Diplomacy, evangelism and reform: Abdülhamid II and American Protestant missionaries, 1876 - 1890

Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to understand how the Ottoman authorities increasingly viewed the American Protestant missionaries associated with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), the largest American missionary body present in the Ottoman Empire, as elements threatening to the security and survival of the empire by the beginning of the Hamidian period. Making use of Ottoman and American archival materials, missionary documents, memoirs of diplomats and missionaries, this thesis offers a set of political and structural reasons for the deterioration of relations between the missionary body and the Ottoman government. This thesis also highlights the transnational nature of the ABCFM network in the Ottoman Empire. It investigates how it developed into becoming an international actor, mediating between polities and lobbying for its agenda at international forums.