Skip to main content

Working the Nation State: Submarine Cable Actors, Cable Transnationalism and the Governance of the Global Media System, 1858–1914

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Nation State and Beyond

Abstract

The historiography of submarine telegraphy has been dominated by what David Edgerton defined as techno-nationalism, i.e. the assumption that the nation state is the key element of analysis. The most recent trend, to which also this essay contributes, stresses the interrelatedness of telecommunication and globalisation processes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Following a global history approach, this paper focuses on the individual cable agents of nineteenth century submarine telegraphy and shows how for them the nation state was a category to work with, rarely one to be guided by. The cable agents’ realm of action was based upon the concept of cable transnationalism, deduced from the border-transgressing character of telegraph science and technology. In its last part, this paper shows how discourses of mounting nationalism were met with strategic nationalism, i.e. the alleged adoption of a distinct nationality according to the relevant discourse.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    See for instance Demangeon and Febvre 1935; on the interdependence of mapping and nationalization see Winichakul 2009.

  2. 2.

    Marland 1962.

  3. 3.

    The term ‘transnational’ only emerged in the early twentieth century. For its history see Tyrrell, “What is Transnational History?”.

  4. 4.

    Vries 2009.

  5. 5.

    Hobsbawm 1990, pp. 183–184.

  6. 6.

    See Hobsbawm and Ranger 2009; Pound 1926; Anderson makes a similar argument for the printing press. See Anderson 2006.

  7. 7.

    Kunert 1962.

  8. 8.

    Haigh and Wilshaw 1968.

  9. 9.

    Coe 1993.

  10. 10.

    On methodological nationalism see Wimmer and Glick-Schiller 2002; on techno-nationalism see Edgerton 2007.

  11. 11.

    On the financial aspect Winseck and Pike for example highlight the financing argument. See Winseck and Pike 2007, p. 4.

  12. 12.

    Hills 2002 .

  13. 13.

    Griset and Headrick 2001, p. 543.

  14. 14.

    Kennedy 1971.

  15. 15.

    Headrick 1981.

  16. 16.

    Boyce 1995.

  17. 17.

    Wenzlhuemer 2010; Hampf and Müller-Pohl 2013 (forthcoming).

  18. 18.

    Winseck and Pike 2007, p. xvii.

  19. 19.

    Yang 2009.

  20. 20.

    On the interrelation of a capitalist economy and imperialism see also Pomeranz 2000.

  21. 21.

    Smith 1999.

  22. 22.

    In its understanding of cable transnationalism, this study benefited from Scott Malcomson’s concept of ‘real existing cosmopolitanism’ which is both located and embodied. In distinction, however, from contemporary notions of cosmopolitanism which acclaim universalism and the agents’ use of nationalism as a strategy I found the term cable transnationalism more fitting. It avoids confusion with this universally acclaimed cosmopolitanism of the sources and on the other hand allows for the state to be an important structure, too. See Robbins 2008.

  23. 23.

    Leeds Mercury, 6.9.1869.

  24. 24.

    Finn 1980.

  25. 25.

    Coates and Finn 1979, p. 165.

  26. 26.

    Ibid.

  27. 27.

    Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post 1.8.1866.

  28. 28.

    Headrick 1981, p. 162.

  29. 29.

    Winseck and Pike 2007, pp. 5–6.

  30. 30.

    Conrad and Osterhammel 2006, pp. 13–15.

  31. 31.

    Bright 1898, pp. x–xi.

  32. 32.

    In support of this argument see Highton 1852, pp. v–vii. The author lists all the books he took into consideration for his work on the Electric Telegraph. Among many British authors, there are also other from Germany and France such as Manuel de la Télégraphie Electrique by L. Bregust, Der Elektro-magnetische Telegraph by Dr. H. Schellen or Der Praktische Telegraphist, oder die Electro-magnetische Telegraphie nach dem Morse’schen System by Clemens Gerke. An interesting monograph Highton consults is the work by Werner Siemens – albeit in French translation: Rapport fait à l’Académie des Sciences sur les Appareils Télégraphiques de M. Siemens (de Berlin).

