The Ottoman Empire's 1880s Railway Betrayal in Anatolia

In the 1880s, the Ottoman Empire granted a German company the concession to build a railway through Anatolia—a line that would eventually connect Berlin to Baghdad. This episode tells the story of how Sultan Abdülhamid II, desperate for economic modernization, handed control of key infrastructure to European financiers. We explore the role of German engineer Wilhelm von Pressel, the British-French rivalry for Ottoman railways, and the secret clauses that gave foreign powers extraterritorial rights. The episode also touches on the 1888 Anatolian Railway Company, the Baghdad Railway project, and how these tracks became a vector for European imperialism. Listeners will learn about the Hamidiye Railway, the Hijaz Railway's later divergence, and the lasting impact on Ottoman sovereignty—a story of infrastructure as power, with echoes in the Middle East today. #OttomanEmpire #Railways #AbdülhamidII #BaghdadRailway #AnatolianRailway #WilhelmvonPressel #GermanEmpire #Imperialism #HijazRailway #19thCentury #Infrastructure #BerlinBaghdad #Hamidiye #BritishEmpire #FrenchEmpire #OttomanEconomy #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo