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Berlin–Baghdad railway: Difference between revisions

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| marks = CIOB
| gauge = {{track gauge|sg|allk=on}}
| locale = SoutheasternModern-day [[TurkeyIraq]], northern [[Syria]], and southeastern [[Turkey]]
| successor_line= [[Turkish State Railways|TCDD]], [[Chemins de fer de Cilicie Nord Syrie|CNS]]
| start_year = 1903
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Funding, engineering and construction were mainly provided by the [[German Empire]] through [[Deutsche Bank]] and the [[Philipp Holzmann]] company, which in the 1890s had built the [[Anatolian Railway]] (''Anatolische Eisenbahn'') connecting [[Istanbul]], [[Ankara]] and [[Konya]]. The Ottoman Empire wished to maintain its control of the [[Arabian Peninsula]] and to expand its influence across the [[Red Sea]] into the nominally Ottoman (until 1914) [[Khedivate of Egypt]], which had been under British military control since the [[Urabi Revolt]] in 1882. If the railway had been completed, the Germans would have gained access to suspected oil fields in [[Mesopotamia]],<ref group=note>See: [[Iraq Petroleum Company#Turkish Petroleum Company|Turkish Petroleum Company]]</ref> as well as a connection to the port of [[Basra]] on the Persian Gulf. The latter would have provided access to the eastern parts of the [[German colonial empire]], and avoided the [[Suez Canal]], which was controlled by British and French interests.
 
The railway became a source of international disputes during the years immediately preceding [[World War I]].<ref name=Bilgin>{{cite web |author= Mustafa Sıtkı Bi̇lgi̇n |title= The Construction of the Baghdad Railway and its Impact on Anglo-Turkish Relations, 1902–1913 |url= http://dergiler.ankara.edu.tr/dergiler/19/1273/14662.pdf |access-date=6 December 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://oilpro.com/post/4759/following-the-tracks-to-war-britain-germany--the-berlin-baghdad-railway |title= Following The Tracks To War – Britain, Germany & The Berlin-Baghdad Railway |author= Jeff Reed |work= Oilpro |access-date=6 December 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170318135451/http://oilpro.com/post/4759/following-the-tracks-to-war-britain-germany--the-berlin-baghdad-railway |archive-date= 18 March 2017 |url-status= dead |df= dmy-all }}</ref> Although it has been argued that they were resolved in 1914 before the war began, it has also been suggested that the railway was a manifestation of the imperial rivalry that was the leading [[Causes of World War I|cause of World War I]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Berlin-Baghdad Railway - The Great War|url=https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/de-berlin-baghdad-3.htm|access-date=2021-11-25|website=www.globalsecurity.org}}</ref>{{sfn|Jastrow|1917}}{{page needed|date=May 2018}}<ref>{{cite web |title= The Berlin-Baghdad Railway as a Cause of World War One |last= Maloney |orig-year= 1984 |publisher= Centre for Naval Research |year= 2008 |url= https://www.cna.org/sites/default/files/research/5500040100.pdf |access-date= 17 August 2014 |archive-date= 25 March 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140325235030/http://www.cna.org/sites/default/files/research/5500040100.pdf |url-status= dead }}</ref> Technical difficulties in the remote [[Taurus Mountains]] and diplomatic delays meant that by 1915 the railway was still {{convert|480|km|mi}} short of completion, severely limiting its use during the war in which Baghdad was captured by the British while the [[Hejaz railway]] in the south was attacked by guerrilla forces led by [[T. E. Lawrence]]. Construction resumed in the 1930's1930s and was completed in 1940.
 
A recent history of this railway in the specific context of World War I neatly outlines in the prologue the German global interest in countering the British Empire, and Ottoman Turkey's regional interest in countering their Russian, French and British rivals on all sides.{{sfn|McMeekin|2010}} As stated by a contemporary 'on the ground' at the time, [[Morris Jastrow, Jr.|Morris Jastrow]] wrote:{{sfn|Jastrow|1917|page=97}}
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* [[Rajo, Syria|Rajo]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Christensen|first=Peter H.|title=Germany and the Ottoman Railways: Art, Empire, and Infrastructure|date=2017-10-24|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-22847-2|pages=22|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Aleppo]]
* [[Tell Abyad]]<ref name=":0" />
* [[Nusaybin]]
* [[Mosul]]
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* [[Basra]]
 
The [[Adana–Mersin railway|Adana – Yenice – Mersin railway]]–Yenice–Adana line existed prior to the construction of the Bagdad railway and was used for the latter in its Yenice–Adana section.{{sfn|Preissig|Klebes|1989}}{{page needed|date=May 2018}}
 
===Modern line sections===
; Main lines
* [[Konya–Yenice railway|Konya – Ulukışla – Yenice railway]]
* [[Adana–Mersin railway|Adana – Yenice – Mersin railway]]
* [[Adana–Aleppo railway|Adana – Toprakkale – Fevzipaşa – Aleppo railway]]
* [[Aleppo–Nusaybin railway|Aleppo – Karkamış – Şenyurt – Nusaybin railway]]
* [[Nusaybin–Baghdad railway|Nusaybin – Qamishli – Baiji – Baghdad railway]]<sup>{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}</sup>
; Branch lines
* [[Toprakkale–İskendurun railway|Toprakkale – İskenderun railway]]
* [[Şenyurt–Mardin railway|Şenyurt – Mardin railway]]
; Connected lines
* [[Eskişehir–Konya railway|Eskişehir – Afyonkarahisar – Konya railway]]
* [[Fevzipaşa–Kurtalan railway|Fevzipaşa – Narlı – Yolçatı – Kurtalan railway]]
* [[Narlı–Karkamış railway|Narlı – Karkamış railway]]
* [[Aleppo–Abu Kamal railway|Aleppo – Deir ez-Zor – Abu Kamal railway]]<sup>{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}</sup>
* [[Deir ez-Zor–Qamishli railway|Deir ez-Zor – Qamishli railway]]<sup>{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}</sup>
* [[IRR Transversal Line|Haditha – Baiji – Kirkuk railway]]
* [[IRR Southern Line|Baghdad – Basra high-speed railway]]
 
==British view of the railway==
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[[Category:Economic history of Syria]]
[[Category:Economic history of World War I]]
[[Category:History20th ofcentury in Berlin]]
[[Category:Baghdad vilayet]]
[[Category:History20th ofcentury in Baghdad]]
[[Category:History20th ofcentury in Basra]]
[[Category:History of Adana]]
[[Category:Germany–United Kingdom relations]]
[[Category:Ottoman Empire–United Kingdom relations]]
[[Category:Imperial German collusion with war crimes by the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Transport in Baghdad]]
[[Category:History of transport in Berlin]]
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