  33. 33.

    Burns 2004, p. 129; Scott 1958, p. 24.

  34. 34.

    Crawford et al. 1993, p. 1.

  35. 35.

    Siemens 1872/73, p. 22.

  36. 36.

    A complete run of membership lists and forms can be found at the IET Archives in London.

  37. 37.

    Hunt 1994, p. 57.

  38. 38.

    Crawford et al. 1993, p. 13.

  39. 39.

    Bright 1898, p. 80.

  40. 40.

    Ibid., p. xiii.

  41. 41.

    Pollard 2004.

  42. 42.

    Bright 1908, pp. ix–xi.

  43. 43.

    Pollard 2004.

  44. 44.

    Bright 1908, pp. 202, 308.

  45. 45.

    de Cogan 2005.

  46. 46.

    Scott 1958, p. 73.

  47. 47.

    Isin and Wood 1999, pp. 91, 103.

  48. 48.

    Bright 1898, p. 155; the wiring of the Atlantic was fundamental to the development of a distinct and elite group of cable agents, who came to dominate the business of submarine telegraphy until the twentieth century. The concept of the ‘Class of 1866’ is more thoroughly elaborated in Müller 2010.

  49. 49.

    Yang 2009.

  50. 50.

    Ahvenainen 1995, p. 80.

  51. 51.

    Ahvenainen 2009, p. 65.

  52. 52.

    Bright 1898, p. 154.

  53. 53.

    Ibid., p. 167.

  54. 54.

    In turn, when seeking landing rights, the cable companies asked for exclusive rights. As the cable’s manufacture and laying equipment was exorbitantly expensive, it was vital that they could depend upon a certain amount of business, without competition: Ahvenainen 2009, p. 67.

  55. 55.

    The attitude of the various nation states towards submarine telegraphy as well as their engagement with it changed during the course of the nineteenth century. Although there are different models of state involvement, government support generally became less important and less common after 1866 as cable companies managed to find ample private investors and had their own cable ships and personnel. Haigh and Wilshaw 1968, pp. 317–319; a noted difference may be discerned in the case of the French government, which continually, but rather unsuccessfully, attempted to install a French cable company as a state enterprise, see Griset 1996.

  56. 56.

    Winseck and Pike 2007, p. 165.

  57. 57.

    Pender, September 14, 1877, Cable and Wireless Archive.

  58. 58.

    Hills 2002, p. 60.

  59. 59.

    Boyce 2000, p. 40.

  60. 60.

    Winseck and Pike 2007, p. 106.

  61. 61.

    Boyce 2000, pp. 44–45.

  62. 62.

    Winseck and Pike 2007, p. 2; for internationalism in the nineteenth century cf. Lyons 1963; Geyer and Paulmann 2008; Herren 2009.

  63. 63.

    Laborie 2010.

  64. 64.

    Ahvenainen 2009, p. 70.

  65. 65.

    Bureau International des Administrations Télégraphique 1880, pp. 253–256, 261, 291–293, 419, BT Archives.

  66. 66.

    General Post Office 1879, BT Archives.

  67. 67.

    Ibid.

  68. 68.

    C.H.B. Patey cited in James Anderson 1879, POST 30/361, BT Archives.

  69. 69.

    Ibid.

  70. 70.

    Ibid.

  71. 71.

    General Post Office, “Telegraph Conference 1879”, BT Archives.

  72. 72.

    “International Telegraph Conference,” in: The Times, 23.06.1879.

  73. 73.

    Hobsbawm 1990, pp. 181–185.

  74. 74.

    Coates and Finn 1979, p. 171; this is congruent with a nationalist understanding that national sovereignty is based upon absolute national autonomy: Hobsbawm 1990, p. 184.

  75. 75.

    Scholz 1904, p. 1.

  76. 76.

    Bright 1898, pp. 137–140.

  77. 77.

    On territorialization as the key concept of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, see Maier 2000.

  78. 78.

    Hewitt, February 11, 1895, Cooper Union Archives.

  79. 79.

    New York Times, 6.8.1914.

  80. 80.

