Réseau d'excellence Ramses²
La Méditerranée : échelles et figures de l'histoire,
Cycle de conférences : Penser la Méditerranée
6 février 2007, Alex-Med, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandrie, Egypte.

A look at the transformations witnessed the region throughout the period, focusing on the ways in which these changes can be interpreted from the perspective of the development of the region. For although there is no doubt that the Mediterranean in general, and the Eastern Mediterranean in particular, were losing much of their former pre-eminence and power, and were being marginalized by the rapid development of a global economy centered on the Atlantic front, this process did not exclude a certain form of dynamism, which, although growingly dependent on new and powerful actors from outside the region, nevertheless promoted the intensification of certain social, cultural, and economic networks throughout the basin. The talk will therefore attempt to give a balanced account of the ambiguous and sometimes paradoxical ways in which decline and revival characterized jointly the destiny of this multicultural environment during these two centuries.