Pourquoi on a commencé à voyager ? | L'Histoire nous le dira # 167
In the 19th century, the internationalization of trade was made possible by one of the most defining markers of the industrial revolution, the railroad. The railroad shock and the daily presence of locomotives will truly allow what can be called the invention of speed, essential condition of transport but also of tourism. In Europe as in America between 1830 and 1860 cities will experience a revolution of mobility as never before been known. Distances considered as usual, that which can be done in a day goes considerably increase, thus broadening the horizons of an increasing number of individuals affected by this revolution. We can now speak of mass transport from the middle of the century.
Three conditions are necessary for the revolution of public transport: reasonable prices, fixed timetables, and third, routes that can efficiently serve a large fringe of the population. Technical transformations will also revolutionized the use of free time. This same free time, associated with leisure time, is at the origin of the idea that vacations as a social institution that implies going on a long journey.
Little by little, a practice is defined that we'll call tourism. Today in History will tell us, the invention of tourism in the 19th century. Subtítulos: salvadorarmandoul@gmail.com The steam engines of the last century, so 18th century, that of James Watt, developed in the 1760s, perfected with recent developments, leading some to use it as an attraction. In 1808, the engineer
Richard Trevithick offers his "Catch me who can", a steam locomotive turning on a circular track, which like a roller coaster, becomes a paying curiosity. However, it's for the needs of transport of goods that the railway develops, which doesn't prevent George Stevenson from presenting, on september 27, 1825, the first passenger service on the line Stockton-Darlington. The journey is gradually becoming part of the new concept of the leisure time. In 1820, it took six hours to travel the 80km that separate London from the seaside resort of Brighton, and it cost 6 shillings to go there by stagecoach. With the railway, the journey takes only two hours and
now costs 2 shillings, and no more than 17,000 people went there during the entiree year of 1835, but there were 7300 travelers in a single week in 1850. The railway companies quickly understood the market which develops and offers special rates to their customers for the holidays. The railway makes travel accessible to the multitude. Its influence on the holiday resort is enormous. Grouped around the stations, the houses are starting to line up in city centers. On the waterfront progressively thorne of dikes and esplanade -you'll see, I have done a video on it- Some can also indulge in their favorite leisure, like these London hunters, like Anthony Trollope, who taking the train to go fox hunting in Leicestershire before returning to dinner in the evening in the capital, to then go at the theater. In France the railway was developed in
the 1820s and 1830s, a regular passenger service was set up. In the south, are the Talabot brothers who develop the railroad. In 1863, at the head of Paris Lyon Méditerranée, P.L.M., they had the largest network of the time with nearly 4,300 kilometers of railway. The 359 hours of travel that required Paris-Marseille in 1650 fell to 184 in 1750, then to 112 in 1814. After the installation of the railroad, now takes less than a day, i.e., 13 hours in 1887.
Acceleration is dizzying and connects distances so far considered impassable in a short time. With the inauguration of the line which goes from Paris to Saint-Germain, Eugène Guinot, on september 2, 1837, already pleases to imagine this new world of speed, and I quote: "We're already thinking with delight of the next era where the Parisian flâneur can going to lunch in Bordeaux, dinner in Geneva, spent his evening at the theater in Brussels, and return to sleep in Paris. Big capitals are getting closer each others by the constant flow of passengers. The train isn't the
only application of the steam engine, as there isn't the only form of shortening of travel time. The success of steamboats explains also the opening of the mental horizon of the travelers. The steelers were already in the British landscape at the turn of the century, but its use for transporting a public increasingly fond of discovering the country makes it much more attractive to entrepreneurs. The Isle of Man, in the Irland sea, it developed in the 1830s with the help of maritime links with Liverpool, which is also the case for Wright island. Transatlantic travel is also becoming extremely popular. With steamboats, but also development of port facilities,
increasing numbers of British tourists arrives on the French coast to discover its charms and establish a real leisure industry on both sides of the English Channel. England also invite foreigners to coming to enjoy of these establishments, ships that lead European immigrants to a new life in the United States, crosses the Atlantic loaded with American tourists that not knowing what to do with their wealth and feel attracted to the speed of the crossing. Travel culture is absolutely not new in the 19th century, on the other hand, the commercialization of leisure activities and the development of the tourist industry are completely renewed. At modern times, from 16th to 18th century, British aristocrats made a training trip, the Grand Tour, during which they go to the high-culture places of the continent to form in contact with the other, it's as much an educational trip as a way of standing out among his fellows. The model will gradually serve as an
instrument for the education of European elites, but also as cosmopolitan molds where the references circulate and assimilate. Industrial Revolution completely disrupts aristocratic culture. Money and social advancement are now considered to be factors of success and respectability. Therefore, it's important to redesign distinctions ways. Let us also add threats to aristocrats that constitute the democratic push that carries the century, but also the agricultural crisis, the new laws on inheritance, and taxation that weakens their economic and land position.
