Integrating the Danube into Modern Networks of Infrastructure: The Ottoman Contribution

Abstract

For the Ottoman Empire, the Danube served as a border, but also as a means of communication and transport, although this function was restricted by the prevailing natural conditions of the river. Because of the geo-political, economic and technological developments of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, older connections with Eastern and Central Europe were substituted by global connections. This article examines the Ottoman role in this transformation of the Danube between 1830 and 1878. It focuses on infrastructure projects such as the regulation of the Iron Gate and in the Danube delta and the construction efforts in the Danube Province during the last decades of Ottoman rule at the Danube.

Keywords

• Danube,river transport,Ottoman Empire

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