The dark side of connectedness: forced migrations and mass violence between the late Tsarist and Ottoman empires (1853-1920)

Through a re‐reading of the historiography of the late Ottoman and Tsarist empires, this article repositions the extermination of Ottoman Armenians during the First World War into the connected history of the trans‐imperial region around the Black Sea since the Crimean War. It argues that the connection between episodes of violence against civilians and forced migrations in the Pontic rim is essential to properly understand late‐Ottoman exterminatory policies. It does so by showing how forced migrations fuelled mass violence and agrarian conflicts in the areas of settlement, and shaped the expectations of late‐imperial elites.