French Urbanism in the Middle East

  • Ambe J. Njoh
Chapter
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Abstract

While only seldom mentioned, France has always played an active role in efforts to shape the spatial and physical structures of the Middle East. This does not imply the presence of large-scale spatial or physical projects of the genre found in other locales with a history of French control. One reason for this is the fact that the French did not view the Middle-East as the valuable prize of colonization that other regions such as Indochina and Africa were. Another reason is the fact that the Middle-East has a rich history of human settlements in particular and built space in general that predated the French colonial enterprise. Nevertheless, marks of French urbanism are difficult to miss in the region. This chapter discusses the genesis and evolution of the most conspicuous of these marks.

Keywords

Aleppo Ancient cities Ankara Barriers Beirut Damascus Diffusion of French urbanism French colonial urbanism Haifa Istanbul Middle-East Tel Aviv 
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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Ambe J. Njoh
    • 1
  1. 1.School of GeosciencesUniversity of South FloridaTampaUSA

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