# The Famine That Broke the Ottoman Empire

An episode of [The Ottoman Empire: How It Ruled Three Continents for 600 Years — Fexingo History](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1895336292), 23 Jul 2026, 6:31.

Audio: https://audio.fexingo.com/history/the-ottoman-empire/episode-0175.mp3

In the late 19th century, the Ottoman Empire faced a catastrophe that killed hundreds of thousands: the Great Famine of Anatolia, 1873-1875. Lucas and Luna explore how drought, locusts, and a collapsing tax system turned a bad harvest into a demographic disaster. They discuss the role of the Ottoman state's response—or lack thereof—and how the famine deepened regional inequalities, fueled migration, and weakened the empire's hold on its heartland. Along the way, they meet a young official named Ahmed who risked his career to report the truth, and consider what the famine reveals about the empire's late-era fragility. #OttomanEmpire #GreatFamine #Anatolia #19thCentury #Drought #Locusts #TaxFarming #AhmedMidhat #Istanbul #Konya #Ankara #Migration #DemographicDisaster #OttomanDecline #History #FexingoHistory #SubsistenceCrisis #EnvironmentalHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

## Transcript

Lucas: So, we've talked a lot about the Ottoman Empire at its height — the conquests, the law, the architecture. But today, I want to look at something that really shows how fragile that whole system could be: the Great Famine of Anatolia in the 1870s.
Luna: I don't think I've ever heard of that. A famine in Anatolia?
Lucas: Yeah, it's not as famous as the Irish potato famine, but it was devastating. Between 1873 and 1875, a combination of drought, locusts, and a broken tax system killed hundreds of thousands of people across central Anatolia. Some estimates say maybe a million died.
Luna: Wait, a million? In the Ottoman heartland?
Lucas: Yes. And it's a story that tells you a lot about how the empire worked — and didn't work — in its later years. But before we get into the details, I just want to say: if you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, and you find these conversations valuable, listener support is what keeps Fexingo going and ad-free. You can help at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small thing that makes a real difference. Now, back to that famine.
Luna: Absolutely. So what actually caused it? Was it just a drought?
Lucas: Drought was the trigger, but the disaster was man-made too. Anatolia had always been prone to dry spells, but in the early 1870s, the rains failed for two consecutive years. By the spring of 1873, the wheat crop was a fraction of normal. Then came the locusts — massive swarms that ate whatever was left. Villagers described the sky going dark.
Luna: Locusts on top of drought — that's apocalyptic.
Lucas: Exactly. But here's where the Ottoman system made it worse: the tax farming system, iltizam. Tax collectors, called mültezim, had paid the state upfront for the right to collect taxes from a region. They needed to recoup their investment, so when the harvest failed, they still demanded the aşar — the tithe — in grain or cash. Peasants had to sell their seed grain, their livestock, even their land, just to pay.
Luna: So the tax system squeezed people when they were already starving.
Lucas: Right. And the state in Istanbul was slow to react. There were some relief efforts — grain shipments, tax deferrals — but they were poorly coordinated. The bureaucracy was overwhelmed, and local officials often embezzled the aid. One story that stands out is about a young official named Ahmed Midhat, who was sent to report on conditions in Ankara.
Luna: Ahmed Midhat — the writer?
Lucas: The same. Before he became a famous novelist, he was a civil servant. He filed a devastating report describing villages where entire families had died, where people ate grass and tree bark. His report was so grim that his superiors tried to suppress it. But he pushed it through, and it eventually reached the grand vizier. It did prompt some action, but not enough.
Luna: What did the grand vizier do?
Lucas: He ordered grain from the Balkans and Egypt, but transport was slow — the Anatolian road network was terrible. Some grain rotted in warehouses because there was no way to move it inland. By the time it arrived, many had already died. The famine also triggered massive displacement. Thousands of villagers, called muhacir, fled to Istanbul, swelling the city's slums.
Luna: So Istanbul got a flood of refugees, on top of everything else.
Lucas: Yes, and that created new problems — disease, unemployment, social tension. The state built soup kitchens and shelters, but it was a drop in the bucket. The famine also shifted the empire's demographics. Some regions, like Konya and Ankara, lost a quarter of their population. Many survivors never returned to farming; they moved to coastal cities or emigrated to the Americas.
Luna: Wait, people emigrated from the Ottoman Empire to the Americas?
Lucas: Yes, a small but significant wave. There's records of Anatolian Christians — mostly Armenians and Greeks — who fled the famine and ended up in Argentina and the United States. That's a whole other story. But the famine also exposed deeper cracks. It showed that the Ottoman state, which had once mobilized vast resources for war, couldn't effectively manage a subsistence crisis in its own heartland.
Luna: That's a stark contrast to the stories we've heard about Sinan's aqueducts or Suleiman's laws.
Lucas: Exactly. The empire of the 16th century had a sophisticated infrastructure and bureaucracy. By the 1870s, that system was corroded by debt, corruption, and administrative decay. The famine wasn't just a natural disaster — it was a symptom of the empire's wider decline. And it had long-term consequences: the demographic losses weakened the Anatolian economy for decades, and the government's failure bred resentment.
Luna: Resentment that might have fed into later nationalist movements?
Lucas: That's a good point. Some historians argue that the famine deepened the divide between the central state and the rural population, especially among non-Muslim communities who felt abandoned. It's one of those hidden turning points that doesn't get a lot of attention, but it shaped the empire's final decades.
Luna: So what's the takeaway? That even the greatest empires can be undone by a bad harvest?
Lucas: Partly. But more than that, it shows that empires are only as strong as their ability to care for their own people. The Ottoman state had the resources — it was still a major power — but it lacked the will and the infrastructure to reach its most vulnerable subjects. That failure of governance was as destructive as any army.
Luna: It makes you wonder how many other famines are hidden in history, quiet catastrophes that nobody talks about.
Lucas: Absolutely. And that's why we dig into these stories — to remember that history isn't just about battles and sultans. It's about the people who lived through the hard times, and how the systems they trusted sometimes let them down. Thanks for coming along on this one.

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