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U L A Ş D U Y G U A Y ELECTRIFICATION OF ISTANBUL (1878-1923) S A L C İ N A Ph.D. Dissertation E L E C T R I F I C A T I O N O F by I S T ULAŞ DUYGU AYSAL Cİ N A N B U L ( 1 8 7 8 - 1 9 2 3 ) B i l k e n t U n i v e r s Department of History i t y 2 İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University 0 1 9 Ankara January 2019 ELECTRIFICATION OF ISTANBUL (1878-1923) The Graduate School of Economics and Social Sciences of İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University by ULAŞ DUYGU AYSAL C İN In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY İHSAN DOĞRAMACI BİLKENT UNIVERSITY ANKARA January 2019 ABSTRACT ELECTRIFICATION OF ISTANBUL (1878-1923) Aysal Cin , Ulaş Duygu Ph.D., Department of History Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Akif K ireçci January 2019 This dissertation focuses on the history of introduction and development of electrical technology in Ottoman Istanbul with a special focus on the 1910 concession, and its implementation, which was held to construct the first power plant in Istanbul, the Si lahtarağa Power Plant. The concession became the arena for international competition, and revealed the critical roles of multinational companies, consortiums, and the international banking in the electrification business of Istanbul, along with the various diplomatic maneuvers of European and American states, which depicted the diffusion of foreign capital into the Ottoman lands. Under this complex competitive environment, rather than being a passive receptor of technology, the Ottoman bureaucracy and engineers played an active, well-informed and sophisticated role that they were able to select the appropriate technology to be applied in Silahtarağa plant, design necessary rules and regulations for it and control technology’s implementation stage. Keywords: Deutsche Bank, Electrification, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, Silahtarağa Power Plant. i ÖZET İSTANBUL’UN ELEKTRİFİKASYONU (1878-1923) Aysal Cin , Ulaş Duygu Doktora, Tarih Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Dr. Ögr. Üyesi Mehmet Akif K ireçci Ocak 2019 Bu çalışma, Osmanlı İstanbulu’nda elektrik teknolojisinin gelişim tarihini, kentin ilk santrali olan Silahtarağa Elektrik Santrali için 1910 yılında yapılan ihale, imtiyaz ve imtiyaz uygulama süreçlerine odaklanarak incelemektedir. Uluslararası rekabete konu olan İstanbul elektrik imtiyazı süreci, bu süreçte yer alan çok uluslu şirketler, konsorsiyumlar, ulularası bankacılık ve Avrupa ve Amerika Birleşik Devletlerinin Osmanlı İmparaorluğundaki diplomatik birimlerinin kritik rolünü ortaya çıkarmış ve yabancı sermayenin Osmanlı topraklarına girişini betimleyen bir vaka çalışması olmuştur. Uluslarası rekabetin bulunduğu bu ortamda, Osmanlı bürokrat ve mühendisleri ise elektrik tenolojisinin pasif bir alıcısı olmak yerine, Silahtarağa Santrali’nde kullanılacak uygun teknolojinin seçiminde; elektriğin üretimi, dağıtımı, tüketimi ve kontrolü konularına ilişkin düzenlemelerin yapılmasında ve teknolojinin uygulama sürecinin denetiminde aktif, bilgi sahibi ve sofistike bir davranış sergilemişlerdir. Anahtar Sözcükler: Deutsche Bank, Elektrifikasyon, İstanbul, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu, Silahtarağa Elektrik Santrali. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help of certain people. A special debt of gratitude is owed to my dissertation advisor, M. Akif Kireçci, who not only contributed my research by reading and criticizing it with his meticulous guidance and valuable remarks, he also supported me with his limitless patience and sense of humour. He was, and he has been professor, mentor, and even psychologist to me by his wisdom, enthusiasm, and patience. The members of my dissertation committe, Berrak Burçak and Evgeni Radushev, also deserve special gratitude for their valuable remarks and criticisms regarding my dissertation. I always felt their constant support and positive approach throughout the long years of writing my dissertation. I also thank Prof. Dr. Mehmet Seyitdanlıoğlu of Hacettepe University and Prof. Dr. Ömer Turan of Mi ddle East Technical University for their valuable suggestions. A number of institutions, provided me with generous financial support for my research. These include the Fulbright Fellowship Program for research at Princeton University, Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University Scholarship Program, Zentrum Moderner Orient Junior Researcher Fellowship Program to carry out research in Germany, and EDF France research award. During my archival research in several institutions, I received generous support from the archivists and librarians. Among them Mustafa Küçük in the Ottoman Archives of Istanbul and archivists of Deutsche