Early Electrical Communications Technology and Structural Change in the International Political Economy--The Cases of Telegraphy and Radio
Peter Mcmahon · Prometheus · 2002
It is increasingly apparent that the roots of current global transformation lie very much in the middle to late nineteenth century and the raft of basic political, economic, socio-cultural and technological changes that occurred at this time. This is mainly because of the development of a set of novel communications technologies that began the information technology-based transformation. This paper briefly reviews the period from 1845 to 1914 to highlight the role of the emergent information technologies of telegraphy and radio in the consolidation of liberal/international forces and then the rise of nationalist military-industrial tendencies. These technologies were primarily concerned with the control of processes associated with the particular forms of politico-economic development prevalent at the time, and as such were of fundamental importance in promoting structural change, including hegemonic transition as Britain was challenged by Germany and the US.