Imperial Persuasion: British War Propaganda and the Manufacture of Consent in Colonial Cyprus in World War I
JOURNAL OF IMPERIAL AND COMMONWEALTH HISTORY, 2026 (AHCI, Scopus)
- Publication Type: Article / Article
- Publication Date: 2026
- Doi Number: 10.1080/03086534.2026.2661695
- Journal Name: JOURNAL OF IMPERIAL AND COMMONWEALTH HISTORY
- Journal Indexes: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Scopus, IBZ Online, American History and Life, Historical Abstracts, Index Islamicus, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Political Science Complete
- Dokuz Eylül University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
This article examines the recruitment strategies employed by the British colonial administration to mobilise the Orthodox Greek and Muslim Turkish Cypriot communities for the Macedonian Mule Corps during the First World War. While colonial mobilisation is often associated with imperial patriotism or direct coercion, this study argues that Britain employed a multifaceted, pragmatic consent mechanism in Cyprus to navigate the island's fragile socio-political landscape. Following the island's annexation in 1914, the British administration had to suppress standard imperial narratives to avoid antagonising a population that had been Ottoman subjects until a few years earlier. Drawing on Antonio Gramsci's framework of 'hegemony', the article reveals how Britain shifted from ideological persuasion to an economic mobilisation model.