Daily Lifestyle Managed by Natural Disasters in Anatolia

Abstract

The heart of Anatolia was devastated by two major droughts between 1800 and 1880. The severe winter conditions during this period, followed by subsequent floods, once again destroyed farmers' crops. The great earthquake in Bursa further burdened the already exhausted society with pain and sorrow. In this study, data will be evaluated to understand how people in Anatolia, exposed to successive disasters, had to adapt their livelihoods. The focus will be on how workshop-style collective production, which had begun to emerge in Anatolia on the brink of the Industrial Revolution, was disrupted by natural disasters, and why the agriculture-based economy remained predominant. The study includes observations on the changes in Bursa and Adana, where disaster-affected populations clustered after being displaced. The contribution of cheap labor, provided by victims of natural disasters, to the manufacturing sector in Bursa, Adana, Aydın, and Izmir is analyzed in relation to the small-scale industrial transformations in these cities. A comparison is made between the livelihoods of the local population before the disasters and their income sources afterward. Based on this comparison, the impact of disasters on livelihoods is discussed. Additionally, the types of disasters and their varying degrees of impact in Ankara and Konya are examined. © 2024, Abidin Temizer. All rights reserved.