Historical geography of Bayezid district in the 19th century

The goal of this research, titled Historical Geography of Bayezid District in the Nineteenth Century, was to discover the people and economic geography characteristics of Bayezid District in the nineteenth century. The research showed the former landforms and climate, population and settlement status, and other functions of the subject region, which was done using historical geography technique. The most important sources of the study; Geographical works published in the XIX century are translations, travelogues, yearbooks and maps. These first-hand sources of the period were supported by second-hand sources and field studies. In the light of the information compiled from these sources, the study revealed what the human and economic structure of the Bayezid District was in in the 19th century, which coincided with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. While doing this, the principles of "distribution, causality and comparison" were applied as in contemporary geography researches. In addition to these principles, "retrogressive, retrospective and comparative" methods specific to historical geography were used. In the 19th century, Bayezid was the central district of the Bayezid Sanjak, which was affiliated to the Erzurum Province. Bayezid District had a denser population compared to other districts in the sanjak and was a flourishing settlement equipped with houses and workplaces where the people could meet all their needs. In this century, as in today's Eastern Anatolia, the dominant economic activity in the district was agriculture and animal husbandry. The share of industry in economic activities was very small and mostly agricultural raw materials were used in industry. Due to the fact that it was a border city, trade also developed in the district. In addition, the school, mosque, church, madrasah, etc. in the town. As we can see from the buildings, the needs of the people were met in terms of service. Although Bayezid city is a flourishing settlement, it was destroyed many times by the wars with the Iranians in 1822 and the Russians in 1828, 1854 and 1877 and during the First World War. In addition to the decrease in population as a result of these wars, agriculture could not be done in the lands that became a battlefield, industrial production decreased and trade stopped. In addition to the population decline caused by these wars, agriculture was unable to be carried out in the territories that became battlegrounds, industrial production declined, and trade ceased.