War as World“View”: Travels to and from Turkey in the Years of World War I
Mustafa GöleçWorld War I is one of the most critical thresholds in the formation of the modern world. Unfortunately, the period between 1914 and 1918 has not been viewed from a cultural perspective as viewed from the perspectives of military, political and economic history. This enormous quake in the world history has literally formatted the world culturally and mentally. Military fronts were actually a relatively small side of this great war. The realities behind the front were much more intense and complex. The transforming power of war is not merely caused by fire, gunpowder or steel. War is a transformative force because of increased observations about the world, recognition of unknown people and exotic geographies. The war years have been a period in which the travel ended with its old form, but re-emerged in line with new forms and purposes, and became massive. Since war observations, memories, logs are full of references to physical and human geography, they can be seen as an element of travel literature. This study focuses on the “travels” caused by the war by using the testimonies of the dynasty members, statesmen, officers, soldiers and civilians who experienced the World War I in different ways. It is argued that the massive mobility that increased due to the war generally increased the world knowledge and manners.
Dünya “Görüş”ü Olarak Savaş: Birinci Dünya Savaşı Yıllarında Türkiye’ye ve Türkiye’den “Seyahat”ler
Mustafa GöleçBirinci Dünya Savaşı modern dünyanın oluşumunda en kritik eşiklerden biridir. Ne yazık ki 1914-1918 arası döneme askeri, siyasi, iktisadi tarih perspektiflerinden bakıldığı kadar kültür perspektifinden bakılmamıştır. Dünya tarihindeki bu muazzam ölçekli sarsıntı kültürel ve zihinsel olarak dünyayı adeta formatlamıştır. Cepheler bu büyük savaşın aslında görece küçük bir yüzüdür. Cephe ardındaki gerçeklikler çok daha yoğun ve karmaşıktır. Savaşın dünyayı dönüştürücü gücü yalnızca ateşten, baruttan, çelikten kaynaklanmaz. Daha çok insanın daha çok yer görmesi, dünyaya dair gözlemlerin artması, bilinmeyen insanlar ve coğrafyaların tanınması da savaşın dönüştürücü bir gücüdür. Harp yılları seyahatin eski biçimi ile sona erdiği ama yeni biçimler ve amaçlar doğrultusunda yeniden ortaya çıktığı, kitleselleştiği bir zaman dilimi olmuştur. Harp gözlemleri, anıları, günlükleri fiziki ve beşeri coğrafyaya göndermelerle dolu olduğu için bunlar seyahat edebiyatının bir unsuru olarak görülebilirler. Bu çalışmada Birinci Dünya Savaşı’nı farklı biçimlerde tecrübe etmiş hanedan mensubu, devlet adamı, subay, asker ve sivillerin savaşa dair tanıklıkları kullanılarak savaşın sebep olduğu “seyahat”ler üzerinde durulmaktadır. Savaş nedeniyle artan kitlesel hareketliliğin, genellikle zorunlu “seyahat”lerin dünya bilgisi ve görgüsünü artırdığı öne sürülmektedir.
The First World War is one of the founding events of the modern world. In World War I historiography, the causes and consequences of this great event have been written mostly from the perspectives of political and military history.The diplomatic crisis caused by the colonial rivalry of the nineteenth century, the armament race and the problem of nationalities were shown as causeS of the war. However, this founding event is not only a political, military and diplomatic issue, but also the result and cause of mental, cultural and intellectual transformation, technological developments and social changes.
The period between 1914-1918 witnessed a unique transformation of human life in all its aspects in a very short time, changes which would normally be expected to take a very long time. Modern historiography also dwells on the dimensions of this transformation that remain outside the political and military aspects and are neglected in conventional historiography. Therefore, it is possible to look at the historiography of the war from the perspective of travel and at the historiography of travel from the perspective of war.
