The Activities of Kütahya Special Provincial Administration Between the Years of 1915 and 1920

The ottoman state accelerated its westernization attempts to put an end to decline in the fields of military and economy. the state tried to keep up with changing economic, social and political conditions and made rapid progress to become a strong centralized state. a centralized state authority was established especially on tax collection and soldier recruitment and also efforts for expansion of authority of local administrations and for enhancement of civic participation. after the proclamation of the second constitutional monarchy in 1908, in order to stop the demands of foreign states for reforms about non-muslims in the ottoman state and to increase people’s participation to their local administrations, “umumiye-i vilâyat kanun-u muvakkati” was introduced on 13th march 1913. with this regulation, provinces were given legal identities and broad authority for execution of local works, regulation of personal and real estates, collection and expenditure of provincial income. in our study, the activities of kütahya special provincial administration between the years of 1915 and 1920 were taken as basis. by using archival documents from the turkish republic prime ministry general directorate of state archives departmant of ottoman archives (başbakanlık osmanlı arşivi), we will provide information on administrative structure, yearly account of income and expenses, public works, charity works of kütahya special provincial administration and on its activities and expenditures of health, education, agriculture and stockbreeding and on their distribution by years and by regions. we will also try to examine the meetings done and decisions taken by “meclis-i umumi”, which was the decision making body of kütahya special provincial administration, and also its administrative structure and operation process. we will analyze the proceedings of “meclis-i umumi” meetings in 1916 and try to explain the factors that were effective on preparing annual budgets. we aim to contribute to the historical studies on kütahya and its districts -uşak, simav, gediz, tavşanlı- concerning the period betweenthe years of 1915 and 1920