Implementing obligatory labor in road construction during the Tanzimat period

This thesis makes several claims. First, it demonstrates that the Ottoman state and local elites initiated the road construction campaign as part of the broader Tanzimat reforms. Due to the Empire's financial limitations, road construction techniques, and the methods these elites used to exert control over the population, they arrived at a particular solution: the use of forced labor. While this solution initially proved successful in various regions, the legal framework to formalize this obligation was implemented later. The legal foundation for this arrangement was embedded in modern law. In increasingly bureaucratic and complex ways, the obligation was established as an individualized in-kind tax. The state's justification for this was the argument that the roads constructed through the labor obligation would benefit the workers themselves, making it both legal and just. This reasoning also distinguished this form of obligation from other types of forced labor, including corvée. In practice, however, the obligation still involved extralegal and coercive practices. The treatment of the subjects did not always adhere to the individualized in-kind tax model. Working conditions were poor and detrimental to the workers' health. The state sometimes struggled to provide necessary accommodation services, and when provided, these services were often of low quality. Work-related accidents, including injuries and exploitation, were common at the road construction sites. Finally, the state elites, through the modern bureaucracy, used charity as a means to strengthen the patrimonial bond between the Sultan and his subjects.