Procreation, family and 'progress': Administrative and economic aspects of Ottoman population policies in the 19th century

2011-06-15
The making of the modern Ottoman state in the 19th century was closely interrelated with population issues and policies. 'Population' became an important component of Ottoman history throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. As the state identified the 'population' as a source of income after the Tanzimat, it tried to protect and procreate it through certain institutional arrangements and regulations. These policies consisted of protecting the existing population, controlling population movements, promoting procreation, and giving subsidies and lending money at interest to peasant families. The procreation policies included enforcement of marriages and encouragement of reproduction within marriages while they discouraged traditional birth control methods and practices. As in any other context, Ottoman families resisted the policies of procreation and pressures coming from the central government. This paper will examine the state's policies toward families and individuals as well as the responses of the people to these policies. 1 will attempt to construct a model based on the protection and the procreation policies of the modern Ottoman state, which will be an important springboard toward building a basis for conducting comparative analysis with other European states. By doing this, I will try to challenge some of the established assumptions on the nature of the 'modern state' in the 19th century.
HISTORY OF THE FAMILY

Suggestions

Institutionalization of History in the Ottoman Empire
Ergut, Ferdan (Informa UK Limited, 2015-04-03)
This article examines the process within which history was institutionalized in the Ottoman Empire. Institutional space for history had begun to be constructed within the context of interstate rivalry during the mid-nineteenth century. History had the task of "proving" the fact that the Turks had been from the very beginning a part of the "Western civilization." The essential period for the institutionalization history was that of the regime of the Committee of Union and Progress in 1908-18, providing histo...
Continuities and changes in the minority policy of Greece: the case of western thrace
Chousein, Ali; Tayfur, Mehmet Fatih; Department of International Relations (2005)
This thesis analyzes the Greek minority policy of Western Thrace by dwelling on the history of the Muslim Turkish minority of Western Thrace from the beginning of 1920s until today. Until the early 1990s, changes in the Greek policy of Western Thrace had not been observed. However, the year 1991 marks a turning point both in the attitude of Greece towards the Muslim Turkish minority and in the history of the Western Thracian minority. As a result of the change in the Greek minority policy of Western Thrace ...
"They Left Behind Institutions in Financial Jeopardy": Central Anatolian Waqfs in the Wake of the Great Flight
Orbay, Kayhan (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, 2019-01-01)
The years of the late 16th into the 17th century were characterized by the harsh Celali rebellions and ensuing social turmoil in the central provinces of Anatolia. The years spanning 1603-1608 saw mass population movements called "The Great Flight". In fear of rebellions, villagers took refuge in safer locations, such as fortifications, mountain villages and sheltered in conglomerated villages. Some migrated to the western provinces far from the Celali movements. Life and earning the means to maintain that ...
The interplay between Turkish and Hungarian nationalism : Ottoman pan-Turkism and Hungarian turanism (1890-1918)
Oğuz, Alaattin; Tokluoğlu, Ayşe Ceylan; Department of Sociology (2005)
This thesis dealt with the issues of the emergence of Pan-Turkism in Ottoman Empire and of Pan-Turanism in Hungary between the years 1890 and 1920. The theoretical discussion and literature review related to the subject exhibited that these two nationalisms were possible only when a state bureaucrats and intellectuals try to save the state from collapse and make discussions on the national issues, or when a state elites and noble classes aim to use national ideology for protecting the state from external th...
The impact of the Balkan Wars on Ottoman history writing Searching for a soul
Boyar, Ebru (Informa UK Limited, 2014-01-01)
Based on histories, accounts and articles published after the Balkan Wars, this article argues that, contrary to the commonly accepted thesis, the Balkan Wars did notmark the point at which Turkism became the dominant state ideology. There was in fact no clear-cut and definite shift toward Turkism at this point. Instead there was an increasing awareness of the need for a 'common soul' that would unite the population of the empire in the face of dramatic challenges such as the Balkan Wars
Citation Formats
S. Dursun, “Procreation, family and ‘progress’: Administrative and economic aspects of Ottoman population policies in the 19th century,” HISTORY OF THE FAMILY, pp. 160–171, 2011, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/35617.