A study on history textbook authors, history educators and their works from the Tanzimat to the Republic

Tanzimat is the name given to the period between 1839-1876 in the Ottoman Empire. The understanding of innovation in the Tanzimat Period is important in terms of maintaining its effects until today. In this period, important steps were taken in the field of education for reasons such as the need for innovations in the country, a better understanding of the importance of educating the public and seeing this as a responsibility and important duty of the state, and the pressure of European states on the country. The fact that the improvement of education began to be seen as a way to prevent the collapse of the state and that education was recognized as a science and books on the science of education began to be written was also supportive in taking these steps. The Tanzimat Period was also a period of extremely important developments in terms of history science and history education. The understanding of history and historiography were also significantly affected by the Westernization efforts and modernization movements seen throughout the Ottoman Empire. The Constitutional Monarchy Period, which covers the years between 1877-1922 and deeply affected the Ottoman Empire, witnessed domestic and foreign issues, many defeats in the military field and financial difficulties that reached enormous dimensions. The statesmen, intellectuals, educators and patriotic individuals of the period made an outstanding effort to change the negative course of the state and prevent its disintegration, and spent their lives with great and important services for the benefit of society with the sense of responsibility they felt towards their homeland and nation. The society, administrators and intellectuals agreed that the most effective way to change this course was through innovations in the field of education. Again, there were very important and valuable developments in the field of history, understanding of history and historiography as well as in the field of education. The nationalism movement that spread around the world after the French Revolution led states and nations to investigate their own past and roots in this century, and in this direction, the importance of history increased day by day and history was accepted as a science. When the calendars showed April 23, 1920, the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, which had extraordinary powers, was established in Ankara and the Turkish nation declared its sovereignty. Although our nation, which opposed the occupations in Anatolia, wanted to be stopped, they were not successful in this. One of the most important roles for the continuation of the newly established state, the republic and our independence, which had been won with great difficulties, was to fall to education. Especially history lessons and history textbooks: History lessons and history textbooks were of great importance as they had the power and influence to raise generations that would protect our republic and the independence of our state and raise generations loyal to their state and nation. In this period, important studies on history, the understanding of historiography, history education and history textbooks were carried out and great importance was attached to the Turkish youth and the public learning their history.