ABSTRACT
IN the last third of the nineteenth century, economy and politics were largely influenced by the availability, cheap and in quantity, of what was virtually a new material—cast steel, which could be rolled or forged. Steel rapidly replaced iron in most of its important largescale uses—for rails, for ships, for bridges and for buildings. Its superior strength and lightness not only made it cheaper for these purposes but also enabled much more daring constructions to be attempted. The adoption of steel was a major factor in opening the whole world to a new level of trade and exploitation in a matter of decades. It made colonial dependencies and undeveloped areas much more profitable, helped capital expansion, and was the material basis of the new imperialism of the end of the century. Economic and technical factors combined to make the steel age the prologue of a new period of wars and revolutions.
