Internationalism in the Mediterranean 1919-1942

Abstract

Internationalism as a process, as a practice of socio‐political organisation and as a principle is a useful tool by which to analyse the development of independence movements in North Africa during the inter‐war years. Two internationalist traditions interacted in this process, socialist internationalism and Islamic internationalism, with the former demonstrating the ambiguities inherent in the colonial experience and the latter obliged to interact with it as a result of the integration of North Africa into the colonialist capitalist world. Such an analytical approach is important both to illuminate North African nationalism and to counter more recent and particularistic readings of North African contemporary history.