Antalya Railway Line Project during Ottoman the Empire Period

Abstract

As one of the important results of industrialization, railways have been adopted and demanded by the Ottoman Empire because it was one of the reliable and fast transportation vehicles of the 19th century period, offered military benefits, and provided political advantages with its strategic aspects. The railways, which are accepted as a requirement of the modernization movement, have been considered important for the connection between the ports and the inner regions of the Ottoman territory. For this reason, one of the regions where domestic and foreign investors were offered proposals for the construction of the railway to the Ottoman Empire was the Antalya line, a port and a trade area. In this study, the railway activities in the Ottoman Empire will be discussed with a general historical evaluation, then the Antalya railway line project which was planned to be built but not realized will be emphasized and the reasons of the failure of this line, which still does not exist today, will be mentioned. With this study, it is aimed to provide a ground for the reasons why this line, which was planned to be built during the Ottoman Empire, could not be realized until today