Two new railway lines could transform Central Asia
China, not Russia, stands to benefit
Central asia’s first railway was a military venture. Russia began laying track in 1880, primarily to shuttle troops around the Karakum desert, the better to crush resistance to its rule in what is now Turkmenistan. Within eight years trains ran 1,400km from the Caspian Sea to Samarkand. George Curzon, who rode the railway in 1888 as a young British lawmaker (and future Viceroy of India), wrote that it helped Russia dominate local trade, and doubled its capacity to launch attacks on India. Britain’s strategy, he warned, was not “suited to a position where the Cossacks are at your gates”.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “The middle rail”
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