The Rally itself can be traced back to the 1894 Paris-Rouen Horseless Carriage Competition , sponsored by a Paris newspaper, Le Petit Journal, which attracted considerable public interest and entries from leading manufacturers. This event led directly to a period of city-to-city road races in France and other European countries, which introduced many unique features of the Rally race. Independent race against time was kept by controls at the entry and exit points of towns along the way. Road books and route notes along with driving over long distances on usually gravel roads were also new ideas.
Rallying became very popular in Sweden and Finland in the 1950s, thanks in part to the invention of the special stage. Special stage is shorter sections of route, usually on minor or private roads. The introduction of the special stage brought rallying effectively into the modern era. It placed a premium on fast driving, and enabled healthy programs of smaller events to spring up in Britain, France, Scandinavia, Belgium and elsewhere.
Since then, the nature of the events themselves has evolved relatively slowly. The increasing costs both of organization and of competing as well as safety concerns have over the last twenty years brought progressively shorter rallies, shorter stages and the elimination of nighttime running, scornfully referred to as "office hours rallying" by older hands. Some of the older international events have gone, replaced by others from a much wider spread of countries around the world, until today rallying is truly a worldwide sport.
