Eskişehir at the Beginning of the 20th Century

Abstract

Eskisehir, a miserable town and a kaza district in the 19th century, was the center of the activities of agriculture, husbandry and, to a certain extent, mining. With the arrival of the railway route to the town, Eskisehir became strategically important on the one hand, and prospered commercially, on the other hand. This was the major reason behind the English occupation of the railway station of the town in comply with the stipulations of the Armstice of Moudros signed after World War. The English had to withdraw from the town in the face of the support given to the national resistance in the area and the ensuing ultimatum of the national side following the formation of the national forces. Thereupon the Greeks occupied Eskişehir, which brought the town under Greek control for one year, one month and 14 days before it came to an end by the Turkish victory in the national war of independence. But the Greeks did not abstain from devastating the town before they evacuated it, as they did throughout the rest of Western Anatolia. Eskisehir, which was praised by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk due to the support it gave to the national resistence, has re-born from its ashes and enjoyed a revival in the fields of education, agriculture, industry, commerce and banking thanks to the measures taken by the Turkish National Assembly and its governments.