‘On the Road to Mandalay’: The Development of Railways in British Burma, 1870–1900

Baillargeon, David

Abstract

This article examines the history of railway development in British Burma between 1870 until 1900. In particular, it focuses on how railways and public works projects became a key site of contestation about Burma’s prospects, value, and future during the late nineteenth century, as well as how a litany of agents – both official and non-official – influenced the path of railway development in the colony. This article not only reveals the difficulties and disputes that impacted railway construction in Burma, but also how these debates led to the eventual privatisation of Burma’s railway system in the 1890s. In doing so, this article demonstrates how myriad agents with often competing aims affected the colony’s social and economic development, as well as how the results of these debates and the subsequent construction of railways produced a new geography of occupation in British Burma.

Citation

Baillargeon, D. (2020). ‘On the Road to Mandalay’: The Development of Railways in British Burma, 1870–1900. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 48(4), 654-678. https://doi.org/10.1080/03086534.2020.1741838

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 18, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Apr 2, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020
• Deposit Date: Feb 12, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 3, 2021
• Journal: Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History
• Print ISSN: 0308-6534
• Electronic ISSN: 1743-9329
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 48
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 654-678
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03086534.2020.1741838
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3949472
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03086534.2020.1741838
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History on 02.04.2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/03086534.2020.1741838