Latest / The Story of Armenia: Survival Through Empires and Genocide — Fexingo History / The Armenian Diaspora Before the Genocide: Global Networks 1600-1900
Transcript
- Lucas: So for episode 100, I wanted to step back from battles and kingdoms and look at something that really defines Armenian history — the diaspora. But not the one people usually think of, the post-genocide diaspora. There was already a huge, sophisticated Armenian network spanning the globe centuries before 1915. Luna: I think most people assume the diaspora started with the genocide. Lucas: Right, and that's what we usually cover. But by the 1600s, Armenian merchants had colonies from Burma to Amsterdam. The key was New Julfa — Nor Jugha in Armenian — a suburb of Isfahan in Persia. In 1604, Shah Abbas I forcibly relocated tens of thousands of Armenians from the town of Julfa in Nakhichevan to his new capital. He wanted their commercial skills. And it worked — within a generation, Julfan Armenians controlled the silk trade across Asia. Luna: So he basically kidnapped an entire merchant class and made them his economic engine? Lucas: Exactly. But the Armenians turned it to their advantage. They established a trading network with fixed routes, agents, and credit systems stretching from Livorno to Manila. A Julfan merchant in 1650 could send a letter from Isfahan to Venice and get a reply in eighteen months. They had their own legal system, their own churches, and they were famously trustworthy — the English East India Company often preferred Armenian agents because they didn't embezzle. And they maintained their Armenian identity fiercely. They printed books in Armenian, built schools, and kept the church alive far from Etchmiadzin. Luna: Was that the first Armenian printing press? Lucas: Close. The first Armenian book was printed in Venice in 1512, but that was by a single publisher. The real boom came later. In 1772, an Armenian merchant in Madras, Shahamir Shahamirian, printed a visionary constitution called 'Snare of Glory' — Girk Vorogayt Parats — which laid out a future independent Armenian republic. It was radical, way ahead of its time. And in 1794, the first Armenian newspaper, 'Azdarar' — The Monitor — started in Madras. So the diaspora was not just trading silk; it was incubating nationalism. Luna: Wait, the first Armenian newspaper was in India? Lucas: Yes, in Madras, by a community of about three hundred families. They had their own church, school, and printing press. They saw themselves as the vanguard of a national awakening. Meanwhile, in Venice, an Armenian Catholic monk named Mkhitar Sebastatsi founded a monastery on the island of San Lazzaro in 1717. His order, the Mkhitarists, became the greatest publishers of Armenian texts — ancient histories, grammars, dictionaries. Without them, many classical Armenian works would have been lost. They were basically a one-man Renaissance for Armenian letters. Luna: So the diaspora was a kind of second homeland, keeping language and religion alive. Lucas: Exactly. And they also had a system of self-governance called the 'armat' — literally 'root' — a communal fund managed by the church or by merchant councils. In Calcutta, the Armenian community ran its own court, its own poor relief, its own schools. They even had a cemetery that still exists, with elaborate tombstones in Armenian and English. These communities were small — never more than a few thousand in any city — but they were incredibly influential. They funded the first Armenian magazines, sent money to schools in the homeland, and lobbied European governments on Armenian issues. When the Hamidian massacres happened in the 1890s, it was diaspora networks in London, Paris, and New York that organized relief and press campaigns. Luna: That makes the genocide even more tragic — they had built this global infrastructure, and then it was used to respond to annihilation. Lucas: It did. But I also want to emphasize the positive side: these communities thrived for centuries. They were not just refugees; they were entrepreneurs, scholars, diplomats. The Julfan merchants had their own churches in Amsterdam in the 1660s. There was an Armenian community in Burma — in Rangoon — by the 1700s, trading teak and rubies. They married into local elites, but kept their Armenian identity through language and the church. And they constantly sent money and books back to the homeland. So when we talk about the Armenian diaspora, we're talking about one of the oldest continuous global networks in history. Luna: It's like a prototype of globalization, but by a people without a state. Lucas: Exactly. And that network was crucial later. During the genocide, these communities — especially in the US, France, and Russia — mobilized aid and advocacy. But the foundations were laid centuries earlier. If today was actually useful to you, the way these stay ad-free is listener support — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. We don't do sponsors, so it's just people who find value in the show who keep us going. Luna: Yeah, it's how we can keep diving deep into these stories without interrupting for ads. Lucas: So that early diaspora — the Julfan merchants, the Mkhitarist monks, the Madras visionaries — they built something astonishing. And when the homeland was under threat, that network became a lifeline. I think that's a story worth remembering, especially as we approach the centenary of the genocide's aftermath. Luna: It changes how I think about diaspora — not just as loss, but as a kind of power. Lucas: Exactly. And that power is still alive today. Thanks for joining us for episode 100.