Advancements in communication technologies has helped to link people, ideas and commerce from across the globe. From King Darius I creating a network of yelling men on hilltops to the British embarking to lay a transcontinental cable underwater in 1872, nations and companies have innovated new ways to foster more effective communication.
It can be argued that the communication industrial boom, helped European nations exponentially build and maintain their Empires in the late 1800s. By 1838 Britain was able to communicate within minutes to their colony in India by telegraph. Previously, a written form of communication would be coupled with a mode of transportation, in this case a ship, and would have taken months just for a one way directive to reach. Enhanced communication meant, that actions can be made and approved at a high rate.
The International Telegraphic Union was the first international organization of its kind. This group brought 22 countries together to discuss cable lines and regulation of information. Ownership of cable lines gave countries and companies mass amount of power. The bond between international relations and communications is illustrated quite distinctly when looking at a cable line case study. Companies had to be strategic about where they laid undersea cable lines because it was a very expensive endeavor. Although the line may start in its home country, it would need to coordinate with the government of another country for permission to end the line on their shores. Diplomatic provisions for that country might include, a reduced rate use of the line. In 1923 Britain held 50% and the USA held nearly 25% of the global share of cable lines. This access to communication equated to greater power.
The addition of commercial money transfers increased commerce and trade. This allowed businesses from different parts of the globe exchange rates and products as well as allow for more transnational corporations.
Although telephones emerged in 1878, they were fairly limited as an international communication source until the 1950s. Three major international news agencies emerged in the late 1800s; together called the “Ring Combination”. Havas, Reuters and Wolf came together to forma monopoly as leaders on international news, contracting the rights to report in different regions. This inevitably led to news having a slanted western, northern view of the south.
New developments in the early 1900s led to greater radio technologies s a form of broadcast. Without the physical barriers that telegraphs hAD, THE Russians saw great strategic opportunity with radio. They used in heavily as a propaganda tool, transmitting programs in over 80 languages across the Eastern Bloc and beyond. The Nazis too used its power and were able to transmit far to Argentina where their was a large population of German migrants.
Sources:
Daya Thussu “The Historical Context of International
Communication” from International Communication: Continuity and
Change (2006).
Powers and Jablonski (Chapter 1 Information Freedom and US Foreign Policy: A History)
(This blog post in response to question #3 about the historic implications of international communication on international relations.)
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