Mare Nostrum
Mare Nostrum (/ˌmɑːrɪ ˈnɒstrəm/;[1] Latin: "Our Sea") was a Roman name for the Mediterranean Sea. In Classical Latin, it would have been pronounced [ˈma.rɛ ˈnɔs.t̪rʊ̃ː], and in Ecclesiastical Latin, it is pronounced [ˈmaː.rɛ ˈnɔs.t̪rum].
In the decades following the 1861
Roman usage
The term Mare Nostrum originally was used by the
Italian nationalist usage
In the decades following the 1861 unification of Italy, Italian nationalists who saw Italy as the successor state to the Roman Empire attempted to revive the term.[2] In particular, the rise of Italian nationalism during the "Scramble for Africa" of the 1880s led to calls for the establishment of an Italian colonial empire, which introduced for the first time a renewed and modern concept of Mare Nostrum:[5]
Even if the coast of Tripoli were a desert, even if it would not support one peasant or one Italian business firm, we still need to take it to avoid being suffocated in Mare Nostrum.
Fascist usage
The term was again taken up by
When World War II started, Italy was already a major Mediterranean power that controlled the north and south shores of the central basin. After the fall of France removed the main threat from the west, the British
Mussolini wished to create an
Contemporary usage
Mare Nostrum is the title of a best-selling novel by Spanish author Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, published in 1918. A film based on it was released in 1948.
The term "Mare Nostrum" was chosen as the theme for the Inaugural Conference of the Society for Mediterranean Law and Culture, being held in June 2012 at the University of Cagliari Faculty of Law, Sardinia, Italy ("La Conferenza Inaugurale della Società di Diritto e Cultura del Mediterraneo").[9] In this contemporary usage, the term is intended to embrace the full diversity of Mediterranean cultures, with a particular focus on exchanges and cooperation among Mediterranean nations.[9]
Following the 2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck, the Italian government decided to strengthen the national system for the patrolling of the Mediterranean sea by authorizing "Operation Mare Nostrum", a military and humanitarian operation in order to rescue the migrants and arrest the traffickers of immigrants.[10]
See also
References
Citations
- ^ "Mare Nostrum". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ a b c Lowe (2002), p.34
- ^ Couperus (1993), p.32
- ^ Online Etymology Dictionary. "Mediterranean". Accessed 29 Aug 2011.
- ^ Raymond F. Betts (1975). The False Dawn: European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century. Univ. of Minnesota Pr. p. 12.
- ^ Anthony Rhodes, Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II, p70 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York
- ^ Fleming, Thomas. The New Dealers' War. Perseus Books,2001
- ^ Italian naval operations in the Mediterranean, such as the Battle of Cape Matapan, are included in the Battle of the Mediterranean
- ^ a b "International Law Prof Blog". typepad.com.
- ^ "L'OPERAZIONE MARE NOSTRUM - eurasia-rivista.org". eurasia-rivista.org. Archived from the original on 2014-07-18.
Bibliography
- Lowe, C.J. (2002). Italian Foreign Policy 1870–1940. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-27372-2.
- Tellegen-Couperus, Olga (1993). Short History of Roman Law. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-07251-4.
- Talbert, R., M. E. Downs, M. Joann McDaniel, B. Z. Lund, T. Elliott, S. Gillies. "Places: 1043 (Internum Mare)". Pleiades. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
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