    Hewitt, February 11, 1895.

  81. 81.

    New York Times, 11.2.1899.

  82. 82.

    Griset and Headrick 2001, pp. 566–567.

  83. 83.

    Winseck and Pike 2007, p. 170.

  84. 84.

    Griset and Headrick 2001, pp. 566–567.

  85. 85.

    Winseck and Pike 2007, p. 5.

  86. 86.

    An example of this is Carl Ludwig Loeffler. He was the pervious incumbent as managing director at Siemens Brothers before the aforementioned George von Chauvin and renounced his German citizenship in 1890. Carl Ludwig Loeffler, Letter to the Home Office, June 14 1890, National Archives Kew.

  87. 87.

    Owen 1991, p. 184; for further case studies concerning the “National Identities of Engineers” see the special edition of History and Technology 23 (2007), no. 3.

  88. 88.

    This can be seen in the shareholder lists of various companies. One of the best examples because of its archival continuity is the Direct United States Cable Company. Shareholder lists exist from its foundation in 1873 well into the twentieth century; among the most important shareholders were various members of the Siemens family, the Anglo-Austrian Bank, the Deutsche Bank, the Banque Centrale Anversoise as well as various merchants from Germany, Belgium, France and England. Direct United States Cable Company, Ltd; BT 31/14576/11597, National Archives Kew.

  89. 89.

    Interesting in this context is Edgerton’s interpretation of Ernest Gellner’s account of nationalism, whereby he understands modern nationalism as being vital to (industrial) modernity “not as a way of escaping from a globalized cosmopolitan world, but a means of participating in it while retaining one’s dignity, and indeed creating one’s capacity to participate”. Edgerton 2007, p. 2.

Bibliography

  • Ahvenainen, Jorma. 1995. “The Role of Telegraphs in the 19th Century Revolution of Communication.” In Kommunikationsrevolutionen, edited by Michael North, 73–80. Cologne: Böhlau.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahvenainen, Jorma. 2009. “The International Telegraph Union: The Cable Companies and the Governments.” In Communications Under the Seas edited by Bernard S. Finn and Daqing Yang, 61–80. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, Benedict. 2006. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, revised ed. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, James. 1879. POST 30/361, BT Archives.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyce, Robert. 1995. “Submarine Cables as a Factor in Britain’s Ascendency as a World Power.” In Kommunikationsrevolutionen, edited by Michael North, 35–50. Cologne: Böhlau.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyce, Robert. 2000. “Imperial Dreams and National Realities: Britain, Canada and the Struggle for a Pacific Telegraph Cable, 1879–1902.” English Historical Review 115, no. 460, 39–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bright, Charles. 1898 Submarine Telegraphs: Their History, Construction and Working. London: Crosby Lockwood.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bright, Charles. 1908. The Life Story of Sir Charles Tilston Bright Civil Engineer: With Which is Incorporated the Story of the Atlantic Cable, and the First Telegraph to India and the Colonies. London: A. Constable.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bureau International des Administrations Télégraphiques 1880, BT Archives.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burns, Russell W. 2004. Communications: An International History of the Formative Years. London: Institution of Electrical Engineers.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Coates, Vary T. and Bernard S. Finn. 1979. A Retrospective Technology Assessment: Submarine Telegraphy – The Transatlantic Cable of 1866. (Studies in Science and Technology). San Francisco: San Francisco Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coe, Lewis. 1993. The Telegraph: A History of Morse’ Invention and its Predecessors in the United States. Jefferson: McFarland.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Cogan, Donard, ed. 2005. The Autobiography of James Graves, transcribed from the manuscript.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conrad, Sebastian and Jürgen Osterhammel. 2006. Das Kaiserreich transnational. Deutschland in der Welt 1871–1914. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, Elisabeth, ed. 1993. Denationalizing Science: The Contexts of International Scientific Practice. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, Elisabeth et al. “Introductory Essay.” In Denationalizing Science edited by Elisabeth Crawford, 1–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demangeon, Alberg and Lucien Febvre. 1935. Le Rhin: Problèmes d’Histoire et d’Économie. Paris: A. Colin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Direct United States Cable Company. Ltd; BT 31/14576/11597. National Archives Kew.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edgerton, David. 2007. “The Contradictions of Techno-Nationalism and Techno-Globalism: A Historical Perspective.” New Global Studies 1, 1–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finn, Bernard S. 1980. “Introduction.” Development of Submarine Cable Communications unpaginated. New York Arno Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finn, Bernard S. and Daqing Yang, eds. 2009. Communications Under the Seas: The Evolving Cable Network and Its Implications. Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • General Post Office 1879. BT Archives.

