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History of Ankara dates back to Neolithic era 10,300/10,000-3500 BC. In Roman and Byzantine times it was a sizable town. It was located on the major caravan routes, ideal position for a trading town. Ankara was incorporated into the Roman empire in 25 BC, and changed hands often between the contemporary powers Persians, Arabs, Seljuks, and Byzantines.
The city was conquered in 1354 by the Ottoman sultan, Orhan Bey. Orhan's son Murad I (1326-1389) annexed Ankara into the Ottoman Empire in 1360.
In 1402 the Mongols under Tamerlane defeated the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I in a battle just outside Ankara. Despite the ensuing civil war, Ankara remained under Ottoman control and served for some time as the regional capital of the province of Anatolia (Anadolu). Kuthaya eventually replaced it as regional capital, but Ankara was restored as a provincial center in the nineteenth century.
Throughout this period Ankara was a center of grain production. During the nineteenth century a luxury trade based on mohair, a particularly warm and soft fabric made from the hair of the local Angora goats, increased in importance, as did carpet production for the European market. A railway between Ankara and Izmit, financed by the Deutsche Bank and begun in 1889, increased Ankara's commercial importance as well as its ties to broader economic trends.
Ankara's significance increased markedly during the Turkish War for Independence from 1919 to 1923. The British occupied the Ottoman capital of Istanbul, and Sivas, the initial center of nationalist resistance, was too far from the front. Consequently the nationalist forces chose Ankara as a new base of operations. On 27 December 1919 the nationalist government, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938), arrived in Ankara and began the workings of government in the town's agricultural school. The nationalist parliament convened on 23 April 1920.
Such was the power and prestige of Istanbul, however, that the decision to make Ankara the capital in October 1923 was met with considerable surprise and not a little dismay. Compared to cosmopolitan Istanbul, Ankara was distinctly unglamorous, a sleepy town, However, this shift involved important symbolism. The move to Ankara underlined the republic's break from its Ottoman legacy and the foundation of a distinctly Turkish and Anatolian nation.
Ankara's new status as the Turkish Republic's capital brought dramatic growth and development to the city. In the first years of the republic a large number of important buildings were constructed in or near what is referred to as the Old City, principally around the Ulus district. After 1930 a broader plan for the city developed, and major institutions were constructed in districts southeast of the original town center.
Planning could not control the effects of explosive population growth, however, and many districts were made up of unlicensed housing of varying quality, locally called 'gecekondu' (literally, constructed at night). Although Ankara developed no actual "downtown," the district of Kizilay generally has been considered the city's hub. The wealthier district of Cankaya also has been an important center of trade and government. |
