Communicating with the Orient before the Twentieth Century

Abstract

A diplomatic mission without some form of secure and reasonably swift form of communication with its own government is of limited use. It can still discharge important tasks, for example in the protection of any expatriates, but it cannot send home timely reports or ask for — or be sent — timely new instructions. For long periods out of touch with home, it may also feel forgotten and find its morale dropping. Poor communications also impede the exchange of information with sister missions in its region and reduce the usefulness of consular outposts. Communication with their diplomatic missions in the Orient presented European governments with problems such as these until well into the nineteenth century. This applied even to the near Orient, and is clearly seen in the experience of the British embassy in Constantinople. What means of communication were available to early ambassadors? What were the political consequences of the limitations of these methods? What expedients were employed to ameliorate such consequences? How significant was the introduction of the telegraph?