14 - 17

PONGILUPPI, Francesco
The Italian Policy Towards the Sublime Porte in the Last Two Decades of the Nineteenth
Century: The Commercial, Cultural and Territorial Expansion
The Kingdom of Italy established, at the end of Nineteenth century, a series of policies willing to implement
its role in the area going from the Balkan-Mediterranean up to the Horn of Africa. This research is developed through the
study of the guidelines used by the Government of Rome to expand over the territories belonging to the Ottoman sphere:
the economical-commercial, the cultural and the territorial dimensions with the acquisition and colonization of Eritrea in
open defiance with the long Ottoman presence in the Red Sea ports. The Italian role in the delicate balance of the Ottoman
Empire at the end of the Nineteenth century is balanced between an anti-Ottoman policy regarding the Italian projects
in East Africa and a closer vision to the Ottoman instances, as its stability and its status quo could have been a guarantee
for the Italian trade in the Mediterranean. The primary sources of this research are based on documents coming from the
Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome, the Historical Archive of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and the
Archive of the Colony of Eritrea.
|213