We in America and Western Europe have no idea of the cataclysmic changes a primitive country undergoes when suddenly its people must adapt their ways to fit in with the rest of the world. The country of Turkey, in 1932, was such a country.
The short article and 8-page photo section, Looking in on New Turkey, National Geographic Magazine, April, 1932, tells us of many such giant cultural leaps for the ordinary citizen.
1) Citizens no long owed allegiance to a sultan but "serves the Turkish Republic" (p. 499).
2) "By Government order he doesn't wear a fez any more" (p. 499), so that they could better compete with the Western world.
3) "In accord with another official promulgation, a Latin alphabet has replaced the beautiful but cumbersome Arabic script" (p. 499), because only a few could read or write.
4) 98% of the population were farmers using primitive equipment. Tractors were gradually being utilized.
The native clothing was largely made from goats' wool, hand-woven, dyed and embroidered. Women were said to be "as free as the men of her tribe" (photo caption, p. 509). The country has remained democratic since 1923 after a War of Independence to overthrow the Ottoman Empire which had ruled since the 13th century. Viva Democracy!
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