The Ottoman Crisis in Western Anatolia: Turkey’s Belle Epoque and the Transition to a Modern Nation State

Ottoman Turkey’s coastal provinces in the early nineteenth century were economic powerhouses, teeming with innovation, wealth and energy – a legacy of the Ottoman’s outward-looking and trade-orentated diplomacy. By the middle of the century, the wide-ranging and radical process of modernization – known collectively as the Tanzimat – was underway, in part a symptom of a slow decline in Ottoman financial strength. By the 1920s, the coastal cities were ghost towns. The Ottoman Crisis in Western Anatolia seeks to unpick how and why this happened. A detailed, rich and authoritative regional study, this book offers a unique and original insight into the effects of forced migration, displacement, economic reorganization and the competing political ideologies focused on ‘modernization’ – all of which are central to the study of the late Ottoman Empire.