Automotive Empire: How Cars and Roads Fueled European Colonialism in Africa

Winner of the 2025 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot Award

In Automotive Empire, Andrew Denning uncovers how roads and vehicles began to transform colonial societies across Africa but rarely in the manner Europeans expected. Like seafaring ships and railroads, automobiles and roads were more than a mode of transport—they organized colonial spaces and structured the political, economic, and social relations of empire, both within African colonies and between colonies and the European metropole.

European ...