    Google Scholar 

  • General Post Office. 1879. “Telegraph Conference 1879. Meeting of Representatives of Telegraph Companies in Mr. Patey’s Room.” February 10. BT Archives.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geyer, Martin H. and Johannes Paulmann. 2008. The Mechanics of Internationalism: Culture, Society, and Politics from the 1840s to the First World War. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griset, Pascal. 1996. Entreprise, Technologie et Souveraineté. Les Télécommunications Transatlantiques de la France, XIXe-XXe siècles. Paris Editions Rive droite.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griset, Pascal & Daniel Headrick. 2001. “Submarine Telegraph Cables: Business and Politics, 1838–1939.” Business History Review 75, no. 3, 543–578.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haigh, Kenneth and Edward Wilshaw. Cableships and Submarine Cables. London: Adlard Coles.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hampf, Michaela and Simone Müller-Pohl. Forthcoming. Global Communication Electric. Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Headrick, Daniel. 1981. The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hennig, Richard. 1909. “Die historische Entwicklung der deutschen Seekabelunternehmungen.” Beiträge zur Geschichte der Technik und Industrie: Jahrbuch des Vereines Deutscher Ingenieure 1, 241–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herren, Madeleine. 2009 Internationale Organisationen seit 1865: Eine Globalgeschichte der internationalen Ordnung. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hewitt. 1895. February 11. Cooper Union Archives.

    Google Scholar 

  • Highton, Edward. 1852. The Electric Telegraph: Its History and Progress. London: J. Weale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hills, Jill. 2002. The Struggle for Control of Global Communication: The Formative Century. The History of Communication. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • History and Technology 23. 2007, no. 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobsbawm, Eric. 1990. Nations and Nationalism since 1780. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobsbawm, Eric & Terrence Ranger, eds. 2009. The Invention of Tradition, 13th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, Bruce J. 1994. “The Ohm is Where the Art is: British Telegraph Engineers and the Development of Electrical Standards.” Osiris 2, no. 9, 48–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • “International Telegraph Conference.” 1879. The Times, 23.6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isin, Engin F. and Patricia K. Wood. 1999. Citizenship and Identity. London: Thousand Oaks.

    Google Scholar 

  • John, Richard R. “Cyrus W. Field.” American National Biographies. Accessed 18.09.2008 (http://www.anb.org/articles/10/10-00542.html).

  • Kennedy, Paul M. 1971. “Imperial Cable Communications and Strategy, 1870–1914.” English Historical Review 86, no. 341, 728–752.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kroes, Rob. 2000. Them and Us: Questions of Citizenship in a Globalizing World. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kunert, Arthur. 1962. Telegraphen-Seekabel. Geschichte der deutschen Fernmeldekabel 2. Cologne: Glitscher.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laborie, Léonard. 2006. La France, l’Europe et l’ordre international des communications (1865–1959). Ph.D. Dissertation University of Paris IV – Sorbonne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laborie, Léonard. 2010. L’Europe mise en réseaux: La France et la coopération internationale dans les postes et les télécommunications (années 1850–années 1950). Brussels: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lebow, Irwin. 1995. Information Highways and Byways. From the Telegraph to the 21 st Century. New York: IEEE Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leeds Mercury. 6.9.1869.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loeffler, Carl Ludwig. “Letter to the Home Office, June 14 1890.” National Archives Kew.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyons, Francis S.L. 1963. Internationalism in Europe, 1815–1914. Leyden: A.W. Sythoff.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maier, Charles. 2000. “Consigning the Twentieth Century to History: Alternative Narratives for the Modern Era.” American Historical Review 105, no. 3, 807–831.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marland, Edward A. 1962. “British and American Contributions to Electrical Communication.” The British Journal for the History of Science 1, no. 1, 31–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Müller, Simone. 2010. “The Transatlantic Telegraphs and the Class of 1866: The Formative Years of Transnational Networks in Maritime Space, 1858–1884/89.” Historical Social Research 35, no. 1, 237–259.

