The nineteenth-century information revolution and world peace

Abstract

In the mid-nineteenth century, the amount of information being exchanged around the world vastly expanded because of the growth in postal services and the invention of the telegraph. After the 1860s, global information flows grew even more. Large numbers of ocean-going steamships were carrying the mails, and undersea cables had created nearly instant transoceanic communication. The United Kingdom stood at the centre of the new information network. British observers were enthusiastic about how postal and telegraphic messaging would unite families, expand trade and learning, and inaugurate a new age of global understanding and peace. But categorizing and digesting all the new information turned out to be a problem. While improved communications did not by themselves lead to the Scramble for Africa and the rampant European racism of the late nineteenth century, nevertheless the increased volume of information being exchanged became central to the forms of imperial categorization and administration that developed at this time. Meanwhile, British difficulties in understanding the subject peoples about whom they thought they were learning so much led to imperial conflicts. Having more so-called facts did not always mean greater insight—any more than it does in the age of the internet.