In the 1820s American Protestant evangelists, Congregationalists in particular, sailed to the Eastern Mediterranean to enhance American Protestant influence in the Holy Land and to proselytize the people of the area to Protestantism. They arrived in the Near East on a self-assigned religious and cultural mission to illuminate and save the "nominal" Christians in the area, that is Greeks and Armenians, as well as spread superior American cultural and material values. A successful missionary enterprise abroad, the American evangelists anticipated, would, in turn, contribute to the strengthening of churches and society at home.
Their initial goal was to convert to Protestantism the Greek subjects of the Ottoman empire as well as the Greeks of the newly established independent Greek state and inculcate the citizens of the new state with the values of representative government. However, their efforts in Greece were restricted to a significant extent as both the Greek Orthodox church and the Greek government viewed the missionaries as a threat to their culture and religion. The Ottoman Greeks and Armenians also rejected proselytism but responded positively to the missionary educational and philanthropic work. Surprisingly, the Ottoman government accommodated such cultural and religious intervention among its non Muslim subjects because throughout the nineteenth century Ottoman sultans pursued a series of reforms based on strong western influences. As a result, the Ottoman empire became the field of successful American missionary operations until 1914.
Through their educational and philanthropic undertakings, American Congregationalists left a lasting legacy in the Near East. They established a tradition of American voluntarism and cultural expansion that spans over one hundred years. In the absence of active U.S. diplomatic interest in the Eastern Mediterranean until the First World War, the missionary endeavors introduced the cultures and politics of the Near East to the American society and reinforced American fascination with the area's glorious classical antiquity and early Christian past. In turn, Greeks and other Near Eastern Christians became acquainted with secular, modernizing American norms and values.
In this paper I will delineate the influence of the private missionary undertakings upon the American presence in the Eastern Mediterranean. I will argue that missionaries enhanced the American cultural penetration of the Near East and helped establish a visible American presence. In the eyes of Greeks and other Near Eastern people, this seemingly nonpolitical American cultural involvement was an act of American benevolence in contrast to the aggressive diplomacy and dominant economic presence of the European powers in the area. Cultural expansion paved the way for America's entry into the diplomacy and economy of the Near East and afforded the U.S. the image of a benign power.
I will also discuss the experiences of travel and adventure, the complex cultural encounter, and its impact upon the missionaries. In spite of their fascination with the history of the area, the latter carried an attitude of superiority toward the people of the Near East. However, over time they were changed by the encounter and came to recognize common values they shared with the Near Eastern societies and to appreciate the traditions of the host cultures.
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