With the emergence of steam machines after the Industrial Revolution, the importance of the mining industry has increased all over the world. In this process, the Ottoman Empire started to search for coal, which is the main fuel source of steam engines. As a result of these searches, a lignite coal mine was discovered in Soma in 1863. It was thought that the coal found was not mining coal at first, but only on the surface of the soil, but it was possible that better quality coal could come out from under the surface where it was found. Therefore, the privilege of the trial mine was given to the Cotton Factory in Kırkağaç. The coal found in Soma was featured in the world press in 1865, and this region has become an important place since the discovery of the mine. This region was tried to be developed in the Ottoman and Republican Periods. Institutions such as MTA and Etibank, which were established with the adoption of the statism policy in the Republican Period, continued their activities in Soma. The mines operated by the Garp Lignite Enterprise until 1957 passed under the auspices of the Turkish Coal Enterprises on that date. After the discovery of the mine, many domestic and foreign capital owners played a role in the operation of these mines. Especially the French took a close interest in the mine in Soma. In fact, the first reserve map of Soma was drawn by the French in 1868.
In this study, the process from the discovery of coal in Soma in 1963 to 1957 is discussed. In addition, by trying to shed light on the discovery process of coal, it has been tried to contribute to the economic studies of the last years of the Ottoman Empire and the first years of the Turkish Republic and to the local history of Soma. The main source of the study is the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey State Archives, the Ottoman Archives and a large number of documents in the Republic Archive. By making use of various works, the mining history of Soma has been evaluated in an objective way. |