Railroad as the leading sector in the Germany industrialization process

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Towards the end of 19^th century, Germany had managed to emerge as one of the most industrialized country surpassing Great Britain the home of Industrial revolution. This is despite Germany being a once divided nation. However, Germany had challenges of connectivity with only two of her ports; Hamburg and Bremen having access to the North Sea. Additionally, according to Gallamore and Meyer (2014), she lacked access to the vibrant trade routes within her states. Conversely, the political set up did not aid the economic stalemate in Germany since before 1871 she was made of numerous German states, for example, Prussia. For that reason, trade was difficult complemented by the complexity in the circulation of raw materials, thus it was obvious Germany needed a viable transport system that would connect all her states. In consequence, Germany incorporated railroad transport so that to advance the industrial revolution process (Grant & Hofsommer, 2009). Thus, this paper investigates how railroad contributed to Germany's industrialization process. 

First of all, railroads eased transport by reducing travel time by 90% and dramatically lowering freight costs across Germany, leading to three significant economic results. First, building railroads made it possible to develop the interior areas of the country (Schivelbusch, 2014). For instance, the completion of the first railway line reduced travel time from months to trips that could take a few days. Consequently, this led to the linkage of the countryside to the cities as well as production areas to markets and raw materials. Second, the farmers in the countryside switched subsistence farming to cash crop farming that was well supported by the local soil thus resulting in an increase in farm output.  According to Gallamore and Meyer (2014), the adoption of cash crop farming was made a reality due to the improved connectivity that made the farms accessible from production areas. Finally, the areas that were affected by the natural catastrophe, for example, drought, could be easily accessed thus leading to fewer deaths from hunger and starvation. Therefore, this led to population increase that guaranteed enough human labor supply to industries thus spurring the industrialization process.

Secondly, Germany faced rapid expansion in both political and economic effects during the industrialization process as a result of building railroads. In regards to political standing, the power held by Germany as a nation appreciated considerably (Grant & Hofsommer, 2009). It is important to recognize that railroads were expensive to build, thus this prompted the Germany government to directly take up the financing role through different ways for example issuance of massive land grants. In consequence, all the Germany citizens wanted the railroads to pass through and thereby benefiting their regions. However, this initiative was faced with a lot of challenges; therefore, the government had to intervene from time to time to decide where the main railroad lines should be initially laid before the less profitable branches could also be set up. On the other hand, in the bid to show the political power the government made the final decision on safety standards and gauge sizes, thus this made it possible for “different railroads to link up and eventually ensure that companies shared railroad tracks without crashing to one another” (Schivelbusch, 2014). As a result, railroad construction led to the unification of Germany states economically, while the government directing the development of railroads unified Germany states politically and increased the political power and influence during the industrialization process.

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