Transportion networks can have a profound influence on economic development and the distribution of population. A long-term comparative study of the influence that rail services exerted on urban growth reveals that the creation of a structured railway network in France, Portugal, and Spain intensified the depopulation of extensive rural areas, as more and more people moved to, and between, cities. Areas that were once relatively small and insignificant began to thrive when the railway reached them.

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© 2011 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Inc.
2011
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