    Google Scholar 

  • New York Times. 11.2.1899.

    Google Scholar 

  • New York Times. 6.8.1914.

    Google Scholar 

  • North, Michael. ed. 1995. Kommunikationsrevolutionen: Die neuen Medien des 16. und 19. Jahrhunderts. Wirtschafts- und sozialhistorische Studien 3. Cologne: Böhlau.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owen, Thomas C. 1991. The Corporation Under Russian Law, 18001917: A Study in Tsarist Economic Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pender. September 14, 1877. Cable and Wireless Archive.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pike, Robert M. and Dwayne R. Winseck. 2004. “The Politics of Global Media Reform, 1907–1923.” Media, Culture & Society 26, 643–675.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pollard, Albert F. 2004. “Clark, (Josiah) Latimer (1822–1898).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Accessed 15.09.2008 (http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5469).

  • Pomeranz, Kenneth. 2000. The Great Divergence. China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pound, Arthur. 1926. The Telephone Idea: Fifty Years After. New York: Greenberg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robbins, Bruce. 2008. “Introduction Part I: Actually Existing Cosmopolitanism.” In Cosmopolitics: Thinking and Feeling Beyond the Nation, edited by Pheng Cheah, 1–19. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scholz, Franz. 1904. Krieg und Seekabel: Eine völkerrechtliche Studie. Berlin: F. Vahlen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, John D. 1958. Siemens Brothers 18581958: An Essay in the History of Industry. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siemens, William. 1872/73. “The Society of Telegraph Engineers: Inaugural Address.” Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers: Including Original Communications on Telegraphy and Electrical Science 1, 19–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Anthony D. 1999. Nationalism and Modernism: A Critical Survey of Recent Theories of Nations and Nationalism. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spear, W.F. 2004. “Canning, Sir Samuel (1823–1908).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Accessed 15.09.2008 (http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32279).

  • La Société des ingénieurs civils. 1889. Réception des Ingénieurs Américains par la Société des ingénieurs civils de France, du 20 au 26 Juin 1889, Extraits des mémoirs de la société des ingénieurs civils. Paris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post. 01.08.1866.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyrrell, Ian R. “What is Transnational History?” Accessed 28.08.2011 (http://iantyrrell.wordpress.com/what-is-transnational-history/).

  • Vries, Peer. 2009. “Concluding Remarks. The Nation State and Beyond: Governing Globalization Processes in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century.” Paper presented at the workshop on “The Nation State and Beyond. Governing Globalization Processes in the 19th and Early 20th Century”, Cluster of Excellence, Heidelberg University, 3–5 December.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wenzlhuemer, Roland, ed. 2010. Global Communication. Telecommunication and Global Flows of Information in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century. Special Issue of Historical Social Research 35, no. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wimmer, Andreas and Nina Glick-Schiller. 2002. “Methodological Nationalism and Beyond. Nation-State Building, Migration and the Social Sciences.” Global Networks 2, no. 4, 301–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winichakul, Thongchai. 2009. Siam Mapped. A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winseck, Dwayne R. and Robert M. Pike. 2007. Communication and Empire. Media, Markets, and Globalization, 1860–1930. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, Daqing. 2009. “Submarine Cables and the Two Japanese Empires.” In Communications Under the Seas, edited by Bernard S. Finn and Daqing Yang, 227–256. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simone Müller-Pohl .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Müller-Pohl, S. (2013). Working the Nation State: Submarine Cable Actors, Cable Transnationalism and the Governance of the Global Media System, 1858–1914. In: Löhr, I., Wenzlhuemer, R. (eds) The Nation State and Beyond. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32934-0_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics