Impacts and Limitations of Communications Revolution (doesn't include all from pwp)

Impact: Military effectiveness

• The lack of communications which hindered the US in the War of 1812 (e.g. slow communications caused Battle of New Orleans to be fought weeks after peace was Agreed) would not be such a big problem in subsequent wars such as the war with Mexico.

Impact: Profit

• farming in the West for markets in the East or for export far easier and more profitable

• messages could be sent to traders more quickly, investment was facilitated etc.

Impact: Less scary

• made the west a bit less of a 'wilderness' and migration less of a drastic step in terms of cutting ties with family and friends (writing and receiving news and letters from home)

• In De Toqueville’s words the Post Office “linked minds”.

Impact: Reading

• Appetite for printed material – newspapers, pamphlets, books – encouraged reading for inspiring accounts of life in the West.

Limitation: Cost and spread

• Telegraph lines required substantial infrastructure investment and didn’t provide immediate, nationwide coverage until the late 1840s and 1860s

Limitation: East

• Early communication networks (such as telegraph lines and dense post offices) primarily linked major Eastern cities rather than isolated Western frontier settlements.

Limitation: Travel

• Settlers had to travel long distances to reach local post offices, which operated primarily as centralized public hubs rather than door-to-door services.

Limitation: Only roads

Until the widespread development of railroads, communications were often dependent on inadequate roads which even by the Civil War were often impassable especially in winter.