The Adriatic question revisited: Carlo Maranelli and the multifaceted geographies of the sea

Abstract

Engaging with the literature that since Horden's and Purcell's The Corrupting Sea has reflected on the multicultural dimension of the Mediterranean over the long period, this paper aims to discuss Carlo Maranelli's (1876–1939) perspective on the Adriatic Sea, highlighting his radical democratic view and situating his contribution in the present post-national and multicultural scenario. Despite not being renowned in the international debate, Maranelli is a key figure as an anti-colonialist and social-democratic geographer in the context of natural positivist and nationalist Italian geography in the Age of Empire. At the 6th Italian Geographical Congress in 1907, Maranelli discussed a paper on the economic geography of the Adriatic, in which he emphasized the multicultural dimension of trade and networks on both sides of the sea, linked to the historical framework of different languages, rules, and traditions that coexisted and shaped the Adriatic space. His views challenged the nationalist perspectives that dominated mainstream geographical analyses at the time and aimed to sustain an imperialist project of domination, later actualized by the narrative of the Mare Nostrum, linked to the fascist goal of extending Italian domination over the entire Mediterranean. We argue that rediscovering Maranelli's work on the Adriatic can be useful in the current debates for a relational and inclusive perspective on the Mediterranean and its inhabitants.