International Communications and International Crises in Latin America, 1867–1881

Abstract

The building of the network of submarine telegraph cables in Latin America changed the ways in which diplomats, politicians, business leaders and journalists conducted their affairs. This new network played a part in the resolution of several international crises. Cable communications alerted a British gunboat that brought an end to the summary executions in Cuba (ordered by a Spanish general) of sailors and passengers from a captured ship, the Virginius, that carried a United States flag. International telegraphy made possible the quick settlement of the consequent dispute between Spain and the United States. International cables enabled British businesses, the London press, and the Foreign Office to monitor the Argentine political crisis of 1880 and agree that direct intervention was not advisable. U.S. diplomats helped Chile and Argentina resolve their long standing boundary dispute in 1881. The main point of this paper, however, is that the solutions to these crises obscured early signs of significant problems that became more pronounced in the use of cables in later events: sensationalist coverage of international crises in the U.S. press, an uneven and often misunderstood intimacy between Argentina and Britain, and the intrusiveness of the United States in Chilean politics.