Coaling Stations Built Empires

Technological shifts (steam propulsion) created new logistical needs—coaling stations—that states raced to build; those logistics hubs became enablers of colonial expansion and sustained overseas power projection. The article documents this causal chain in 19th‑century navies, showing logistics as a strategic multiplier. — Understanding how infrastructure and logistics hubs translate technical advantage into geopolitical power helps explain past imperialism and offers a direct analogy to modern debates about data centers, compute hubs, and basing rights.