Urban Formation in the Ottoman Empire in the Process of Semi-Colonization and Peripheralization: Class Structure, Municipal Services and Urban Functions

In this study, a detailed analysis was made about the administrative structure, territorial regime and production relations of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century in the process of semi-colonization and peripheralization. It is desired to shed light on the urban texture of this period, which is becoming clear as a result of this given situation. In this period, the Ottoman Empire was under the political and economic domination of Western capitalist countries. In this process, important reforms took place in military, administrative and social fields. The state administration wanted to be restructured in an institutional sense. New regulations were implemented in the legal field. The empire economy began to change as a result of internal developments and external influence. In this study, Ottoman urban formation in the political and economic cyclical conditions of the period, especially in the context of the separating elements of the capital accumulation situation, has been examined. It has been tried to clarify how all these developments are influencing/transforming urban construction. Local organization, class structure, municipal services and urban components of the city are described in the light of the accessed data. In the preparation of this work, it was benefited from the periodical publications and electronic publications. The final result of the work is that the urban development and municipal services with limited infrastructure investments are concentrated in several port cities of the Ottoman Empire such as Istanbul and Izmir. In Istanbul, the most developed city of the empire, it is observed that a class differentiation not only in terms of ethnicity but also in the context of income. It is understood that other Ottoman cities are predominantly rural