The study of international communication can be accessed by an understanding of things that cannot be changed in its development. The connection of economic, military and political forces to efficient communication systems, ranging from flags, flares and runners, to telegraphic ships and wires, and now satellites.
The evolution of nineteenth-century telegraph communication and empire exemplified this reciprocal relationship, which took place in the 20th century, even after the end of the kingdom. During the two World Wars and the Cold War, the strength and importance of new media - radio and then television - for international communication by their use for international propaganda and their potential recognition for socio-economic development.
Communication and empire
Communication is always important for the formation and maintenance of power over distance. From the Persian, Greek, and Roman empires to an efficient British communications network was essential for the imposition of imperial authority, as well as for international trade and trade on which it was based. Indeed, the level of the kingdom can be used as an 'indication of communication efficiency' (Innis, [1950] 1972: 9).
Communication networks and technology are key to distributed government mechanisms, military campaigns and trade. The Greek historian Diodorus Cronus (4th century BC) tells how the Persian king, Darius I (522-486 BC), who expanded the Persian Empire from Danube to Indus, was able to send news from the capital to the province by means of ranks of people who screaming placed at height.
This kind of transmission is 30 times faster than using runners. At De Bello Gallico Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) reported that Gauls, using human voices, could summon all their soldiers to fight in just three days.
In addition to the official communication system, there is always an informal network of travelers and traders. International communication technology and globalization may be contemporary phenomena but trade and cultural exchanges have existed for more than two millennia between the Greco-Roman world with Arabs, Indians and Chinese.
Indian goods were exported to the Persian Gulf and then by land, through Mesopotamia, to the Mediterranean coast, and from there onwards to Western Europe. Extensive trans-Asian trade developed in ancient times, connecting China with India and Arab lands. Then, the Silk Road through Central Asia connected China, India and Persia with Europe.
In the 8th century, paper introduced from China began to replace parchment in the Islamic world and spread to medieval Europe. Also from China, printing slowly spread to Europe, helped by the occupation of Moors from Spain, but not until the fifteenth century, with a movable type printing machine developed by Johann Gutenberg, a goldsmith in Mainz in Germany, that communication tools changed .
Growing a coat of arms
The second half of the nineteenth century saw the widespread imperial communication system made possible by the electric telegraph. Created by Samuel Morse in 1837, the telegraph allows fast transmission of information, and ensures code confidentiality and protection. The business community first used this new technology. Telegraphic speed and reliability appear to offer opportunities for profit and international expansion (Headrick, 1991). Rapid telegraph development was an important feature in the unification of the British Empire.
With the first commercial telegraph connection established in England in 1838, in 1851 a public telegraph service, including a money telegraph system, was introduced. By the end of this century, as a result of cable connections, the telegraph allowed Colonial Offices and Indian Offices to communicate directly with the Empire within minutes when, before, it took months to post coming by sea. By providing spot prices for commodities such as cotton, telegrams allow British traders, export cotton from India or Egypt to the UK, to easily defeat their competitors (Read, 1992).
The Era of News Agencies