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"The central arguments of "Communication and Empire"--that the 'empire of capital' is not coterminous with imperialism, and that many of the central features of the contemporary global communications system have their roots in the period of global commercial expansion before the high tide of imperialism--are both important and timely, and are supported with a wealth of original firsthand empirical material."--Graham Murdock, editor of "The Political Economy of the Media"

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COMMUNICATION AND EMPIRE

Duke University Press

Contents

About the Series..................................................................................................................................................................ixIllustrations.....................................................................................................................................................................xiTables............................................................................................................................................................................xiiiPreface and Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................................................xvIntroduction: Deep Globalization and the Global Media in the Late Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth..........................................................................11 Building the Global Communication Infrastructure: Brakes and Accelerators on New Communication Technologies, 1850-70............................................................162 From the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era: The Struggle for Control in the Euro-American and South AmericanCommunication Markets, 1870-1905....................................433 Indo-European Communication Markets and the Scrambling of Africa: Communication and Empire in the "Age of Disorder".............................................................924 Electronic Kingdom and Wired Cities in the "Age of Disorder": The Struggle for Control of China's National and Global Communication Capabilities, 1870-1901.....................1135 The Politics of Global Media Reform I, 1870-1905: The Early Movements against Private Cable Monopolies..........................................................................1426 The Politics of Global Media Reform II, 1906-16: Rivalry and Managed Competition in the Age of Empire(s) and Social Reform......................................................1777 Wireless, War, and Communication Networks, 1914-22..............................................................................................................................2288 Thick and Thin Globalism: Wilson, the Communication Experts, and the American Approach to Global Communication, 1918-22........................................................2579 Communication and Informal Empires: Consortia and the Evolution of South American and Asian Communication Markets, 1918-30......................................................27710 The Euro-American Communication Market and Media Merger Mania: New Technology and the Political Economy of Communication in the 1920s..........................................304Conclusions: The Moving Forces of the Early Global Media..........................................................................................................................338Notes.............................................................................................................................................................................347Bibliography......................................................................................................................................................................379Index.............................................................................................................................................................................403

Chapter One

Nearly a century and a half before the World Wide Web and a glut of fiber-optic cables were weaved around the planet, another global communication infrastructure was being put into place. This chapter highlights three key factors that drove that process: the consolidation and cartelization of telegraph industries in Britain, Europe, and North America; the cooperation between Anglo-American and European interests in establishing the first major long-distance cable systems; and the interaction between the cable promoters and speculators and the political and cultural currents within the "developing countries" of the Middle and Far East that shaped the evolution of communications systems. Overall, the chapter canvasses the visions, successes, and failures that shaped global communications between 1850 and 1870.

EXTENSIONS AND INTERCONNECTIONS: THE FIRST TELEGRAPHS

Early prototypes of the telegraph had been around since the 1810s, but it was not until the 1830s that Charles Wheatstone and William Cooke introduced the new technology in England. Samuel Morse did likewise in the United States, but not until 1843. European countries quickly followed suit, although for years strict state control in some countries prevented use of the telegraph by the general public. This was particularly notable in France, where the French Interior Minister declared in 1847 that the telegraph was "an instrument of politics, not of commerce." Only after the revolution of 1848 and ensuing liberalization of the French economy was France's telegraph system thrown open for public use (1850). Likewise, the Austro-Hungarian Empire built a telegraph system in 1846, but did not permit the public to use it until 1849. Wheatstone was called on in 1845 by the Dutch government to construct a line between the stock exchanges in Brussels and Antwerp. And two years later Charles Siemens laid the basis for the communications colossus that would bear his name into the twenty-first century by constructing a network for the Prussian government. During the same period, lines were extended into Belgium, Italy, Spain, Russia, and Sweden and, over the next two decades, to Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

From their inception, European telegraph systems interconnected across national frontiers, and rules were put into place to govern technological standards, rates, the distribution of revenues, citizens' right to privacy, and also the prerogative of states to censor messages to ensure public morality and national security. From the outset it was clear that there were tensions around new communication technologies which would decide whether they would develop in relatively open ways or as closed systems under the strict supervision of nation-states. Beginning in the 1850s, these issues were handled by two agencies-the Austro-German Telegraph Union and the West European Telegraph Union-but in 1865 they were merged to create the International Telegraph Union (ITU). As the first multilateral organization, the ITU was on the forefront of efforts by legal scholars and diplomats to forge multilateral and cooperative solutions to world problems through the rule of international law.

BRITAIN: THE FORMATION OF A GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS POWERHOUSE

As the telegraph business took off, William Cooke turned his effort to developing this business, while his partner, Charles Wheatstone, receded into the background to focus on the science of the new technology. Cooke formed in 1846 what was to become one of the two dominant companies in Britain, the Electric Telegraph Company. Five years later its main rival emerged, the British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company. The Magnetic, as it was known, was packed with a "who's who" roster of engineers, financiers, and politicians, and over time these people became the global telegraph and cable barons of the age, notably its managing director, John...