre religion. La confession religieuse et le profil so...