Railways and agriculture in France and Great Britain, 1850 to 1914 (original) (raw)
Journal of Historical Geography, 2011
Combining the literature on 'city systems' and its intermediary spatial categories with the discourse on 'socio-technical' hybrids, this article examines whether the early ruraleurban condition in Belgium was the planned spatial outcome of infrastructure policy. More specifically, it analyzes the dialectic between the conception of light railways and the geographies of power, tracing its impact on the spatial organization of the territory. In 1911 the British sociologist Seebohm Rowntree stated that Belgium had gone further than any country in supplying its working class with gardens. The dense Belgian railway network encouraged workers to commute between land and labour, travelling from their homes in the healthy countryside to work in urban factories and mines. Despite the agricultural crisis and accelerating industrialization in nineteenth-century Belgium, infrastructure policy had resulted in a peculiar territorial balance between city and countryside by transforming agricultural labourers and farmers into industrial workers without forcing them to leave their ancestral villages. Rather than nostalgically clinging to a disappearing countryside, the government harnessed the modern technology par excellence, combining rails, steam and state management, to safeguard the country as well as to facilitate modern dynamic. Countryside preservation and accelerating industrialization were reconciled in a reshaped configuration that rendered the countryside and its inhabitants simultaneously rural and urban, traditional and modern. As most literature situates the genesis of ruraleurban landscapes after the First and Second World War, this article on latenineteenth-century Belgium adds a further facet to the recently growing international research on hybrid territories within the fields of urbanism and geography.
2015
This research presents a demographic investigation into the effects the development of Britain's railways in the Victorian Era had on the largely rural counties of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. A 'gateway' to London, this region was traversed by many lines with a wide range of impacts. Railway historiography has questioned the extent to which railways affected national development; contemporary views of their central importance giving way to more critical opinion. Local rural studies have been recognised in addressing this; these at present are, however, few. Comparing and contrasting the three counties, the findings were used to create hypotheses of rural impacts, subsequently tested for accuracy and applicability by comparison with individual settlements. They demonstrated that occupations became decreasingly agricultural; railways having varying involvement. Sometimes a key factor, mostly they were of a supporting nature triggering knock-on effects. Land use became more urbanised but this was not railway originating; contrarily land use affected rail development itself. Railways, nonetheless, actively boosted urbanisation and industry by 1900, and in cases even supported agriculture. Population changes were assisted by railways, particularly rural-urban migration, but while aiding later in the period, railways did not initiate the process. A case study of Wolverton (Buckinghamshire), the first planned 'railway town', reveal exceptional differences even down to the appropriateness of the broader historiography. Limited prior research on this settlement type had been undertaken, and this study revealed their development was more complex than at first glance. As a result, a new structural framework was created to explain how they could transform from company tool to independent town. The contribution of this research is thus threefold. In analysing a new region, another area is added to a growing number collectively building a national understanding from a local level. As a rural region yet close to London, this shows that while current historiographical 'facilitator' views are correct, variation was rife. The hypotheses present a starting point for future rural rail studies-a method for comparing regions alongside a list of investigable aspects. Lastly, the proposed model for 'railway town' development provides a framework for comparison not just of these settlements but potentially other forms of planned 'company town'. While railways were one factor among many, their importance should not be underestimated.
Perhaps the greatest agent of change in nineteenth century Britain was the coming of the railways. Their influence on almost all aspects of life was, to borrow Gourvish's phraseology, 'truly ubiquitous'. 1 Yet when one reviews the general literature on the nineteenth century one is struck by the paucity of scholarly research on the effect of this technological advance on the countryside. 2 This neglect is apparent even within the realm of specialist academic railway literature. Neglect of the impact of the railway on the countryside is apparent even within the realm of railway history. There are excellent studies of its affect on urbanisation, transport, the physical landscape and a wide range of economic issues. 3 John Walton led the way into studies of the role the railway played in the development of rural seaside resorts and the Lake District. 4 However little of this historiography addresses the impact the early English railways had on the socio-economics of the rural communities through which they passed. Some of the few who have examined these matters or part thereof are: the late Jack Simmons, Frank Andrews, Robert Schwartz and David Turnock. 5 Research on the social impact of GWR on the countryside is particularly sparse. The general consensus within almost all of this literature is that the railway was an agent for dramatic change in rural communities. On the one hand it is assumed that they facilitated the seismic shift in the rural/urban balance of the population; an exodus driven by young single people in search of better wages
RAILROADS IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Historiography on Portuguese railroads has not paid much attention neither to their regional effects, nor to the relationship between the operation of this form of transportation and population evolution. In fact, available studies usually adopt a national approach and analyze the contribution of railroads to the overall development of the country. The main argument of this paper is that in the Portuguese case, access to railroads reinforced pre-existing territorial inequalities and promoted different regional dynamics, mainly with regard to population growth, urban development and population mobility. In reality, in the more developed regions, railroad access helped increase population concentration in the areas served by this infrastructure. The railways also favored the growth of pre-existing urban centers and the emergence of new ones. They also encouraged migration into towns, thus contributing to their growth. In the Inland North, where the Tua line is integrated, traditionally affected by greater transportation difficulties, railroads seem to have operated in the opposite direction, contributing to a decline in population relative to the other regions of Portugal. Moreover, this area continued to be characterized by a predominance of modest-sized cities, unable to match the dynamism of the urban centers in the coastal regions or to attract a migrant population to aid in their development. Instead, since the end of the nineteenth century, this region suffered from an increasing emigration that railroads seem to have facilitated. To explain this evolution we must also take into account the economic crisis that affected the agriculture of this part of the country, but the presence of the railroad seems to have been a significant factor. In this paper, we will try to put the Tua line in this context, comparing its effects on population with those caused by the Beira Baixa line in another Portuguese mountainous region around the city of Covilhã.
