The Role of Mining in Development of Railways in Turkey

The Role of Mining in Development of Railways in Turkey

ÖZDEMİR, Ünal

Increase of mass production, which is an important indication of Industrial Revolution, requires a change in transportation method. Particularly, railways made it possible to transfer iron and coal ores produced in the central part of Turkey to the ports and plants on the costal towns and cities. This made railways a strong rival to the waterways (rivers and sea ways) and roads. This fast and reliable new transportation also affected the Ottoman Government. The railway transportation, which had been started with the help of western companies due to the economic difficulties, has gained acceleration with the start of Republican period. At this context, together with nationalization of current railways, new railways were also constructed to improve transportation inside the country with military, political and economic aims. Reaching to the mine reserves inside the country and transporting them to the plants were among the aims of constructing railways. The new routes of railways which were sloganised as reaching coal, reaching iron, reaching copper were played an important role in development of Turkish railways. In this study, the role of mining in development of railways in Turkey was investigated with a geographical perspective.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2009-06

643