Özet:

National transportation policies that had gone through in the Early Republican Period played a critical role in improving the quality of life, economic development and providing the settlements with adequate public services nationwide. This study aims to assess the influences of railroad transportation on rural settlements in the case of Kayseri Province. Railway network that first reached Kayseri in 1927 connected to the province to the Blacksea with the construction of the Kayseri-Sivas-Samsun line, and to the Mediterranean with the construction of Ulukışla-Boğazköprü line in 1933. These railways, which were one of the first applications of the era, directly and positively influenced the agricultural, commercial, industrial development of the province. They, therefore, contributed to the province to become one of the significant examples for the efforts of the Early Republican Period to improve national prosperity and development. This research reveals that populations of the settlements located on these lines tended to increase and the stations located on these settlements paved the way for them to become collector and distributor centers. Moreover, it is concluded that those influences had reached farther rural areas in certain rural settlements wherein the road networks articulated to these railways.