After a period of strategic aversion to generate and adopt electricity, shaped by political, financial, and infrastructural considerations, Istanbul was connected to the electricity grid around 1910s. The sultans of the Ottoman Empire viewed the new technology with skepticism, as it brought not only progress but also previously unknown risks. The use of electricity was therefore subject to strict state control. In 1914, the Silahtarağa Power Plant on the Golden Horn was inaugurated as the first urban-scale power station of Istanbul, supplying electricity both to the city and to the tramway system that was launched around the same time. The Young Turk movement and the founding of the Turkish Republic gave further impetus to the electrification of the metropolis on the Bosphorus. The expansion of electrical infrastructure was closely intertwined with the broader modernization of the state and the construction of the young Turkish nation.
Electric Istanbul
A video series produced by the Gerad Henkel Foundation, consisting of the following six episodes and a general interview with Nurçin İleri (available in English, Turkish and German): “Electricity Skepticism”, “Istanbuls First Urban-Scale Power Plant”, “Technology and Nature”, “A Story of Nationalism”, “Expansion of the City Grid”, and “New Tensions, New Fears”.
In her research project, historian Nurçin İleri traces the electrification of Istanbul during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the modern Turkish nation-state. She examines how, where, and by whom electrical energy was generated, as well as the routes through which it was distributed. In doing so, she demonstrates how the electrical grid—through street lighting and electric tramways—spread around the Bosphorus and radically transformed the everyday lives of many residents of Istanbul.