The story majors within the coalfield of Zonguldak, which is situated along the Black Sea Coast. The area was well endowed with mineral deposits, and as the economy entered the steam age, there was the need for a continuous supply of coal (Quataert 15). The mines were discovered, and miners from the villages had to be employed to work in the mines. Donald explains the experiences that the coal miners had in the Ottoman Empire. The coal miners came from the Zonguldak villages and the work they did would be compared to those of slaves who were being colonized. The miners had a difficult lifestyle since there was no medical care and if any of them would get injured, they would be thrown out. The central thesis of Quataert’s story is “history from below” where he shows how the laborers were treated during the Ottoman Empire.
Quataert’s story entails the general characteristics of the Ottoman society, the political entities of the Empire, history of the coalmines of Zonguldak and the involvement of foreign coal mining countries in the economy. It focuses on the role of the state as a whole concerning coal mining and the working conditions provided by the Ottoman Empire to the coal miners. He depicted the value of the commoners and the peasant laborers and not the elite, the policy makers or the sultans of the Ottoman Empire.
Quataert proves his thesis by examining aspects like the hiring, working and wages provided to the miners. The workers worked in shifts, and there were underground and aboveground workers (Quataert 80). He also examines the fact that before there was free labour but as the need for coal arose, labor was compulsory, and even military groups had to work. He showed how the working conditions for the miners were tough since they did not even have medical care; the state did not have much concern about the hardships they were facing (Quataert 6), and this supports his thesis.
Many people have discussed social history, economic history and labour history. Quataert has captured these concepts from a new source that people have been avoiding maybe due to misconceptions, biases or varied ideologies. He looked at the Ottoman Empire and carefully augured the issues in the story with the concepts of social, labor and economic history. He was interested in social history, labour history and economic history. He mainly engaged in the everyday lives of workers, the value of women workers, and the role of the bodies in charge of the workers. In the story, he focusses his argument on the individuals who would die or get injured in the coalmines. He was also interested in the economic impact they brought to the state.
His argument is logical and makes sense because he has discussed contemporary issues that had affected the miners over the years; he examined the history of the Ottoman Empire, which was based on corruption perpetrated by some Ottoman elites that affected the laborers. His work is unique because unlike other sources, he has focused on the ordinary people and the peasants who are left out in other historical writings. This time, he has not focused much on the elite and the elite society. Instead, he has acknowledged the importance of the people below, and, therefore, this approach works well with his sources.
In conclusion, the argument of Donald Quataert carries a lot of weight since it focusses on the role of the peasants in society. They may be left out in many historical narratives, but they still have a role to play. I strongly support Donald’s course of recognizing the peasants. It is important to focus on the needs of workers who are also laborers because at the end of the day they are important; therefore upholding the central thesis of ‘history from below.’
Work Cited
Quataert, Donald. Miners And The State In The Ottoman Empire. New York: Berghahn Books, 2006. Print.
