Research master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
The colonial partition of the Middle East is one of the most recurrent topics of the scholarship on the region. In the last decade, many scholars have shifted their attention from the diplomatic...Show moreThe colonial partition of the Middle East is one of the most recurrent topics of the scholarship on the region. In the last decade, many scholars have shifted their attention from the diplomatic and military history of these borders to their economic and social significance. This thesis aims at completing this shift in regard to the boundary between the British Mandate on Palestine and the French Mandate on Syria and Lebanon. Assuming a borderland perspective, this research looks into the different ways in which local, regional and colonial actors engaged with the border and its administration. It reconstructs the evolution of state border practices on both sides in the years from the British redeployment along the OET line in 1919 until the demise of the Palestine Mandate in 1948. Looking into the agency of a wide range of actors, including peasants, travelers, smugglers and illegal migrants, this thesis argues that the relation the indigenous population had with the border cannot be understood solely through an oppositional frame. Rather, it suggests that this relation was extremely dynamic, and that the subversion of the new territorial order went along with forms of compliance with state regulations and exploitation of the limits of state jurisdictions.Show less
The aim of this thesis is to depict how individual merchants organized both Trans-Atlantic and Caribbean trade in Willemstad from circa 1730 until 1790. Rather than emphasizing the role of the...Show moreThe aim of this thesis is to depict how individual merchants organized both Trans-Atlantic and Caribbean trade in Willemstad from circa 1730 until 1790. Rather than emphasizing the role of the Jewish-Caribbean diaspora, this study argues that Willemstad was a space of cross-cultural encounters. The social policies of this free port attracted many settlers to its community, including English, Spaniards and Frenchmen. These middleman were vital in sustaining trading relations between Curaçao and its most important trading partners. Curaçao’s economic history also challenges our understanding of the dynamics between metropolitan control and independency of the periphery. It's Trans-Atlantic merchants increasingly traded with Atlantic destinations beyond the Dutch empire and local merchants cooperated closely with state-officials of other empires.Show less
