The Importance of Railways in the Imperial Project

The railways were an integral part of the imperial project in far off places such as South Africa and India. They played a key role both for economic imperialism and military imperialism. The state largely then intervened in most countries and then took over the railways, cutting them back drastically noticeably in Latin America. After the second world war you get mass motorizationyou get the building of motorways so it becomes impossible to run the profitable railway but the railways are still important.