Asia Minor may be considered as the eastern emergence of the continental shelf supporting the European peninsula. Its salient physical features are a central plateau surrounded by a rim-like succession of ranges which are fringed in turn by a coastal strip of land. A gradual ascent from west to east can be observed. The western ranges have a mean altitude of about 2,000 feet above sea level. The plateau has an average height of 3,000 feet. The Armenian upland generally exceeds 4,000 feet. Access from the sea to the interior is impeded by the mountainous barrier reared as a natural bulwark. The gaps made by watercourses alone permit communication. As most of the rivers are not navigable, an important method of exploration is thus closed to adventurous roamers, whether native or foreign. This lack of fluvial communication has greatly hindered intercourse. Rivers have constituted the ancient ethnic boundaries between the inhabitants of the peninsula.[207] Communication between districts has been carried on mainly from harbor to harbor. Although the peninsula is in direct contact with three seas its mountainous rim prevents benign maritime influences from extending to its interior. Its climate may therefore be classed as extreme Mediterranean in type. All these combined factors annul to a large extent the effects of peninsular conditions.
The region is not as salubrious as its elevation might imply. It is an area which has been occupied by communities of men actively engaged in human pursuits at various periods of history, and which has been subsequently abandoned to itself or rather to the working of causes in which man had no part. Gradual desiccation of the plateau is evinced by the presence of desert wastes coated with alkaline precipitates, by receding lakes and all the manifestations accompanying the decline of a hydrographic system. The salt lake occupying the central part of the plateau is in reality nothing but a vast marsh. Hydrographic changes are not confined merely to the interior of Asia Minor but exert their action on the coast itself. The bays of Tarsus and Ephesus are now much shallower than they were two thousand years ago.[208] The general result is to impair settlement. Reoccupation of the soil must often be preceded by sanitation and it is only within recent times that this important tool has been perfected by man so as to enable him to wield it effectively in the conquest of fresh sites of occupancy.
Viewed therefore from its broadest aspect the problem of European control of Asia Minor resolves itself into one of renewed settlement. It is therefore pertinent to inquire how this condition coupled with regional influences has affected each of the six spheres.
Englishmen were the first to engage in Turkish railway building. The Aidin railway, which links the thriving port of Smyrna to the Anatolian plateau at Dineir, represents an investment of about $50,000,000, or about a third of all the money invested in Turkey by the British public. This road taps the fertile Meander valley and has proved a remunerative undertaking to its owners, although it has not been subsidized by the Turkish government. The line is credited with the best management in Turkey. Its well-ballasted track and the splendid condition of its rolling stock impress the traveler most favorably. English capital is also represented in other lines built in Turkey, though only as minority holdings.
This British zone of influence is at present the best developed region in Asia Minor. Its northern boundary is determined by the divide separating the watersheds of the Gediz and the Meander rivers. The Aidin railway follows the course of the last-named river to its very sources at about 1,000 feet below the general western level of the plateau.[209] The eastern boundary of the sphere is defined by the end of the natural road at one of the abrupt slopes leading to the plateau in the vicinity of lakes Burdur and Ajituz. Its southern frontier reaches the districts which supply the railroad with traffic drawn from the border line of the Carian ranges and the foot of the northern slopes of the Lycian Taurus.
The sound establishment of Great Britain’s commercial influence in this locality dates from the year 1856, when construction on the Aidin railway was inaugurated. Its real beginning can be traced back to the dawn of the nineteenth century, when English naval supremacy replaced France’s hitherto paramount maritime influence in the Levant. In recent years an interesting expansion of British trade ascendancy in this zone can be detected since the products of the area tapped by the Aidin railway, whether they consist of cereals, fruit, ores or local manufactured goods such as rugs, are mainly exported nowadays to Great Britain, the United States and Australia.
Throughout history the valley of the Meander has constituted a region in which natural features of the surface have been eminently favorable to man’s development. In addition to the wealth of its natural resources it is provided with a deeply indented coast line, in which commodious natural harbors occur. Here is found the maximum density of population for the entire peninsula—70 inhabitants to the square mile.[210] Within this restricted area Greek influence first took root about 2,600 years ago before spreading throughout Asia Minor. The origin of this movement must be ascribed to the local advantages which invited human activity by the display of favorable regional features. It is safe to surmise that the same geographical agencies have been again responsible for the striking parallel afforded by the first establishment within contemporary times of a sphere of western influence in the region.
Italy’s connection with Turkish railroads has consisted in providing labor and in laying claim to franchises in southern Asia Minor. These claims are of recent date, and have been put forth since the occupation of the islands of the Dodecanesia by Italian troops. Specifically the claim is made for the right to build a railroad from Adalia northwards to Burdur. The region to be tapped by this line is a strip of broken lowland intervening between the Lycian and Cilician Taurus. The valleys of the Aksu and Keuprusu, bordering the east and west slopes of the Ovajik massif, join in forming a deltaic area in which sub-tropical cultures, rice, cotton and tobacco thrive. Plains and wide valleys, which are probably ancient lakebeds, occur between the smaller ranges of the zone. They contain arable lands which might be turned to account were the region more thickly settled. A number of smaller rivers discharge their contents into the gulf of Adalia. The gulf itself is shallow, devoid of harbors, and open to southerly winds. Lack of natural harbors and remoteness from the main highways of the peninsula have contributed to the sphere’s isolation. It is still imperfectly known through a few route surveys and occasional descriptions.
The most important road in Turkey is the partially completed trunk line running diagonally across Asia Minor and beyond into Mesopotamia. The line is German-owned, although French and English capital is represented. The concession for the first stretch, extending from Constantinople to Konia, had been granted to German and Austrian railroad builders in 1888. The celebrated Bagdad railroad is the prolongation of this line. Its construction was turned over to German promoters by a firman (decree) dated January 21, 1902. The financial burden of the enterprise was estimated at about $200,000,000.
The Bagdad railroad is the final link of the shortest overland route between Europe and Asia. In the minds of Germans it is destined to compete with the sea-way controlled by England. The road was conceived in order to connect Teutonic centers of industry and Asiatic markets. The speediest sea route between Europe and Asia passes through straits guarded by British sentinels. As long as Gibraltar, Suez and Aden form part of Great Britain’s colonial domain, they can be closed at will to competitors of British manufacturers.