The Ottoman Consuls in Boston, 1845–1914: An Untold Story

Abstract:The Ottomans institutionalized and expanded their diplomatic and consular affairs in the first half of the nineteenth century. The bridgehead of the Ottoman consular initiative to the New World was Boston. In 1845, twenty-two years before the opening of the Ottoman legation in Washington, Boston became the first city in the Western Hemisphere to ever host an Ottoman consul. The Ottoman consular presence in this city, which lasted unremittingly until 1914, is unmapped, as is also the case with the rest of the US. The empire's consuls in Boston acted mostly in line with the playbook of nineteenth century diplomacy: While in the first three decades they mainly facilitated Ottoman-American maritime trade, from 1880s onwards, they gradually became more involved in carrying out political duties. This study, which sets to identify the six Ottoman consuls in Boston for the first time, mirrors through their stories such diverse issues as the development of trade, structural reforms, minorities, immigration, nationalist movements, and transcending ethnic and religious identities coloring the late Ottoman world. It also shows that with a belated and limited consular presence, the Ottomans remained rather unassertive in the US compared to rival European powers.