Former Fellows

My project analyzes the politics of European business ventures in the Ottoman Empire between 1850 and 1880, a time of risky enterprises that attracted the attention of governments and business milieux alike with the promise of producing social progress and high financial profits. By exploring how such ventures compelled both the European and Ottoman partners to readjust their strategies and expectations, the project brings into question the conventional assessments about the European origin of development and about Ottoman backwardness. As an alternative, it investigates how such businesses stimulated political elites in Europe and the Ottoman Empire to reconsider their states’ power, and the new ventures’ impact on the domestic and international political order. To analyze such transformations of vision, the project examines how networks of British, French and Ottoman businessmen and politicians who pursued railway ventures in the Ottoman Empire lobbied for these popular 19th century enterprises and dealt with competitors, scandals and failures.

Key words: railways; development; business networks; government; Ottoman Empire; Britain; France