In Monday’s class on the 5th, we covered some common fallacies in thinking about history, such as teleology. We then covered an overview of the key forces and trends of the 1900s, after which Professor Friedman went in depth on the city of Jaffa and its surrounding influences.

Jaffa was a small port city, which became a focal point of change in the 1900s. The city was a point of contact between the European Christendom and the Ottoman Empire. During this time, a weakened Ottoman Empire was attempting reform in order to remain competent with Europe. This reform included the transformation of land from communal to private use that resulted in peasants losing land to become tenant farms. The Ottoman Empire also signed an agreement with 5 European states that allowed these nations to do trade within the Ottoman Empire without being subject to Ottoman laws. Land became commonly used to produce cash crops for export to Europe, and the land of Jaffa was no exception with it being used to produce Jaffa oranges. This trade with Europe was expedited by the invention of the steamship which made travel across the Mediterranean easier. The steamship also bolstered another significant influence on Jaffa which was the draw of tourism and religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem that caused the land outside Jaffa to be established as a Jewish agricultural community. Ultimately, by studying the city of Jaffa, we can better contextualize and understand the forces of change that were occuring more broadly between Europe and the Ottoman Empire in the 1900s.