Evolution of the World Railway Network, 1850-1913

Source: Rioux, J-P (1989) La revolution industrielle 1780-1880, Paris: Editions du Seuil. From 1830, when the first commercial service between Liverpool and Manchester was established, the size of railway networks grew rapidly, namely through phases of boom and bust. The railroad enabled the exploitation of the resources of vast territories,

Spanish and Portuguese Empires (1581-1640)

Source: adapted from Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd, 1911. The Age of Discovery, 1340-1600. University of Texas at Austin. Spain and Portugal were the first European nations to establish trade empires spanning the world. By treaty (Tordesillas, 1494 and Zaragoza, 1529) most of the Americas were claimed by Spain,

Cargo Carried by Steamship by Port City, 1890-1925

Source: Lloyd’s List. Adapted from Ducruet C. (2012) Ports et routes maritimes dans le monde (1890-1925), Mappemonde, 106. The period between 1890 and 1925 underlines the dominance of the steamship as a support to global trade with its diffusion to ports across the world. 1890 marks a threshold with steamship

Maritime Journey from Britain to Australia, 1788-1960

Source: Australian National Maritime Museum. As maritime technology improved, mostly through better ship design and improved navigation, long-distance maritime journeys were reduced substantially. For instance, initial journeys in the late 18th and early 19th centuries between Great Britain and Australia took between 70 and 110 days. The use of clipper

Geographical Impacts of the Suez and Panama Canals

The construction of the Suez and Panama canals substantially impacted global trade, mainly over two factors. The first and most obvious concern is the reduction of travel distances between regions of the world. The second relates to the introduction of the steamship during the same time period, which was able

World Maritime Trade Routes, 1912

Source: U.S. Hydrographic Chart #1262, 1912. W.S. Morison. By the early 20th century, a global trade network supported by steamships was well established. Still, the range of steamships had limitations as the fuel used was coal. Refueling stages were required for long-distance trade, such as Cape Town, Pernambuco, Valparaiso, Honolulu,

Break-Even Distance between Sail and Steam, 1850-1890

Source: adapted from W.J. Bernstein (2008) A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, p. 327. One of the leading technical drawbacks of a steamship was the requirement of carrying coal in storage, which was done at the expense of the regular payload. Even if

An Early Steamship, the Great Britain, 1845

Source: National Maritime Museum of Great Britain. The first steamships to appear in the 1840s revolutionized maritime transportation, notably at the intercontinental level. This article about the steamship Great Britain is taken from the Scientific American, Vol.1, No. 1, 1845: “This mammoth of the ocean, which has recently arrived from

Impacts of Maury’s Navigation Charts on Sailing Time, 1850s

Source: Leighly, J. (ed) (1963) The Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology by Matthew Fontaine Maury, 8th Edition, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. Cited by Knowles, R.D. (2006) “Transport shaping space: the differential collapse of time/space”, Journal of Transport Geography, 14(6), pp. 407-425. The navigator Matthew Fontaine Maury collected between 1842

Clipper Ships

Source: “The Prinz Albert” (1897) painted by Antonio Jacobsen (1850-1921). Clipper ships were so named because they were fast sailors, a term derived from to “clip”, which is getting as much propulsion as possible from the available wind. They represented the utmost evolution and refinement in the design of sailships.