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Index

Armenia

The Urartu Civilisation

Victory for Independence

Artashisian Dynasty on the Armenian Throne

Armenia caught between Rome and the Arsacids

The Acceptance of Christianity

Defending Christianity

Armenia Under the Bagratouni Dynasty

Cilicia - the New Armenia

Armenia Under Turanian Rule

The Renaissance or the Resurrection of Armenia

The Eastern Question

Russia in the Caucasus

The Armenian Question

Battle on Two Fronts

Tsarist Russia Against the Armenians

The Revolution of the Young Turks and the Armenian People on the Eve of World War I

The First World War

The Resurrection of Armenia

Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

- Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

Eastern Armenia

Western Armenia

"The Fateful Years" (1914-1917)

"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

The Bolshevik Revolution and Armenia

Transcaucasia Adrift (November, 1917

Dilemmas (March-April, 1918)

War and Independence (April-May, 1918)

The Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia

The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

In conclusion

Soviet Armenia

The Second Independent Republic of Armenia

Epilogue

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Economical and Social Aspects

The conquests of the Turanians, lands which during Ancient times and the Middle Ages were regarded as some of the richest in the world, were brought to ruin and poverty. Armenia was also destined to this fate under Turanian rule. Its history, as befell other countries in the Orient, became one of decay. Agriculture was laid to waste due to the destruction of the ancient irrigation system and channels and the simultaneous wrecking of the forests; industry and trade were nullified through the lack of security and safety in the region, and the subsequent paralysis of the transport networks.

The Armenian economy no longer operated according to division of work, a system which had been in use since the Bagratouni era, and reverted to the old self-sufficient system in each village, which was common at the beginning of the Middle Ages. Trade sank to the lowest level and peasants were forced to make ends meet as best they could within their own households. In each family, yarn was spun out of cotton and wool on spinning wheels and then passed onto the village weaver, present in almost every village up to the beginning of the 20th century who had wove fabrics.

The only important industry which still existed at the end of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was the production of raw silk, and that only in Eastern Armenia and the neighbouring region of Persian Azerbaijan. The silk of Karabakh (known as Seta Canare, after the Canare Fortress which was located in the middle of mulberry gardens), the silk from Ganja (known as Seta Ganja) and the silk from Shamakh were exported to Europe and were quite famous and sought after. 55 In the same region they cultivated and exported madder to Europe and India, which was used for dying textiles red.

Poverty and misery were nonetheless prevalent in the cities and villages. It is from this period onwards that Armenia and Asia Minor became the barren region that we see evidence of today, in contrast to the image that historians of the Ancient and Middle Ages have detailed of these regions.

The creation of the Ottoman Empire gave a short respite of less prominent oppression and violence than during previous periods, when the Seljuk Turks, the Mongols and the Turkmen had ruled. Nevertheless, the majority of heavy labour was carried out by the Christian population, who were the only active and able-bodied peoples in the empire.

In addition to the land tax which both the Christians and the Muslims paid, according to which peasants would deliver ten percent of their harvest to the government, there was also a special land tax, called Haratch, which was levied only from the Christians.

This tax, which provided for more than half of the needs of the Ottoman Empire, was collected in such a way as to seriously disrupt the annual harvest. Since the peasants were not allowed to start the harvest without the presence of the tax-collector, without exception, development within agriculture was almost entirely halted.

Moreover, there was yet another personal tax, Djaziie, which only the Christian population paid. Only religious leaders and children under the age of 10 were exempt.


55) W. Heyd, Histoire du Commerce Levant au Moyen Age, Leipzig, 1923, vol. II, p. 670-672