The Significance of the Railway in Imperialism in Africa

In 1815, George Stephenson, a self-educated Englishman, built the first steam powered train. Between 1830 and 1870, British entrepreneurs laid about 13,000 miles of railroads which linked industrial centers, coalfields, iron deposits, and port cities through the land and also carried some 322 million passengers as well as cargoes of raw materials and manufactured goods. Between 1860 and 1918, the making of the industrial society and the process of empire-building was in active across Afro-Eurasia. Railroads were a very important key part to this operation. Railroads greatly affected the process of empire building in Afro-Eurasia.

The way railroads were built affected how the mode of transportation was received and how effective it was. Not only did the railroads effectiveness change through the years, but it also differed between different continents.

Because Asia is such a large continent with a lot of different culture, religions, and languages, each one differed in their views and usage of the railroads. In Document 1, the petition from the British-Indian Association states that, “Native gentlemen of birth and respectability, in striving to avoid the large crowds to be found in third-class carriages, find themselves even worse off in a second-class seat.

” The document speaks poor of the poor treatment of women using the railroads. This shows how horribly the British treated natives in their own land and used it as a tool for discrimination and to separate the Indians by classism.

The audience is relevant because it is a social justice group in India speaking to the British Colonial Government and it emphasizes that this is an issue due to the unfair practices and institutionalized racism set into place by their oppressors.

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This tactic later proved to work in the opposite direction, as shown in Document 7. In a magazine article published in London almost 50 years after the petition Lieutenant-Colonel R. Gardiner spoke of how the Indian railways, were “…beginning to be felt in the drawing together of the people of India…” In China, however, the government was uncertain to start railroad construction.

Government officials were aware that this technology would most likely benefit their society in the long run, and it could also have short term benefits for the poor in the country. However, they had drawbacks about working in the West. In Document 2, it says they determined that they could only work if they could, “would guarantee that no arable fields, houses, and ancestral graves would be harmed in the least,” showing that China’s willingness to avoid societal advancement if it meant keeping up an image of strength in negotiations. In the Ottoman Empire, their government was using railroads as a way to promote Muslim superiority and to bring together Muslims with a sense of nationalism. In Document 3, the Ottoman government report says that, “The railway has to be built solely by Muslim involvement, by obtaining a huge amount of finance from the Islamic world and recruiting Muslim engineers in its construction,” and that the sultan must lead the task because they want to connect the Muslim world all the way from Damascus to Mecca, ultimately uniting all of the Muslim world.

The point of view is the Ottoman government official which is relevant because it emphasizes why a Muslim would want their project to be led and completed by other Muslims in order to establish dominance and strength of a joint Muslim Empire.

The people Europe, especially the British, were originally far ahead of the rest of society in terms of industrial revolution, so logically their methods of transportation would have to be just as advanced with their products and goods, Britain was one of the largest land empires in the 1800-1900s. One of the regions under their rule was Asia. And like on the main island of Great Britain, the British were trying to build railroads to connect large communities. In India, the British had built railroads and used them in an unfair way so they could create a division between Indian higher and lower class as shown in Document 1.

However, the Indians instead became more united and the cultures of India became much more intertwined because the Indians continued to use the railways despite how terribly they were treated by the First-Class passenger as proven in Document 7. Not only were the British trying to expand into foreign continents, but the French were also trying to expand into Africa. In Africa, the British tried to build railroads to join together their conquered regions, but those projects never came to completion as shown in Document 4.

In Document 6 it is shown how in Dakar, their governor had been trying to advance their society by introducing railroads in order to expose their citizens to other cultures and boost the African economy. In Russia, the railway system was not only used for the boosting of economies. In Document 5, an English politician is explaining how the Russians are using railroads to consolidate their power in the Middle East. It also was a call to action to the Middle East, saying that if they proceed how England had, they will gain momentum as a superpower and take over all of Asia. Europe used the industrial age to further their empire by settling countries like Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand and making them into lands which specialize in the export in primary goods. This was beneficial because they had such a stronghold on so many settlements across the world, each with growing flourishing markets that helped increase the Europe’s economy.

The Eurasian landmass was not only place that was exposed to railroads during the process of empire-building. In Africa, the British were trying to connect their territories too. Document 4 is an image from a newspaper in British New Zealand of a proposed railroad map from Cairo to Rhodes which was never completed. This shows another example of how Britain was trying to expand their area of influence and increase their stronghold on the world economy administrative council of Dakar to action.

His main argument is that neither moral nor material progress can occur without the introduction of the railroad. This shows how impactful railroads were not only moving commercial goods, but also in moving forward societies as a whole. The speaker here is important because the Governor of South Africa wanting to join together cultures of Africa which emphasizes how empire building is one of the most important goals in the time of industrialization for the government. If one were able to do more research into how Africa was impacted by empire building through railroads, it would be useful to have documents with the speaker being an average African citizen in Cape Town and getting to see through their eyes and hear their views on how the railroads impacted their way of living.

This would be useful because in historical documents, the reader often only gets to see through the “winner’s” eyes and it is just as important, if not more, to see the side of the “losers.” Just a glance a railway lines throughout the African continent during the age of high imperialism reveals their intent. Trunk lines (the main railway lines that connect commercial centers with seaports and other commercial areas) were constructed to transport extracted resources from African interior to the coast, where the raw materials were destined for European factories and markets. In South Africa, for example, trunk railways lines were constructed primarily to connect the diamond and gold field to the ports. Even the inter African dream of the Cape-to-Cairo railway of Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) was understood in the context of imperial interests. The locomotive was used similarly to extend European imperialism in Argentina, Canada, China, India, Iran, Mexico, the Ottoman Empire, and Thailand.

Between 1860 and 1918, the making of industrial society used to be in development across Afro-Eurasia. Railroads in particular were a key in thing to this operation. Railroads noticeably affected the system of empire building in Africa- Eurasia. The event in which the railroads have been built radically affected how the mode of transportation was once acquired and how fantastic it was. Not only did the railroads’ effectiveness range throughout the years, however it also differed between specific continents.