Eating the last seed : famine, empire, survival and order in Ottoman Anatolia in the late 19th century

Resource Information

The work Eating the last seed : famine, empire, survival and order in Ottoman Anatolia in the late 19th century represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Eating the last seed : famine, empire, survival and order in Ottoman Anatolia in the late 19th century

Title remainder

famine, empire, survival and order in Ottoman Anatolia in the late 19th century

Statement of responsibility

Ertem Özge

Creator

• Ertem, Özge

Contributor

• European University Institute, Department of History and Civilization

Subject

• Turkey -- Economic conditions -- 19th century
• Turkey -- Politics and government -- 19th century
• Famines -- Turkey -- History -- 19th century
• Turkey -- Social conditions -- 19th century

Language

eng

Summary

This dissertation explores the social and cultural history of two Anatolian famines in the late-Ottoman Empire, situating them in the economic and political environment of the 1870s. It focuses on the central Anatolian famine of 1873/75 and the eastern Anatolian famine of 1879/81. It investigates how and why these disasters emerged, and how the local, imperial and foreign actors in Ottoman lands experienced and perceived them. It argues that particular socio-economic and political environments transformed droughts and natural events into severe disasters. It is at the crossroads of social, cultural and environmental history, but focuses more on relationships between people than relations between people and nature. Thus, despite the fact that it draws on environmental historical sources and findings in several instances, it mainly contributes to the social and cultural history and narratives of Ottoman Anatolia. It asks the following questions: 1) How did the famines impact the everyday lives of various communities in central and eastern Anatolia? 2) How were the famines perceived by imperial, local and foreign actors? 3) In what ways did these disasters threaten the internal and external legitimacy of the Ottoman state? 4) How did the famines create the conditions for the emergence of social clashes, and also for the development of solidarities within and between different communities? It demonstrates that famine led to simultaneous cases of violence and solidarity. Economic problems crosscut religious-ethnic tensions; and socio-economic problems and ordinary political complaints, when merged with famine, were expressed as communal tensions as well as solidarities. Famine was not the sole reason for this; however, it became one of the most significant triggers of social, political, ethnic and religious unrest in the following decades in a region already exhausted by war-time requisitons, plundering, violence and poverty

Member of

• EUI PhD theses

Cataloging source

IT-FiEUI

Date time place

Defence date: 25 September 2012

Dissertation note

Thesis (Ph. D.)--European University Institute (HEC), 2012.

Index

no index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

theses

Series statement

• EUI PhD theses
• EUI theses