In this study, the relationship between war and travel phenomena is specifically evaluated over the travel experiences in the Ottoman domains and of Ottoman subjects between 1914- 1918. By using the testimonies of the dynastic members, statesmen, officers, soldiers and civilians who experienced the First World War in different ways, the "travels" caused by the war are brought into focus. It is argued that increasing mass mobility caused by war, which are generally compulsory "travels", increased world knowledge and manners. It is claimed that war and travel are not as incompatible, irreconcilable and unthinkable together as it might seem.
The nineteenth century was a period when scientific and technical developments increased curiosity and knowledge about the world on the one hand and made it easier to travel around the world on the other. In this period, travel became widespread and the concept of tourism emerged. The First World War, which spread over more than four years and over vast geographies, ended this trend. States and armies have restricted freedom of movement. Declining economic welfare under war conditions and the loss of sense of security reduced the motivation to travel. On the other hand, the war period has also led to an unprecedented massive spatial mobility. In this article, it is argued that newspapers, propaganda publications, military diaries, war memoirs, military reports can be accepted as kinds of travel literature with alternative readings. All these texts refer to physical and human geography suggesting that, rather than simply being interrupted during the war years, travel literature expanded and diversified and enriched in content.
In this study, the phenomenon of travel during the First World War is examined under four headings: olitical and diplomatic travels; military travels; culture, art, scientific research and information travels; compulsory travels of ordinary people. Reciprocal visits of members of the warring dynasties were the leading political and diplomatic travels. Emperors, kings and princes traveled to allied countries to improve their diplomatic relations. They went on domestic trips to renew the loyalty of their citizens. They visited the fronts to give morale to the military. These travels were followed by the travels of statesmen, high-level bureaucrats and parliamentarians. Generals from the allied armies made mutual headquarters visits.
It is the constant displacement of soldiers and low-ranking officers for military reasons that made the travel phenomenon massive in the World War I. Millions of soldiers took first theoretical and then applied geography lessons during the four-year war. They roamed not only in their own countries but also into other countries as combatants or captives. They went to places they wouldn't normally see. Some of these people kept diaries. Some of them wrote about the places they visited and saw in their memoirs. Some of them described the geographies they traveled around in their letters. As a result of all these observations and testimonies, the world became a much better known place when the war ended.
Culture, art, scientific research and information travels were another category of travel that had a significant share during the war years. These are the travels of professional journalists, poets, writers, painters, photographers, scientists and researchers who are taken to the fronts and behind the front lines so that they can explain the war to the masses. The impressions of these professionals in the places they visit, their writings and drawings have played an important role in increasing the knowledge of the world, as they reach a wider audience. In this way, people from different professions, gender and age groups have increased their knowledge and experience of the world. All these people have acquired knowledge and experiences that would otherwise not be possible in times of war.
Finally, the forced displacement of ordinary people is an important part of the travel phenomenon during the war years. These are the "travelers" of the war who left the fewest written witnesses behind them. Sometimes they migrated within one country and sometimes from one country to another. The ‘travels’ of these people were rarely written in their own words but often by soldiers who witnessed their migration. However, immigrant convoys have become one of the important sources of geography knowledge in the twentieth century.
All these travels, classified in four categories, replaced the tourist travels that were cut off with the outbreak of the war in 1914. The new forms of mass travel came to an end with the end of the war. The authoritarian and totalitarian regimes that rose in the interwar period have closed the borders and raised the barriers between the borders.
This study shows how, despite the enormous destruction and tragedy caused by the First World War, humanity enriched its knowledge and experience about the earth. During the war years, millions of people saw for the first time in other countries a wild animal, an exotic fruit, a production technique they did not know. Individual experiences first belonged to oral culture and gradually to written culture, spread and became permanent. The important sites of the war, such as Gallipoli, Galicia, Verdun, and other geographies, took place in the collective memories of people living in other continents. The Ottoman physical and human geography also became more accurately known. War made it possible to replace the prejudices in the minds of the elite and ordinary people with the ability of concrete sensation, observation and empathy. The same can be said for the physical and human geography knowledge of the Ottoman peoples about the rest of the world.
