The character of trans-Saharan trade routes has undergone conspicuous change within the past few decades. The camel caravan has disappeared from the long trails, though the ship of the desert still has no rival for intertribal trade and native travel; the motor vehicles and the airplane have created new routes and new centers. Strangely, one hears far less about these actualities than about the long-dreamed-of and still unrealized trans-Saharan railway. It was during the 1870's, at a time when other great transcontinental lines were being talked of or built-in the United States and Canada, Siberia, and Australia-that the French started trans-Saharan railway planning. A line across the Great Desert would furnish an economic and political link between settled and increasingly important northern Algeria and the undeveloped areas of the Niger Basin. But a trans-Saharan line would have to contend with the greatest physical difficulties, with the prospect of the smallest immediate economic returns. (KAR) P. 2.


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    Title :

    Modern Trans-Saharan Routes


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    1952


    Size :

    17 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





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