ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Foreign Engineers in the late Ottoman Empire

• In Event: Technical Professions and the Making of Middle Classes: Transnational Perspectives from the 19th to the 20th Century

English Abstract

The Ottoman lands experienced growing foreign investment since the Crimean War. Moreover, the Ottoman elites, too, engaged in mining, infrastructure building, and urban development. These trends led to a growing need for expert technicians that was met by training local men, hiring and importing foreign engineers and technical staff through official channels, and also due to experts themselves taking the initiative and coming to the Ottoman lands.
These engineers socialized, created professional associations and published professional journals. Besides their professional activities, I will discuss their life in the Ottoman Empire, their sociability, their networks and their relationship with local and foreign colleagues, authorities and entrepreneurs.

Author

• Darina Martykanova, Autonomous University of Madrid