The telegraph, telephone and wireless also affected world society - especially the relationships between nations. For the first time, governments could talk to each other in real time through the medium of diplomatic telegrams between embassies. Alliances became easier to manage - with provisions that would take effect far more quickly. The results of this would be seen during the great power crises of the early 20th century - culminating in August 1914.
Exposing enemy government documents has proved an effective weapon for governments for years. However, disclosing a telegram was a successful new tactic used by Count von Bismarck to goad France to declare war against Prussia in 1870.
France was pressing Prussia's King William I to prevent his son, Prince Leopold, from accepting an offer to fill the vacant throne of Spain. However, fearing a diplomatic rupture the Prince withdrew his candidacy anyway. The French, sensing victory, pressed for further concessions but, regarding the matter as closed, the King declined to see the French diplomat any more.
The situation was telegrammed to Bismarck who released a carefully edited version of the message, highlighting the ambassador's rejection. This deliberate affront to French honour caused the crisis to flare up and snowball into the Franco-Prussian war. Prussian victory in 1871 allowed Bismarck to engineer the unification of all German states.
As Britain entered the Second World War, the government shut down all international radio-telephone services to ensure strict security on all overseas communications. The sole exception was calls made by the Bank of England and the American embassy. The reasoning was that anyone could listen in to a radio transmission, although fortunately telex and telegraph messages sent via cable would remain secret.
As the war progressed a new encryption system was introduced that made the radio-telephone link totally secure. Enemies could pick up the transmissions but not understand them. This was invaluable for co-ordinating manoeuvres with the USA once they joined the Allied cause in 1941. It's suggested that Winston Churchill talked directly to President Roosevelt, although most of the time the British Prime Minister preferred to do things in writing. However, the military leaders did communicate directly with their counterparts to plan key strategies such as the Normandy invasion.
For 13 days in October 1962 the world stood on the brink of nuclear Armageddon after Russian ballistic missiles were discovered on Cuba - right in America's backyard. The superpowers were 'eyeball to eyeball' and potentially minutes away from war. Yet the only direct means of communication between President John F. Kennedy and Soviet chairman Nikita Khrushchev was a teleprinter link that required up to six hours to send a message each way. In the end Khrushchev had to make a public radio broadcast to tell Kennedy that the missiles would be removed.
This crisis underlined the need for the superpower leaders to be able to talk to each other. On August 30, 1963 a new hotline connecting the Kremlin in Moscow with the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., was activated and tested. Teletype machines were used at each end of the 10,000 mile circuit, with a tape encryption system to keep the messages secure.
