Upcoming: “Automotive Empire: How Cars and Roads Made European Colonialism in Africa.”

Cornell University Press

When: February 12, 2025
Where: Center Austria, exact location tab

Dr. Andrew Denning

By 1940, Africa’s road network was 350,000 miles in length and 750,000 motor vehicles crisscrossed the continent. Why did European empires become obsessed with roads in their colonies, and what kinds of empires did roads and motor vehicles create? This talk examines the trans-imperial connections, competition, and collaboration among the Belgian, British, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese empires in the early decades of the twentieth century to reveal how technology and infrastructure defined colonialism in Africa and forged bonds of shared Europeanness.

Andrew Danning is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Museum Studies Program at the University of Kansas