This volume provides new insights into the role of U.S. consuls in the Ottoman Middle East in the special context of the Holy Land. This volume provides new insights into the role of U.S. consuls in the Ottoman Middle East in the special context of the Holy Land. The motivations and functioning of the American consuls in Jerusalem, and of the consular agents in Jaffa and Haifa, are analyzed as part of the US diplomatic and consular activity throughout the world, and of Western involvement in the Ottoman Empire and in Palestine during the century preceding World War I. The processes of cultural, demographic, economic, environmental, and settlement change and the contribution of the US consuls and American settlers to development of and modernization of Palestine are discussed. Based on primary archival sources such facets as the role of consuls regarding the use of extraterritorial privileges, Western religious and cultural penetration, control of land and land purchase, non-Muslim settlement, judicial systems, and technological innovations are considered from American, Ottoman, and local viewpoints.

Contains the transcripts of in-depth interviews conducted by The Association of Diplomatic Studies and Training of Washington, D.C. with American diplomats who during their careers served either at the American Embassy in Ankara or in the country's consulates in Istanbul, Adana and Izmir. These retired diplomats were first-hand witnesses of the Turkish political and cultural scene in the years they served in Turkey and their comments and observations are therefore extremely valuable. This book thus represents a significant contribution to the history of modern Turkey and should be of great interest to both scholars in a variety of fields as well as other interested observers of the Turkish Republic.