Introduction – New Insights and Perceptions on Railway History
Journal of History of Science and Technology, 2018
special issue: new insights and perceptions on railway history Throughout the nineteenth century and early decades of the twentieth century, railways played a vital role in the construction of nations, economic growth, technological development and the dominance of Western nations over sundry African, Asian, and Latin American territories. In more or less recent years, different authors have emphasised this agency in several of their classical works, reflecting in some way the representations and the feeling of technological sublime 1 that contemporaries of the first decades of the locomotive had. Hobsbawm called them the most spectacular symbol of the nineteenth century, 2 while Adas deemed them pioneers of civilisation, conquerors of time and space, unrivalled promoters of migrations, settlement and 1 That is, the pleasure of observing a moving machine, as a symbol of the triumph of technology and Man's ingenuity. Kasson considered the railway "the most common vehicle of the technological sublime."
“Surtout une Guerre de Chemin de Fer”: The Paramount Role of Railways in The Great War
This academic paper lays out the role of railways in World War I. It posits that railways were the defining technology of the conflict, touching every aspect of the military and domestic situation. It covers the pre-war period, the duration and operations of the war, and its direct aftermath. All theaters of conflict are discussed in detail, and the importance of permanent and temporary railway infrastructure is explored.
The Navigable Waterways of France under the Second Empire, 1851–70
The Journal of Transport History, 1997
The navigable waterways ofFrance under the Second Empire, 1851-70 MICHELE MERGER Institut d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, CNRS, Paris In the first half of the nineteenth century, during the Restoration and the July Monarchy, some important works were undertaken in order to complete the French navigable waterway network. Thanks to the programme ofl821-22 and the measures adopted in 1836-37, priority was given to improving those canals which linked the main river basins of the country. Several waterways whose construction had begun during the Revolution or the First Empire were opened to navigation before 1848, and by 1850 the extent of the canal network had reached 4,179 km, against 1,200 km in 1815. 1 In consequence of the construction of the first movable barrage in 1834,2 canalisation could be used in order to make navigation more regular. Despite this development the condition of the navigable network was imperfect, and numerous gaps remained: almost all canals had been built to the north of the Le Havre-Orleans-Lyons line and the heterogeneity of waterways, in terms of depth, dimensions of bridges and locks, required transhipment, which slowed navigation." Moreover, 'the rivers needed improvement, otherwise the canals linking them would remain virtually useless'. 4 Efforts on behalf of inland navigation caused no dispute before the early 1830s, when railways were still an unknown quantity. In fact numerous uncertainties arose because of the costs of construction and exploitation of the new mode of transport, which needed enormous capital. The first sections of railway built by industrialists 'were simply tributaries of the river"," but after the inauguration of the Paris-Saint-Gerrnain-en-Laye line (1837), the first main lines were opened, and by 1850 3,000 km had been built. At the beginning of the Second Empire the government encouraged the development ofthe railways by granting concessions for ninety-nine years and promoting the creation of six major companies which benefited from a monopoly and guaranteed dividends. 6 The growth of the railway network, which reached almost 9,500 km in 1860, seriously prejudiced inland navigation. Public opinion inclined to the view that inland water transport could not compete with the railways, that it was futile to continue developing the network, The author wishes to express her gratitude to Daniela Marcheschi for the great care she took in translating this article into English, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments on an earlier draft.
Railways and Population Distribution: France, Spain, and Portugal, 1870–2000
The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 2011
Transportion networks can have a profound influence on economic development and the distribution of population. A long-term comparative study of the influence that rail services exerted on urban growth reveals that the creation of a structured railway network in France, Portugal, and Spain intensified the depopulation of extensive rural areas, as more and more people moved to, and between, cities. Areas that were once relatively small and insignificant began to thrive when the railway reached them.