Railway experts and the construction of national space(s) in post-imperial Southeast Europe: the case of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/Yugoslavia.

This article examines the role of railway experts and transport infrastructure in shaping national and economic spaces in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) during the interwar period. Using spatial analysis grounded in concepts like path dependency and mental maps, it highlights how inherited railway networks and institutional legacies from Austria-Hungary and Serbia complicated efforts to create an integrated Yugoslav transport space. Despite expert plans advocating for unified Adriatic railway connections to foster national integration, political decisions favored older, regional projects such as the Lika- and Trans-Balkan-Railways, reinforcing fragmented national spaces. Ultimately, the persistence of pre-existing infrastructures and institutional influences prevented the realization of a cohesive Yugoslav transport and economic space, limiting the nation-building potential of railway development in this period.