Industrialization and Urbanization in Turkey at the beginning of the 20th Century

The starting point of this study is the fact that every production system entails a specific
spatial organization and changes its physical environment. This research is an attempt to
understand the industrialization period of Turkey’s Early Republican Period (1930’s) and
the spatial effects of the new production system. Right after the Turkish War of
Independence, The Republican Government of Turkey had aimed to establish an
independent country and started to carry out a modernization and contemporization
project. This project had different dimensions appealing to the institutional, economical,
social and civic aspects of Turkey. The economical dimension included the
industrialization and economical independence of Turkey. Besides from its economical,
political and social goals, the Republican Government had aimed to change the
physical appearance of the country. The Government’s first goal was to turn the
country into the space of National Turkish Republic State from an empire’s land. Secondly,
the small towns or settlements of the country were supposed to become modern cities, the
places of modernity, just like the modern cities of the industrial and developed countries of
the world. That explains why the factories which were set up all around the country had
played such a crucial role in the modernization period of Turkey at the beginning of the
Republican era. They were not only economical achievements of the state; they also affected
their physical and social environments and introduced the modern way of living particularly
where they were set up.
JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS (2020), 4(2), 87-94.
https://doi.org/10.25034/ijcua.2020.v4n2-8