The Port of Mersin from the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth Century

Abstract

This study questioned the transformation of Eastern Mediterranean port cities during the period from the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. In this period, the world economy was restructured on a global scale, in which the industrialized countries took the central position while the other—industrialized or deindustrialized—countries were located at the periphery. The Eastern Mediterranean port cities became the primary places of exchange and cross-border relationships and emerged as a region where the effects of the peripheralization and modernization processes can be examined. However, the relationships between the core and periphery are reciprocal. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the local dynamics of Eastern Mediterranean port cities of various scales, whose strength depends on the volume of trade, the diversity of the population, the sui generis social and cultural structure, and the agricultural production in the hinterlands. In this framework, the aim of the study is to discuss the development of port areas with a detailed investigation on the city of Mersin, an Eastern Mediterranean port city, into which the primary exchange points of capitalism and international capital flow penetrated quickly. The findings of the study reveal that Mersin underwent three distinct periods throughout its development from the beginning of the nineteenth century until the 1960s. And this provided a framework for further examination and comparative studies of different port cities in the Eastern Mediterranean.