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The Iron Road to Redemption: Railway Development and the Ghost of Spanish Decline in the Nineteenth Century
European History Quarterly ( IF 0.4 ) Pub Date : 2024-09-24 , DOI: 10.1177/02656914241279785
Joel C. Webb

The opening of Spain's first railway in 1848 inaugurated a short-lived period of railway euphoria that consumed the imaginations of Spaniards and resulted in the rapid development of nearly 5000 km of track. While most historians of Spain's nineteenth century concede that the effort failed to trigger the industrialization many had hoped for, it did stimulate the minds of those primed to fantasize about the Spanish future then being constructed with iron and steam. Fueling these dreams of a hyper-modernized future was the dark specter of Spanish decline, a narrative with roots in the seventeenth century and an influential cultural force in the nineteenth. Nineteenth-century railway boosters and journalists frequently conjured up stirring images of a prostrate Spain being lifted out of the mire of decline and re-joining the nations of Europe. This article explores how popular anticipation at the prospect of railways prompted an infectious feeling of possibility that echoed across Spain and promised, if only for a bright and fleeting moment, to ease Spanish insecurities and allow the nation to finally free itself of the terrible burden of its past failures.

中文翻译:


救赎的钢铁之路:铁路发展与十九世纪西班牙衰落的幽灵



1848年西班牙第一条铁路的开通,开启了一段短暂的铁路热潮,耗尽了西班牙人的想象力,导致近5000公里轨道的快速发展。尽管大多数研究西班牙十九世纪的历史学家都承认这一努力未能引发许多人所希望的工业化,但它确实激发了那些准备幻想西班牙未来由钢铁和蒸汽建造的人的思想。西班牙衰落的黑暗幽灵助长了这些超现代化未来的梦想,这种叙事根源于十七世纪,并在十九世纪产生了一种有影响力的文化力量。十九世纪的铁路支持者和记者经常会想起一个激动人心的画面:孱弱的西班牙从衰落的泥潭中被拉出来,重新加入欧洲国家的行列。本文探讨了人们对铁路前景的期待如何激发了一种充满感染力的可能性感,这种感觉在西班牙各地回响,并承诺,即使只是一个光明而短暂的时刻,也能缓解西班牙的不安全感,让国家最终摆脱铁路的可怕负担。它过去的失败。
更新日期:2024-09-24
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