Forests and forestry activities of Balkan in years 1876-1909

Forest products as the oldest and basic raw materials used in the fields of trade and manufacturing have been processed since the Mesolithic Era. From this perspective, it can be said that forest products such as wood, lumber, firewood having been used as indispensable ways of heating and cooking since the ancient times, as well as wood engraving and embroidery, furniture design and wood architecture developed from forest products have crucial importance in shaping the history. Thus, the forestry activities having been developed thanks to the forest products for centuries are very important. From the time when there was no writing to the Industrial Revolution, traditionally, the activities in the field of forestry were maintained by the methods learned from ancestors and fathers and passed down to the other generations in the same way. However, those activities have become more modern after the Industrial Revolution. In Europe during the Renaissance, as a result of the fact that urbanization and architecture started to gain importance, forests became more important for landscape architecture and aesthetics, and the European states enacted legislations to protect forests with the purpose of preventing forest destruction. So, the first reforms and regulations regarding forestry activities were made during this period. With the Industrial Revolution, the forestry activities were modernized both legally and scholarly and the departments conducting researches about forest and botanical sciences at universities and technical schools where the forestry activities were modernized were established. Forest products are no doubt in the first place among the natural richnesses multi-purposely used for manufacturing in variable branches of industry as a result of the Industrial Revolution. During the Industrial Revolution, forest products were used as fuel for cooking, and also became indispensable raw materials of the furniture industry. As a result of the swift population increase and rural-urban migration in the same period, forest products were among the most important needs for heating and sheltering for people. With the Industrial Revolution, forestry became an activity steering international trade as a result of the increase in the paper manufacturing, furniture business and variable industry branches rather than a rural way of manufacturing. At the beginning of the 20th century, especially the countries like England, France, Germany, Russia, and Norway became leading countries in steering international trade. During this period, forest products were among the global materials steering global trade. For this reason, European countries made legal regulations regarding forest products and forestry activities in order to institutionalize them as of the beginning of the 19th century. The Ottoman Empire, on the other hand, did not attribute much importance to the forestry activities or manufacturing of forest products during the time period from its establishment to its collapse and it regarded this manufacturing field only as a mean of taxation in the rural areas and of fulfilling of the needs of war and palace. However, with the understanding of forests' natural and economical values with the affect of the Tanzimat Era, the Ottoman Empire issued substantive regulations and codes of law regarding forests. On the one hand, the establishment of the General Directorate of Forestry, Provincial Organization of Forestry and School of Forestry demonstrates the empire's sensibility towards the protection of forests. On the other hand, the lumber-rich forests were sold by tender. In this thesis, the forests in the geography of the Ottoman Balkans are discussed under the titles of the forestry activities, administrative and legal regulations regarding forestry, incomes acquired from the forests between 1876-1909 including the periods mentioned above.