Impacts of Railways During the Industrial Revolution

The railways worked hand in hand with the Industrial Revolution and had a profound effect on the people’s lives and cities. Their effect on revolution was unseen because the new technology was unlike anything by man. The development of railways had a universal impact on different aspect of society and on a large scale of people.

In the 1830s, many German authorities and economists like Friedrich List believed that railways were necessary in the unification of the German states. There were also many British capital investors wishing to start construction in industrialized areas like Saxony and mine-rich states like Bavaria. Railways were able to unify the newly found Germany and also helped her transport weaponry and supplies efficiently and effectively from the factories to her troops who were fighting in the Seven Weeks War (1866) and the Franco-German War (1870).

The length of railroads across Europe increased drastically due to high death of horses during the Napolionic Wars. By 1890s France had about 37,000km of railroad and Germany had about 41,800km.Politically, the power of the state grew considerably. Railroads were expensive to build, leading governments to finance them directly or through massive land grants. Also, everyone wanted railroads to pass through and benefit their regions. At first, this was impractical, and governments often had to step in and decide where the main trunk lines should be laid before less profitable branch lines could be developed. Finally, standard gauges (track sizes) and safety standards had to be set so that different railroads could easily link up and run their trains on other companies' tracks without crashing into one another. Naturally, each railroad wanted to avoid the expense of adapting its own gauge to another company's standard, making it necessary for the government to step in and impose a standard gauge and safety practices. Therefore, as railroads unified their nations economically, the governments...