The Civilising Road’

This article explores the American influence on the development of highways and motoring in China in the first half of the twentieth century. The author demonstrates how Henry Ford, Oliver Todd, General Wedemeyer and other Americans planted the seeds of motorization in China. The author reports on the levels of imports of American and British vehicles before World War I, noting that the pre-eminence of American vehicles is impressive, given that British traffic rules prevailed in the Treaty Ports (thus resulting in American cars having their steering wheel on the wrong side). Henry Ford had a keen interest in China and the Ford Motor Company quickly dominated the China market. The author considers how American car manufacturers went about convincing China's merchant aristocracy that an automobile was a safe, reliable, and practical means of transport. The author also discusses the interplay between road development and motorization of the country. An additional section describes the work of the American Red Cross and John Earl Baker, as they bring roads and relief to four provinces suffering famine from a vast crop failure due to a drought in northern China (1920-1921). A final section describes the change from driving on the left to driving on the right side of the road, a change instigated during World War II by General Albert C. Wedemeyer in an effort to reduce the number of traffic accidents occurring in troop and supply transit

Political science · Chinese history and philosophy · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History

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