It's important to restore the image of the British aristocracy by reaffirming its uniqueness and one of the ways to do this is to position as a class of pleasure whose field is no longer limited to a country or continent, but opens to the entire planet. During the 1830s, as tourists explore Great Britain, they prefer to go to Greece, to Saint Petersburg, to Egypt, and to Holy Land. As soon as the railway connects the English seaside resorts like Bhat or Brighton, they declinate in favor of more distant places like the French Riviera, and the Italian Riviera, and sometimes even further away as Azores, Canaries, Casablanca, or even Algiers. Some nobles lose their political functions, and therefore, seek the dissipations and the entertainment, perfectly embodying what Veblen classifies as a leisure class. The world that aristocrats try to flee from
soon catches up with the help of a man anxious to capitalize on this new technology that travel allow. Thomas Cook is undoubtedly who best embodies this figure of the leisure entrepreneur who has a unusual business acumen, from very early on, he was able to take advantage of new possibilities offered by rapid public transport. Baptist, born in Derbyshire, Cook to found the biggest travel and vacation company of the world. From its invention, he saw the railway as a tool for religious promotion, and I quote: "what a magnificent thing it would be to put the new power of railways and transport at the service of fight against alcoholism!" In 1841, Cook set about the task of setting up his first trip. For one shilling per person, he embarked 570 people in third class for a journey at Loughborough to attend an anti-alcoholic gala and a picnic. For several years temperance cause
emains at the heart of Cook activities, but it soon becomes a secondary factor to travel. Cook becomes in a really entrepreneur of leisure activities which contribute to rail tourism, especially during 1851, year of the universal exhibition in London. Nearly 165 thousand people out of the 6 million who visit the Crystal Palace edified in Hyde Park, go there thanks to him. For these british people,
often from the lower classes, London is now accessible, this brings to a Times reporter said, and I quote: "30 years ago, less than one in 100 peasants saw the metropolis. Today it is difficult to find one in a hundred who has not been there for a day". Quickly, others seize the idea and compete directly with Cook in his activities, as Henry Gaze, which rather develops trips to France. With his clients, Gaze down Thames river by steamboat before crossing the Channel to reach Boulogne. He then offers excursions to Paris, then to Waterloo, and Brussels. Gaze
is the first to take the name of tourist agent, thus giving a name to the profession. The word tourist, in the 1840s, is slowly establishing in almost all languages, and this, as the English travelers had spread and European and North American rich imitate them. Despite competition, Thomas Cook remains the giant in the abroad trips marketing for members of the middle class and he continues thinking on travel as a way to uplift the soul. Returning to the idea of tutor of the grand tour, mix business with a high morality and a concern for the improvement of the people, even going so far as to believe that the free movement of populations would promote international peace and understanding between countries. In 1874 he created the travel check. Cook activities then take on a global dimension, in particular with the organization of cruises around the world, and he's no longer satisfied target the middle classes. In the trasatlantics era, since 1860s to the mid-20th century, show the gradual emergence of cruising as an independent practice. With Franconia, a Cunard of 20 thousand tons
designed to be the finest cruise, Cook provides passage to almost 400 passengers, often elderly and wealthy Americans. Everybody trip in first class and ritual on-board obeys the British aristocracy codes: dress is required for dinner. On-board entertainment are many: backgammon, whist, chess, reading, or the shuffleboard. Though, in the 1880s and 1900, the clientele changes. We now see traders, industrialists, financiers, but also American students who have now the means and also intend to take advantage of the charms of the crossing. For the anecdote, it's the Thomas Cook and Soon agency who sells the tickets for the crossing to New York aboard the Titanic, in 1912.
