Conference - Mysterious M. Falkowski, ingénieur civil: railways and informal imperialism in the Ottoman Syria and Iraq (1850s-1860s)

 

 

 

Darina Martykánová, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain

Railways were considered key to a region’s economic development, but they could also be instrumentalized by local and foreign powers for the aims of military and political control. Focusing on the failed project of the Euphrates Valley Railway and the role of a mysterious France-based engineer in its promotion, I wish to discuss informal imperialism as a useful category for understanding the actions of different actors in the Ottoman Empire right after the Crimean War.