Bank Archives deserves special thanks for their guidance through the dusty archival records. For a researcher, it becomes hard to obtain documents from the institutions, where special permission is needed to benefit. A number of people provided me with this special research opportunity. Among them, I am thankful to Prof. Dr. Tayfun Kindap, the Vice Rector at Istanbul Technical University, who generously let me to iii carry out research in the institutional archives of ITU. Burak Barutçu of ITU, also deserves special thanks for his expert knowledge in electrical engineering that he enlightened me on issues of electricity with patience when I was lost between volts and watts. I also thank Nilüfer Şen, Başak Tiniş and Faik Keskin who made the working life more bearable and pleasant that nothing could be better than warm chats for a person writing dissertation. Finally, I would like to thank my family, especially my mother, grandmother and my husband, Ertuğrul Cin for their generous support throughout my years in graduate school. iv To Türkan and Vildan v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................ .................. i ÖZET ................................................................................................ ............................ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................ ........................ iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................ ............................ vi LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................ ...... xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................ .................... xii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................ ................. 1 1.1. Setting the Problem ............................................................................................... 1 1.1.1. Electrification and Ottoman Modernization Project ................................ ... 5 1.1.2. Transfer of Western Technology into the Ottoman Lands ......................... 8 1.1.3. The Activities of Multinational Companies and International Finance in Istanbul’s Electrification ................................ ........................ 11 1.2. Methodology ................................................................................................ ....... 12 1.2.1. Archival Works ................................................................ ........................ 14 1.3. Critical Review of the Literature ................................................................ ........ 20 1.4. Chapters ................................................................................................ .............. 34 CHAPTER II: LIGHTING OF ISTANBUL BEFORE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SİLAHTARAĞA POWER PLANT ................................................................ .... 39 2.1. Lighting of Istanbul before the Introduction of Electricity ................................ 40 2.2. History of Electricity in the Ottoman Empire before the Establishment of the Silahtarağa Power Plant ................................................................ ................ 44 2.2.1. Early Contacts of the Ottomans with Electricity ................................ ...... 45 2.2.2. Electrification in the Ottoman Empire before the Establishment of Silahtarağa ................................................................................................ 56 vi 2.3. Conclusion ................................................................................................ .......... 63 CHAPTER III: IDEAS ON “ELECTRICITY AND THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE” AS FOLLOWED IN THE FOREIGN COUNTRY SOURCES ................................ 66 3.1. Literature on the idea of “necessity of electricity in the Ottoman Empire” ........ 66 3.2. Literature on the Developments of Public Works and Electrification Business in the Ottoman Empire ................................................................ ....................... 68 3.3. Conclusion ................................................................................................ .......... 84 CHAPTER IV: WORLD’S ELECTRICAL ENVIRONMENT BEFORE AND AFTER THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SİLAHTARAĞA POWER PLANT ............ 86 4.1. Electrical Developments in Global Scale: Global Electrification ....................... 87 4.2. Electrification in the Neighboring Countries to the Ottoman Empire ................ 89 4.3. Contemporary Electrification Examples from Europe ................................ ........ 91 4.4. Competition for Electrifying the World: Foreign Investment, Multinational Companies and International Finance ................................................................ 92 4.5. Multinational