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6 - A Working-Class Colony

from Part III - The Class on the Move

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2025

Akın Sefer
Affiliation:
Kadir Has Universitesi, Istanbul
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Summary

Chapter 6 analyses the connections between trans-imperial labor migration and Ottoman industrial and urban modernization in the nineteenth century. In a context marked by the mechanization of industrial production through technology transfer, the increasing political-economic ties between the Ottoman and British states, and the scarcity of workers with mechanical skills in Istanbul, hundreds of British industrial workers migrated to Istanbul to work mostly in the arsenal, as well as some other state factories. This chapter narrates the history of these workers and the community they established in Hasköy beginning with the mechanization efforts in the 1830s until the economic crisis in the mid-1870s. It analyses the larger context of British workers’ migration from Britain, their relations with the Ottoman state officials and local workers, and their experiences in the workplace and the city. It demonstrates how their contentious relationship and effective struggles pushed the state authorities to deploy skilled military workers, who were the products of the processes described in the previous chapter, to decrease and eliminate its dependence on them.

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  • A Working-Class Colony
  • Akın Sefer, Kadir Has Universitesi, Istanbul
  • Book: Ottoman Reform at Work
  • Online publication: 19 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009674126.011
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  • A Working-Class Colony
  • Akın Sefer, Kadir Has Universitesi, Istanbul
  • Book: Ottoman Reform at Work
  • Online publication: 19 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009674126.011
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • A Working-Class Colony
  • Akın Sefer, Kadir Has Universitesi, Istanbul
  • Book: Ottoman Reform at Work
  • Online publication: 19 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009674126.011
Available formats
×