Oil Rush in the Imperial Baku: Reciprocal Impacts between Industry, Environment, and Urbanisation

This article examines the rapid expansion of the oil industry in and around Baku during the late Russian Empire and its effects on industrial development, environmental change, and urban transformation. Drawing on contemporary newspapers, advertisements, corporate publications, and technical sources, it situates the Baku oil boom within broader debates about imperial industrialisation and resource frontiers. The article argues that oil extraction, refining, and transport not only stimulated economic growth and infrastructural modernisation but also generated significant environmental pressures. Pollution, fire hazards, and logistical bottlenecks emerged as central challenges that shaped municipal policies, regulatory practices, and public debate. Particular attention is paid to the role of newspapers and professional publications in disseminating technical knowledge, framing environmental problems, and influencing discussions of urban development. By integrating approaches from environmental, business, and urban history, the article demonstrates that industrial expansion in Baku was a reciprocal process in which economic growth, environmental transformation, and governance evolved in constant interaction. The case of Baku offers broader insights into the functioning of imperial resource economies and the socio-ecological consequences of rapid industrialisation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.