Approaches to Historic City for the Favor of Internationalization During the Nationalist Contest of Interwar Period

The idea that cultural heritage can have a role in constructing and sustaining a peaceful world, which is the principle which formed UNESCO in the postwar context, has first emerged in the interwar period which is, ironically, a period that presents a context dominated by nationalism, colonialism, and fascism. The foundation of League of Nations (1920-1946) has enacted first campaigns to use archaeology, archaeological campaigns, archaeological conservation, and museum creation and management as a means to highlight the common shared roots of humanity. With the 1919 Treaty of Sèvres, and in particular with its Article 421 and its annex, the League was proposing a scientific management of all archaeological sites all over the world. Yet, management of areas in Africa, Asian, south America and Pacifics by an elite group representationally dominated by European and North American scholars, in a way, was reproducing colonial dynamics. In the same area, a scientific approach to town planning was being promoted especially by the pioneering figures of the CIAM-led modernist understanding of architectural and urban space. A certain awareness has also emerged simultaneously, which is best represented in the works of Gustavo Giovannoni (1873-1947), for the documentation, analysis, study, and preservation of historic cities. This was both as a reaction against the CIAM-pioneered modernist town planning understanding and as an early recognition of historic cities as cultural heritage. The contribution these dynamics and approaches to historic cities, discussing these approaches not merely as a town planning approach but also as a way of securing peace and achieving resilience.