With the 20
th century, the
railroad reached maturity. Railroad building continued on a fairly extensive scale in some parts of the world, notably in Canada, China, India, and the former Soviet Union. This
paper discusses how railways conditioned the development of the economy (
including industrialization and improvements in agriculture), society (including urbanization and immigration), and politics (in war as well as in peace) in the United States and these four countries during the 19th and early 20th centuries (1800-1914). Paper includes a graphic and table.