Προτεστάντες ιεραπόστολοι στην καθ'ημάς ανατολή, 1819-1914 : Η δράση της American board
Part of : Δελτίο Κέντρου Μικρασιατικών Σπουδών ; Vol.12, 1997, pages 97-128
Issue:
Pages:
97-128
Section Title:
Articles
Abstract:
The missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missionswere the Americans who pioneered the propagation of the “American dream” inthe Middle East, the cradle of ancient civilizations. Their endeavors in thereligious field, from 1829 to 1844 in the newly constituted state of Greece, andfrom 1819 to 1930 in the territories of the Ottoman Empire, largely in AsiaMinor, bore little fruit. In two other areas, however, education and publishing onthe one hand and humanitarian work on the other, their efforts proved moresuccessful. Although most of their educational work, in particular, was brought toan end by the events of the First World War, some missionaries did stay on in theMiddle East, collaborating now with the semi-official humanitarian organizationNear East Relief, throughout the first decades of the twentieth century.In its attempts to “Westernize” Ottoman society, the American Board had aserious rival in the Catholic Church. In the early years of American missionarysettlement in the Empire, Catholic propaganda would often play a part infomenting widespread persecution launched by the Greek Orthodox andApostolic Armenian Patriarchates against the American missionaries (especiallyin the years 1836-1839). At the end of the day, however, the American Boardmissionaries not only remained to witness the fall of the Ottoman Empire, butactually contributed to the fragmentation of Ottoman society, helping to found in1850 yet one more millet, the Protestants, within an Empire already highlydiverse in cultures and peoples. There is no doubt that throughout the many years of their presence in the Empire the American missionaries represented a distinctsocial unit contributing in its way to the “unorthodox” westernizing of both Christianand Muslim subjects. After the Crimean War, in particular, and the ReformEdict of 1856, when the missions began to advance unchecked through theprovinces of the Empire, many regions, especially in the Asian provinces, servedan apprenticeship in American culture. It was at this period that the work of theAmerican Board began to grow more rapidly, reaching a peak of activity afterthe treaty of San Stefano and the Congress of Berlin until the close of the century(1879-1895). The American Board missionaries skillfully took advantage of thediplomatic isolation of Russia which followed the Congress of Berlin to launchtheir own proselytizing propaganda among the Greeks of Asia Minor who hadrelied until then on Russian protection. (Until then the Americans’ efforts hadenjoyed success only among the Armenian and Bulgarian communities).Thus most of the small Greek Evangelical communities in Asia Minor datefrom the years following 1879-1880. Today, in the small Macedonian town ofKaterini, there is still to be found a tiny Evangelical community composed of thedescendants of the largest (300 registered members) of the Greek Evangelicalcommunities in Asia Minor: that of Ordu (Kotyora) on the coast of the BlackSea.In the areas of education, publishing and humanitarian work, the activities ofthe missionaries enjoyed sometimes spectacular success, for it was in these areasthat they were serving the needs of all the ethnic groups within the culturallydiverse Empire. This was especially so after the end of the 19th century, when thesecularization of Ottoman society was well under way and the Americanmissionaries’ religious zeal had cooled from its earlier intensity. Of particularsignificance was the role of the missionaries in the creation of a westernizedmiddle class, mainly in the interior of Asia Minor, where the Americans operatedproperly taught high schools for both boys and girls (Colleges). What was originalabout these schools’ objectives was that they served the actual needs of localsocial reality.The work of the missionaries of the American Board constitutes a new field ofstudy for scholars researching Asia Minor in the last century. Among the manydocuments of human geography left us by the missionaries, of particular interestare the early records of the founders of the Mission stations (1823-1870). Theseare usually reports in the form of travelers’ journals, drawn up on the instructionsof the American Board. They contain geographical descriptions of the region andaccounts of the culture and society of the various groups inhabiting it, as well asoffering statistical evidence allowing a more systematic study of social structure.The large number of journeys undertaken by the missionaries and the extent ofground they covered mean that their accounts are hard to match from othersources, and often, in fact, unique. This is why study of these records is proving sovaluable for research into the human geography of the Asia Minor region Because the archive material bequeathed by the missionaries and by theirofficial periodical, the Missionary Herald, has until now scarcely been used inresearch into Modern Greek History, the Director of the Center for Asia MinorStudies, Professor P. Kitromelides and the Professor of Turkish Studies at theUniversity of Crete, E. Zachariadou, have included the study of the AmericanBoard’s activities in Asia Minor in the new research program of the Center forAsia Minor Studies.