What Cook had started, others pursuing it, like the american George Pullman, who creates the wagon-bed and the wagon-dining with their opulent decorations. In addition to the desire for fast mass transportation, for those who have the time and means, luxury and comfort. Thus, real rolling palace are offered to travelers. The Belgian, Georges Nagelmackers goes even
further by establishing an international network of luxury trains that avoid borders changes. He built the first sleeping cars and the restaurant cars of Europe, and lens in 1883 the Great Orient Express between Paris and Constantinople, which soon becomes famous Orient-Express and Roma-Express between Calais and Rome, via Paris. Nagelmackers is increasing investments again, wanting to control more and more the chain of establishments that tourists frequent during their travels. Thus, he found in Brussels, in 1894, the international company of large hotels, wich goal is construction, acquisition, operation, and hotel furnishings, and all ancillary operations, such as creation of restaurants, cafes, laundry, wine store, etc. The traveler is thus taken to the hotels of the company by the trains of the company, whose restaurants, stores and travel agencies they frequent. The leisure offer becomes organization,
coordination and manage to maximize profits. One of the key elements of mass culture is the provision to the public of prints to low prices, such as newspapers that have know how to adapt to mass consumption. For tourism, are the tourist guides who will define the taste for travel by acting as an accelerator. 19th century doesn't invent the style. Travel guides date from the 16th century, but this literature specialized in mobility will gradually adapt and specialize according to utility, such as list furnished hotels or even the streets as well as plans. Each city has its
character, its inhabitants, and its habits. It's advisable to decipher it in order to make quickly and easily accessible to passing travelers. The guides expertly indicate places, markets, and fairs to attend. We thus see the birth of a marketing of tourism with stores that specialize in selling guide or maps. In the 19th century, the guides have for main mission to orient the tastes and to organize the leisure time. Between 1840 and 1860, the first modern tourist guides born with Murray in English, Baedeker in German, and Joanne in French. Recommendations now include the provision of the passport, on
exchange rate, distance from one place to another, the means of transport for people and their luggage, as well as itineraries with defined duration according to the number of days available, in a month, three weeks, fifteen days, etc... In England, John Murray writes his Handbook for travellers in Switzerland and the Alps of Savoy and Piedmont, in 1838 and became a model of the genre, mainly because it cares about updating information such as routes, but it also by classifying curiosities according to their importance. It's what we call the objects most worthy of attention like the cols, and chalets, or still glaciers. Murray intends to capitalize his passion for the
mountains with the quasi-religious romanticism of the first half of the century. Switzerland is then the chosen land for tourist climbs, soon taken over by the Alpine Club, founded in 1857 by the British wich inaugurates the golden age of mountaineering. The first great hiking trails of Chamonix, Grindelwald, and Zermatt are gradually consecrated, Geneva receives at the end of the 19th century thirty thousand travelers from all nationalities per year. To the calm and serene promenade, we now add
the vigorous ascent of the mass tourism. One then goes to the mountain in summer, in winter we prefer the beach, it was only in the 20th century with the popularization of winter sports and the new relationship to vacations that seasons are reversed, winter in the mountains, summer at the beach. Doctors also reversed the mountain by recommending its pure air to tuberculous who they have prescribed, together with sea baths, these "cures in the height". Famous resorts
are emerging, wich Murray doesn't stop listing since its founding, as that of Davos, or Arosa, Andermatt, and St-Moritz, which also become in winter sports resorts. Tourism, leisure, health, and sport, are thus drawn to a dance that the guides decline. In Germany, it was in 1828 that J. A. Klein presented a book which then passed to Karl Baedeker booksellers, who published in 1835 a book that is so popular that a second edition appears in 1836, then a third in 1839, and 23rd data of 1886. As Murray, Baedeker strongly insists on the accuracy of information, in particular with its many updates and the practicability of the object, a real bible of the trip. Baedeker goes further, however, he's said to seek, and I quote:
"to remove the traveler from the tutelage of professional guides". They want to make the tourist autonomous in his discovery without having to go through local intermediaries, because in addition to practical information this is information about the fauna, the flora, the history, the religion, the literature, customs. In short, a real catalog of what they need to know and see to be able to fully enjoy the trip without missing anything. In France, this time it's the work of a lawyer, former journalist founder of the Illustration, which published in 1841 its Descriptive and historical itinerary of Switzerland. Adolphe Joanne then devoted himself to writing new itineraries
until the day when Louis Hachette, back from London, intends to draw inspiration from bookseller W. H. Smith by creating a new collection of books intended for a large public that use railroad. Hachette thinks big, 120 titles had to be divided into 7 series identifiable by the color of their paperback cover. He entrusts to Joanne with the mandate to publish what would be soon known as Guides Joanne, ancestor of the Guide Bleu, to whom the man worked until his death in 1880. The collection is distributed in stations, in kiosks specially built for this purpose, as soon as it's launched and quickly finds an audience hungry for useful information. Joanne's style
is eye-catching and meets the needs of saving time by offering fast routes while emphasizing the essential curiosities to see, in particular by giving them one or more stars. This hierarchy gradually founds the tourist culture, going even in 1866 to set up the sub-collection Diamond Guides for the more hurry tourist, less learned but just as demanding. Like all forms of commercial leisure activities, the competition becomes frantic between the different works, best format, more pleasant presentation, more information, more reliability of information, to conquer the flourishing tourism market. Come on, it's over for today. I hope you liked it. If you want to know more, you can consult my book: "Sports and leisure. A story from the origins to the present day".
And don't forget to share, comment, and bring the video to life. Come on, I'm Laurent Turcot from History will tell us, and I see you next time. Bye
2021-06-13 07:40
