Séminaire ouvert d’histoire économique / Ανοιχτό σεμινάριο οικονομικής ιστορίας
An Ottoman Businessman in a post-Ottoman World:the Case of Bodosakis-Athanasiadis
Mogens Pelt University of Copenhagen
Archives Historiques de l’Université d’Athènes , Skoufa 45 / Ιστορικό Αρχείο Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών, Σκουφά 45
En collaboration avec Alpha Bank
Σε συνεργασία με την Alpha BankProgramme 2017-2018
Σε συνεργασία με την Alpha BankProgramme 2017-2018
Prodromos Bodosakis-Athanasiadis was born in Bor in Cappadocia around 1890. He died in Athens in 1979.
In the Ottoman Empire Bodosakis became one of the main contractors of the Ottoman armies in Cilicia during the First World War and a main supplier to the construction sites of the Berlin Baghdad Railway in the same region. After the war and before the exchange of populations he built up a strong position as a supplier in the service of the French mandate authorities in Cilicia while at the same time he established good relations to occupying Entente powers in Istanbul. In Greece Bodosakis became one of the country’s leading industrialists; he played a pivotal role in engaging German industry in Greece, in the inter-war period as well as in the post-war period; he was an important link between Greek business and government on the one hand and US political and business interest on the other during the crucial period when Washington decided to engage itself economically and politically in post-war Europe as later formulated in the Truman Doctrine and practiced by the European Recovery Program (Marshall Aid).
In the inter-war period, he made himself a name as one of the leading arms traders in the Mediterranean. He was selling to Spain, Romania, Turkey and to the Middle East, and, according to British sources he was the only one who would be able to bring arms across the Mediterranean in time of war. In this way Bodosakis’ career transcends his own time and place while his individual agency links issues connected with high politics and business in a time of epochal crisis and rapid change; this also means that his story is one of impersonal forces, of an economic, social and political nature.
The lecture focuses on the major transformative experiences that shaped the career of Bodosakis; on how he developed his business in the ‘new worlds’ he entered. It also discusses the relationship between his career in Greece and his background in the Ottoman Empire as well as the most important of his networks and how they were established.
In the Ottoman Empire Bodosakis became one of the main contractors of the Ottoman armies in Cilicia during the First World War and a main supplier to the construction sites of the Berlin Baghdad Railway in the same region. After the war and before the exchange of populations he built up a strong position as a supplier in the service of the French mandate authorities in Cilicia while at the same time he established good relations to occupying Entente powers in Istanbul. In Greece Bodosakis became one of the country’s leading industrialists; he played a pivotal role in engaging German industry in Greece, in the inter-war period as well as in the post-war period; he was an important link between Greek business and government on the one hand and US political and business interest on the other during the crucial period when Washington decided to engage itself economically and politically in post-war Europe as later formulated in the Truman Doctrine and practiced by the European Recovery Program (Marshall Aid).
In the inter-war period, he made himself a name as one of the leading arms traders in the Mediterranean. He was selling to Spain, Romania, Turkey and to the Middle East, and, according to British sources he was the only one who would be able to bring arms across the Mediterranean in time of war. In this way Bodosakis’ career transcends his own time and place while his individual agency links issues connected with high politics and business in a time of epochal crisis and rapid change; this also means that his story is one of impersonal forces, of an economic, social and political nature.
The lecture focuses on the major transformative experiences that shaped the career of Bodosakis; on how he developed his business in the ‘new worlds’ he entered. It also discusses the relationship between his career in Greece and his background in the Ottoman Empire as well as the most important of his networks and how they were established.
CONTACTSSophia Zoumboulaki
Assistante administrative pour la Direction des Études
sophia.zoumboulaki@efa.gr
+ 30 210 36 79 904
Assistante administrative pour la Direction des Études
sophia.zoumboulaki@efa.gr
+ 30 210 36 79 904
Nolwenn Grémillet
Communication
nolwenn.gremillet@efa.gr
+ 30 210 36 79 943