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Automotive Empire: How Cars and Roads Fueled European Colonialism in Africa

byAndrew Denning

Andrew Denning shows how automobiles and roads reorganized European colonial rule across Africa. Officials expected motor transport to overcome distance, accelerate commerce, and strengthen political control, but road building demanded money, labor, and administrative capacity that colonial governments often lacked. Moving across French, Italian, British, German, Belgian, and Portuguese territories, the book follows vehicles as technologies of power and sources of frustration. It argues that the automotive empire extended colonial reach while exposing the fragility, coercion, and unevenness of imperial authority.

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Publication date

2024-07-15

Format

Hardcover

Pages

366

ISBN

9781501775369