Page 247 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1548 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

which came into widespread use in the early twentieth chemicals, and petroleum. Rail travel, in fact, proved so
century. Equally important for a fast, safe, and smooth superior to all previous modes of transportation that by
ride were track lines that followed an even gradient the 1870s it had achieved a near monopoly on the
despite changes in the terrain. Two inventions were par- movement of persons and goods in all the major indus-
ticularly useful in this regard: the iron bridge, pioneered trial countries. Monopoly led to price fixing, deceptive
by Robert Stephenson in Newcastle in 1849, and the rail- business practices, and rampant corruption—and even-
road tunnel, first used in the Italian Alps in 1871. tually also to government regulations designed to restore
Organizational breakthroughs also played a major a semblance of public trust and private competition. One
role in the success of the railroad.The first was the intro- of the earliest was the Interstate Commerce Act, passed
duction of Greenwich mean time (“railroad time”) in by the U.S. Congress in 1887. Monopolistic practices
1840, which made it possible for rail companies to also made the railroad one of the most hated symbols of
establish uniform timetables and for passengers to plan foreign domination. “Nationalization” thus became one
their trips and make their connections. The second was of the catchwords of anticolonial and anticapitalist move-
the use of the telegraph for purposes of signaling and traf- ments in the colonial and developing world. Juan Peron,
fic control, a necessity especially on one-track lines where for instance, purchased Argentina’s railroad system from
the danger of a head-on collision was always present. Sta- British investors shortly after coming to power in 1946.
tion managers, signalmen, switchmen, and brakemen Many nineteenth-century liberals and radicals wel-
were all as essential to a safe and trouble-free journey as comed the railroad as a tool for bringing the world
the engineer. together in peace and harmony, but rails proved equally
Track width was the one major technological- useful as a tool of empire-building and warfare. In the
organizational problem that was never fully resolved. Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the Prussian army
Most European and North American railroads adopted skillfully used the German rail system to invade and con-
the same track width used in Britain—1.44 meters (56.5 quer northern France. Russia’s decision to build the
inches)—which came to be known as “standard gauge.” Trans-Siberian Railway through Manchuria was one of
Some countries, however, chose a “broad gauge.” Russia the principal causes of the Russo-Japanese War (1904–
and Finland picked 1.52 meters (60 inches), while Spain, 1905). Plans to construct a Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway in
Portugal, and India chose 1.68 meters (66 inches).“Nar- the early twentieth century contributed to the outbreak of
row gauge” railroads (less than 1.435 meters) were also World War I in 1914.
built, especially in mountainous regions.The chief advan-
tage of a nonstandard gauge is that it offers some pro- The End of a Monopoly
tection against a military invasion.The chief disadvantage The Railroad Age came to an end during the first half of
is that it inhibits the free flow of goods and passengers the twentieth century with the emergence of automobiles,
across borders. trucks, buses, airplanes, and pipelines as alternative
modes of transport. Nonetheless, with some 1,204,000
Impact on Society kilometers of track on every continent except Antarctica
and Politics (enough to encircle the earth more than thirty times), the
The railroad displaced the horse-drawn carriage as the railroad remains central to the movement of people and
preferred mode of passenger travel as early as the 1840s goods to this day. In densely populated regions, such as
because it provided a faster, safer, and more comfortable western Europe and Japan, rails are often as fast and con-
ride under all weather conditions. It also largely out- venient as autos and planes. Railroads also remain pop-
competed the canal-and-barge industry for the transport ular in India, China, and other parts of the developing
of bulk commodities such as ores, grains, gravel, lumber, world, where they are typically the only affordable means