Technol Cult. 2023;64(3):737-759. doi: 10.1353/tech.2023.a903971.
Starting in the 1880s, Portugal invested in constructing railways in its African colonies, Angola and Mozambique. The aim was both to solidify Portuguese presence in territories disputed by other imperial nations and to facilitate exploration of the resources that imperial policymakers assumed existed in the colonial hinterland. To promote the perception that Portugal was an imperial nation, hundreds of photographs recorded the construction, inauguration, and operation of these new railways. Using a semiotics approach, this article analyzes photographs from various sources in Portugal to show how they helped create a novel technological landscape, underscoring the domestication of the territory and the civilization of its inhabitants by European rule, thus promoting it as a land of opportunity for European settlers. This focus adds to the debate claiming that photography was a crucial tool of empire serving European colonialism and imperialism in Africa.
从 19 世纪 80 年代开始，葡萄牙开始在其非洲殖民地安哥拉和莫桑比克投资修建铁路。其目的不仅是为了巩固葡萄牙在其他帝国争夺的领土上的存在，还为了便于开发殖民腹地中帝国决策者认为存在的资源。为了宣扬葡萄牙是一个帝国，数百张照片记录了这些新铁路的建设、落成和运营。本文采用符号学方法，分析了来自葡萄牙各地的照片，展示了它们如何帮助创造了一个新的技术景观，强调了欧洲统治下对领土的驯化和对居民的文明化，从而将其宣传为欧洲移民的机会之地。这种关注增加了摄影是帝国的关键工具，服务于非洲的欧洲殖民主义和帝国主义的说法的辩论。
