pave the way

From the idea that once a paved path has been laid, travel on the route is easier and smoother for others.

• "Germany's development of rocket weapons paved the way for human controlled spaceflight."
• "A perverting of this Firſt and Original Chriſtian Principle, by Political and Aſpiring Church-Guides, […] did not only pave the way for Popery, but both laid the Foundation thereof and finiſh'd its Superſtructure: […]"
• "The gratification of one inordinate pursuit paves the way for another; and no sooner is the present vain wish indulged, than a future imagined necessity arises, equally importunate."
• "Prince Louis Napoleon was president of France, and his dictatorial behaviour was paving the way for his assumption of the imperial crown."
• "As we have seen, some of the women active before the feminist movement showed a concern for women's oppression and rights and helped pave the way for the exploration of women's issues in performance."
• "The film industry's current use of storyboards as a preproduction, pre-visualization tool owes its humble beginnings to the original Sunday comics. Pioneers like Winsor McKay,^([sic – meaning McCay]) whose Gertie the Dinosaur […] and animation of the Sinking of the Lusitania (1915) established him as the true originator of the animated cartoon as an art form. He paved the way for [Walt] Disney and others."
• "Siemens has landed a contract to upgrade signalling on the entire 170km (105-mile) S-Bane suburban network in Copenhagen to pave the way for fully automated trains."

• grease the wheels
• set the stage
• prepare the ground