In the 19th century, port cities served as entrepôts between Mediterranean consumers and a variety of goods produced in the West. In his recently-published book, Port Cities of the Eastern Mediterranean: Urban Culture in the Late Ottoman Empire, (CUP 2020) Malte Fuhrmann addresses beer, a beverage that met Ottoman consumers in the 19th century through port cities such as Constantinople, Salonica, and Smyrna, as 'a commodity of Westernisation'. According to Fuhrmann, while the beverage and the forms of socialisation it engendered gave the consumers a sense of integration into a wider, European cosmopolitan culture, its increasing popularity provoked and/or consolidated rifts between groups with differing political and economic interests. What were the changes triggered by the consumption of new alcoholic beverages in port cities beyond the Eastern Mediterranean?
Image: Abdullah Frères, [The new bridge] / Constantinople, 1880 - 1993. Abdul Hamid II Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.