First Oil boom-Construction boom

Baku’s Oil boom turned into a construction boom. Contemporary descriptions convey the intensivity of activity and mixture of wonder and shock that the radical transformation of the phyicla space and fabric of the city elicited. In 1883 Charles Mrvin wrote:

“Baku, indeed, fairly amazed me. The numerous reports that had appeared in the Russian Press of late years, describing and extolling its progress, had prepared for a spectacle of rapid development, but I must confess that I had no idea Baku was such a large place. What was ten years ago a sleepy Persian town is today a thriving city. There is more building activity visible at Baku than in any other place in the Russian Empire. It possesses more shipping of its own than Odessa or Cronstadt, and it has commenced the construction of a fine stone quay, of which about one mile is open for traffic, which beats the quay of the Neva at St Petersburg, and is no unworthy rival of the Thames Embankment. Already the principal town, and port of the Caspian, Baku in a few years time will be the leading commercial center of the Caucasus. I was astonished at the amount of shipping lying in the bay. Several hundred vessels were riding at anchor, and a large number of big steamers, many 200 feet long, were taking in oil or other cargoes and the twenty-five long piers, which stretch out into various parts of the bay. Starting from the extremity of the Black Town, where the petroleum is refined, one can walk a good eight miles along the strand or quay, with shipping always on one side and buildings on the other; and every where there is just as much activity as on the strand of the Volga at Nijni during the busy period of the Great Fair. From one end of the town to the other, we saw the character of Baku being transformed. "

From the civic engagement perspective, Baku's local oil millionaires differed significantly from those of the foreign oil industrialists in the city Oil was the way of self-determination rather than just wealth for the local entrepreneurs.

They invested their profit in institution building, representation, and public life, aiming to realize this longing. They competed with one another in the construction of stunning and grandiloquent palaces The popular styles of the 1860s and 1870s Europe with the various iteration of the Gothic and much more revival style urban mansions were designed by the architects commissioned all around Poland, Russian, and Germany The transformation and modernization of Baku was an outstanding example in the Caucasus The wealthiest barons of Baku: Naghiyer, Taghiyev, Sultanov, and Asadullaev, were elected as the city duma representatives The influence of the oil barons in shaping Baku's history and future was widely recognized

2018. https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/baku-azerbaijan-oil-boom-architecture/index.html (accessed March 24, 2022).

Source: own study