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Article ID: CBB732384908

The Camera and the Railway: Framing the Portuguese Empire and Technological Landscapes in Angola and Mozambique, 1880s–1910s (2023)

Pereira, Hugo Silveira (Author)

Technology and Culture
Volume: 64
Issue: 3
Pages: 737-759

DOI: 10.1353/tech.2023.a903971

URI: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/903971

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Technology and government Colonialism Domestication Landscape; landscapes Photography of railroads Travel; exploration Imperialism Portugal, colonies Railroads 19th century 20th century, early Mozambique Angola

Starting in the 1880s, Portugal invested in constructing railways in its African colonies, Angola and Mozambique. The aim was both to solidify Portuguese presence in territories disputed by other imperial nations and to facilitate exploration of the resources that imperial policymakers assumed existed in the colonial hinterland. To promote the perception that Portugal was an imperial nation, hundreds of photographs recorded the construction, inauguration, and operation of these new railways. Using a semiotics approach, this article analyzes photographs from various sources in Portugal to show how they helped create a novel technological landscape, underscoring the domestication of the territory and the civilization of its inhabitants by European rule, thus promoting it as a land of opportunity for European settlers. This focus adds to the debate claiming that photography was a crucial tool of empire serving European colonialism and imperialism in Africa.

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