While posterity may have the privilege to paint a historical series of events as the “perfect storm,” their respective contemporaries have often lacked the same luxuries of perspective and insight required to draw such definitive conclusions. Although one can argue that much of history can be seen in a more nuanced light with the passage of time, late nineteenth-century imperialism seems like a notable exception; the aggressors involved were acutely aware of their actions and exercised them with careful, meticulous intent. Therefore, one may conclude that the events that transpired over the latter half of the nineteenth century were not, in fact, a perfect storm, but rather a calculated orchestration of strategic maneuvers. By examining the role of technology in the age of New Imperialism, American historian Daniel R. Headrick’s The…show more content… As per Headrick, “Europeans who entered Africa and Asia in the nineteenth century often did so in the face of hostile populations,” (83) and with the exponential growth of power disparity between the West and non-West, these tensions were further intensified. Despite some of the advantages native populations had in sheer size and command of local terrain, these strengths were quickly nullified with European supremacy in not only weapons, medicine, and seafaring, but also innovations in land transport and advanced long-distance communication. One example of this new technology would be train tracks, an innovation sparked by the railroad fever in the West. The railroads constructed in India by the British in the mid-to-late 1800s became one of the most revolutionary projects of the colonial era, creating the largest international capital flow of the nineteenth century and expediting the circulation of wealth far beyond what would have been possible without these railroads
