Cables, crises, and the press : the geopolitics of the new international information system in the Americas, 1866-1903

In recent decades the Internet has played what may seem to be a unique role in international crises. This book reveals an interesting parallel in the late nineteenth century, when a new communications system based on advances in submarine cable technology and newspaper printing brought information to an excitable mass audience. A network of insulated copper wires connecting North America, the Caribbean, South America, and Europe delivered telegraphed news to front pages with unprecedented speed. Britton surveys the technological innovations and business operations of newspapers in the United States, the building of the international cable network, and the initial enthusiasm for these electronic means of communication to resolve international conflicts. Focusing on United States rivalries with European nations in Latin America, he examines the Spanish American War, in which war correspondents like Richard Harding Davis fed accounts of Spanish atrocities and Cuban heroism into the American press, creating pressure on diplomats and government leaders in the United States and Spain. The new information system also played important roles in the U.S.-British confrontation in the Venezuelan boundary dispute, the building of the Panama Canal, and the establishment of the U.S. empire in the Caribbean and the Pacific. ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS John A. Britton has taught courses in Latin American, United States, and world history at Francis Marion University, Florence, SC, since 1972. Publisher's note Front Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Introduction: Main Themes and Organization of the Book 12 1: Introduction to the New International Information System 16 2: Building the International Cable System 44 3: Raising False Hopes: International Communications and International Crises in Latin America, 1866–1881 66 4: War, Diplomacy, and Propaganda: Chilean-U.S. Relations, 1866–1880s 82 5: European Intrusions, Domestic Disorder, and U.S. Armed Intervention: Central America in the 1880s 100 6: Confrontation via the Information System: Chile and the United States, 1889–1892 124 7: Popularization of the Imperial Mentality: From Border Crisis to Hemispheric Hegemony 148 8: Propaganda, Public Uproar, and the Threat of War: The United States, Great Britain, and the Venezuelan Boundary Controversy 168 9: Information Flow and Revolution: Cuba, Spain, and the United States 188 10: Diplomacy Under Stress: Washington, Havana, and Madrid 214 11: Information Flow, the U.S. Press, and the War with Spain 244 12: The Panama Conspiracy 272 13: Celebrations of Heroism and Power 296 Conclusion: The Ominous Triumph of Popular Culture 330 Notes 352 Bibliography 428 Index 464 Back Cover 489