The funds for the construction and equipment of the road were obtained by appealing to the religious feelings of the 230,000,000 Mohammedans scattered in widely separated regions of the globe. Stress was laid on the pious character of the undertaking. According to reports, $14,000,000 were collected soon after the enterprise was launched. Thereafter about $12,000,000 were contributed annually for several years. The operation involved no responsibility to the promoters, headed by Abdul Hamid, the former Sultan of Turkey, all the funds being bestowed in the form of donations. The road has thus no shareholders and no bonded indebtedness, its capital being spontaneously wiped off.
The religious character of the undertaking is apparent in the mosque-wagon attached to each train. Seen from the outside, the prayer carriage is distinguished only by means of a diminutive minaret six and a half feet high. The interior is fitted out according to religious custom with rugs on the floor and framed Koranic verses in letters of gold on the walls. The direction of Mecca is indicated by a map at the end of the car, so as to enable the faithful to orient themselves properly when engaged in prayer.
A hopeful view of the future of Turkey’s economic position may be entertained by remembering that the land is still unexploited and that the resources of its soil and subsoil await the handling of western energy. It is expected that as fine a cereal crop as can be obtained anywhere in the world will be raised in the region between Eskishehir, Angora and Konia. Five million dollars spent by Germans on irrigation at Chumra in the vicinity of the last-named city has proved conclusively that a thriving agricultural industry can be established on the interior plateau of Asia Minor. The Cilician plain, where cotton and cereals are cultivated, contains vast tracts of swamp land which can be reclaimed. Here, too, irrigation would greatly improve cotton culture. Many of these rich soils are parts of Turkish crownlands which have been estimated by some to amount to one-tenth of the entire area of Turkey. The lands owned by the Evkaf, or Ministry of Religious Foundations, also cover vast areas. Estates held under either of these forms of tenure can be rendered highly productive under western management. The southernmost end of the Bagdad line taps rich oil fields which are situated in the area of transition between the plateau of Iran and the Mesopotamian depression. The railroad traverses the western end of this oil basin. Its eastern section in Persia has been developed since 1908 by British firms.
The international control of Turkish railroads reflects the transitional character of the land over which they are built. Ownership in Turkish lines is of practically no value to so backward a people as the Turks have proved themselves to be. It is of vital importance to the industrial communities of the countries which hold the extremities of the roads of which the Turkish system is but a link. Germany, Austria and France at the western extremity of the transcontinental line, Great Britain in India at its eastern end, have interests which affect a large proportion of their population. In the west the great through line starts in some of the busiest industrial centers of the world. In the east it taps coveted markets. The attention of European manufacturers is directed towards densely populated India or China simply because profitable trade is found where numbers exist.
A comprehensive glance at the spheres of foreign influence in Turkey shows that the most satisfactory evidence of the control of geography over the development of railway zones and spheres of foreign influence in Asia Minor is obtained by mere reference to the regions in which adverse geographical conditions prevail. The Italian and Russian spheres are both characterized by physical and climatic conditions which have stood in the way of human development. The map reveals the absence of railways in both.
In the more favored zones western influences are shown by the presence of modern surface features. Striking examples of German enterprise can be observed along their extensive sphere of action. Grain warehouses at Polatli on the Angora line receive the crops of the environing country. In the plains of Konia canals and locks of varying dimensions have been built and the former swampy area is fast becoming a heavy producer of wheat. Farther south near Adana over 200,000 acres have been reclaimed mainly for cotton growing. In this district important harbor works have been undertaken at Alexandretta which it is planned to make both the outlet of all southern Asia Minor and the terminal of the sea route from Europe to the east.
Similarly French influence in Syria is observable in the macadamized highways of the Lebanon no less than in the development of a thriving silk industry. In the British zone of the Meander valley mines have been opened up by British capital. Along with this economic progress education is also advancing. Numerous European and American schools were in existence in Asiatic Turkey prior to the European war. The mere presence of European employees of the railroads in the Anatolian towns is enough to infuse new thoughts into the minds of the inhabitants. On the whole the locomotive is performing its civilizing work and Asia Minor is gradually becoming Europeanized.
Summing up we find that we have dealt with a connecting region which may justly be considered as the classical type in geography. A land which by its position was everyman’s land, and which, because of its geography, was of greater interest to the outsider than to its own inhabitants. Being a part of three continents it became part of the life which flourished in each. A nation formed on such a site belongs more to its neighbors than to itself. In this respect its future will resemble its past.
FOOTNOTES:
[202] The Historical Geography of Asia Minor, Roy. Geogr. Soc. Suppl. Papers, Vol. 4, 1900, p. 27.