Ottoman ‘Infrastructure Governors’ as Agents of Technological and Economic Modernization

In: Transforming Southeast Europe During the Long 19th Century
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Florian Riedler
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Abstract

This chapter examines the role of a group of Ottoman administrators in the modernization of the transport infrastructure of Southeast Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. It focuses mainly on road construction by provincial governors such as Midhat Pasha in the Danube Province and his counterparts in Bosnia, Edirne, and Syria as examples of the evolution of Ottoman infrastructural governance. To understand the role of these governors as agents of modernization the study will address the concept of infrastructure that was developed by the Ottoman elite in the Tanzimat era. Moreover, the institutional framework of the Ottoman provincial administration, which gave the governors the powers to implement the reform policy, will also be traced. The interaction between the governors’ personalities, their regional experiences with road construction, and the institutional and legal framework proved decisive for the roads to become the first infrastructure in a modern sense to emerge in the Ottoman Empire.

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Transforming Southeast Europe During the Long 19th Century

Persons and Personalities as Agents of Modernization in the Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Space

Series:  Balkan Studies Library, Volume: 35
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