Cosmopolitan Encounters and Everyday Exclusions: Izmir in Early Nineteenth Century American Travelogues

This article explores early nineteenth century American travel narratives about Izmir, focusing on how these texts reflect both the city’s complex cosmopolitan character and the tension embedded in the formation of American national identity, and carries a fresh perspective shaped by U.S. nation-building and the ideology of Manifest Destiny. In the midst of the expansionism debate, Americans endeavored to define the American identity and their democratic rights who would become future citizens if they proceeded with westward expansion, even if it meant establishing a cosmopolitan empire. To that end, they engaged with the multiplicity of the Ottoman Izmir, with a subtle critique of their own empire in the making. Through close readings of certain travelogues, the article analyzes how Izmir’s urban landscape with its layered multiculturalism and spatial segregation served as both a site of fascination and disorientation for Americans negotiating their place in a Euro-dominated world. These travel accounts reveal the contradictions between American ideals of unity and the challenges posed by multicultural realities abroad. In doing so, the article contributes to broader discussions of Ottoman urban history and American exceptionalism by highlighting Izmir as a mirror through which Americans confronted the tensions within their own national narrative.