Railway Imperialism

by Clarence B. Davis, Kenneth E. Wilburn, Ronald E. Robinson

Overview

This contributed volume explores the relationship between imperialism, railways, and informal empire. Contributors account for the origins of main lines in several independent and self-governing countries. The essays reflect on the imperial and anti-imperial effects of railways, whose rails traced the divergent paths of expanding capitalism, imperial strategy, and modernizing nationalism. The reader is thereby offered an opportunity of seeing the slippery notion of informal empire in operation, and of testing its validity. The railway has often been studied from the standpoint of imperialism; this book makes a beginning with studying imperialism from the standpoint of the railway.

Following the book's introduction, which explains the imperial model considered in each chapter case study, the book opens with essays on railway imperialism in Canada, South Africa, Central Africa, Argentina, Mexico, the Indian States, Thailand, Russia and China. The last essay, written by Ronald E. Robinson, ties the book together with an engaging analysis of railway imperialism. This book should appeal to researchers and students interested in the history of imperialism and the history of railways.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313259661
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/1991
Series:	Contributions in Comparative Colonial Studies , #26
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)
Lexile:	1590L (what's this?)

About the Author

CLARENCE B. DAVIS is Vice President for Academic Affairs at Keene State College, Keene, New Hampshire.

KENNETH E. WILBURN is a Professor in the Department of History at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina.

RONALD ROBINSON is Emeritus Beit Professor of the History of the British Commonwealth in Oxford University and Fellow of Balliol College.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: Railway Imperialism
Railway Imperialism in Canada, 1847-1865
Engines of Empire and Independence: Railways in South Africa, 1863-1916
Railways Politics and Imperialism in Central Africa, 1889-1953
Profits and Visions: British Capital and Railway Construction in Argentina, 1854-1886
In the Path of Progress: Railroads and Moral Reform in Porfirian Mexico
Railways, Raj, and the Indian States: Policy of Collaboration and Coercion in Hyderabad
Thailand's Railways and Informal Imperialism
Russia, the Soviet Union, and the Chinese Eastern Railway
Railway Imperialism in China, 1895-1939
Conclusion: Railways and Informal Empire
Selected Bibliography
Index