This thesis explores the transformation of public health and medical structures in the Mediterranean island colonies of Malta, Cyprus and the Ionian Islands during the nineteenth century. It focuses on the Mediterranean region as the centre of British imperial politics where the island colonies played an important economic and political role. In this British 'lake', the island colonies reaffirmed their geo-strategic importance. This thesis explores the idea that the Mediterranean region and the island colonies became a cordon sanitaire between the 'pestilential' East and the Maghreb, and 'civilised healthy' Europe. Here, the limelight is on the European island colonies in the Mediterranean. In these small island colonies, the major English health reforms were enforced by total state intervention and centralisation. Furthermore, this research illustrates the differences in management of hospitals and medical charities, in particular, the dissimilitude between the administration of public health in England and that in the Mediterranean colonies. This work contributes to the history of medicine and public health literature as it questions the notion of the 'West and the rest'. Since Mediterranean colonies were also called European colonies, suddenly the notion of the West (as one single entity) colonising the rest of the World, loses its applicability. These Mediterranean colonies were geographically part of Europe but not part of the dominating European powers. Thus, this research argues that, geographically and ideologically, the study of Mediterranean colonies demonstrates a grey area within colonial historiography and the literature on colonial medicine. This work consists of four chapters, each discussing various selective themes like isolation, segregation, medical travellers, medical charities and state intervention, with the aim of illustrating the major arguments of this thesis.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:640952 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Duncan, Josette |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/66491/ |
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