Between centre and periphery: the role of connecting Transylvania to the Telegraph Network of the Habsburg Monarchy in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
Between centre and periphery: the role of connecting Transylvania to the Telegraph Network of the Habsburg Monarchy in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Summary/Abstract: One of the wonders of nineteenth century technology, telegraph, has reached Transylvania province, in the years 1850, in a period when the world has achieved intercontinental connection that would change the communications from that time. The possibility of information transmission almost instantly made telegraph to be placed in administrative and military purposes, but it has imposed very quickly, including economic and commercial needs. In conditions that although Transylvania was a province of the Danube Monarchy, in the early 19th century of 50s, it was located in of transport and communications terms in a peripheral, both from the capital Vienna, and other regions of the Monarchy. In 1854 telegraph reached the province of Transylvania. Under state monopoly, it was extended for administrative and military reasons around and during the Crimean War. The aim of this study is to analyze that evolution in a historical-social perspective and at the same time, to answer the following questions: What were the economic and political factors that have contributed to this process?How has the introduction of telegraph changed administrative, economic and political relations between the capital of the empire and local authorities? How was received the introduction of telegraph by elites and the general public and which was its impact on changing perceptions about the news and their movement?

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