ABSTRACT
The aggressions and jealousies which culminated in the Crimean War had much to do with the rise of plans for a British-owned Mesopotamian railway. A French company made overtures to the Ottoman Government about the time of the outbreak of the Crimean War, soliciting a concession and certain guarantees for a Mesopotamian railway to be built under French auspices. Railways were then expected to inaugurate a new era of communication, as much more rapid than the steamboat as that had been superior to the canal barge and the stage coach. The project of constructing a Euphrates Valley Railway grew out of much the same kind of considerations as those which produced the original Euphrates Expedition. The European and Indian Junction Telegraph Company, which numbered among its projectors several who were also connected with the railway, found its interests largely bound up with that enterprise.
