roman empire and mondern day europe Essay -- essays research papers

Part I Figure 3.3 on page 67 illustrate the influence of the Roman Empire in relation to road construction and transportation and the similarities of those early systems with modern day Europe. A great deal of events has occurred between the time periods of the two maps. The first major road system was established by the Roman Empire from 300 BC and onwards, mainly for economic, military, and administrative reasons. The road system relied on solid road engineering methods, including the laying of foundations and the construction of bridges. This was also linked with the establishment of pan-continental trading routes like the Silk Road that linked Europe and Asia by 100 BC. After the fall of the Roman Empire after the 5th century, integrated road transportation fell out of favor as most roads were locally constructed and maintained. Due to the lack of maintenance of many road segments, land transport became a very dangerous activity. It wasn’t until the creation of modern nation-stat es in the 17th century that national road transportation systems were formally established. Through central government efforts the French built their Royal Roads system spanning 24,000 km, over which a public transport service of stage-coaches carrying passengers and mail was created. The British built a 32,000 km system of turnpikes where tolls have to be paid for the use of a road. It was mostly a private sector effort. 1794 introduced the beginning of modern road transportation with the first ...