From the beginnings of European new imperialism in Africa, officials diagnosed a particular “transport problem” on the continent. Confronted with massive spaces, low population densities, and existing systems of porterage and caravan travel that European officials struggled to comprehend and control, officials from various European administrations worked to solve Africa’s “transport problem” with mechanical transport. Although early efforts focused on railroads, these were quickly eclipsed by cars and roads. By 1940, Africa’s road network, built almost entirely by African hands through exploitative taxation schemes, was 350,000 miles in length and 750,000 motor vehicles crisscrossed the continent. This talk reveals how “automotive empire” became the transimperial solution to Africa’s “transport problem.” Automotive empire connected the projects of European powers across the continent and shaped the brutal and extractive political, social, and economic relations of European colonialism in Africa.

Andrew Denning is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Museum Studies Program at the University of Kansas. His work on empire, mobility, and technology focuses on the global empires of Western European powers, particularly France, Germany, and Italy. He is the author of Automotive Empire: How Cars and Roads Fueled European Colonialism in Africa (Cornell University Press, 2024) and, with Heidi J.S. Tworek, editor of the forty-chapter volume, The Interwar World (Routledge, 2024).

Please join us using the Zoom link here. 

This event is free and open to the public.