Messengers of empire

Messengers of Empire: Print and Revolution in the Atlantic World examines how news and information moved across the Atlantic world during the Age of Sail. It provides a ground-breaking look at how the French Revolutionary Wars impacted the development of communication channels, such as the creation of regular postal services in the Caribbean and increased reliance on local printers to produce print matter faster and more effectively. With the onset of war between the British Empire and French overseas empire, improved communications became a critical factor for military success, prompting developments on both sides. This included the surge in Caribbean printing operations, as well as the copper plating of packet boats to decrease the time it took for mail to cross the Atlantic Ocean in either direction. This book provides a unique inter-imperial comparison, revealing key differences and similarities between Britain and France in terms of how information circulation was crucial to the operation of empire. It consults a range of archival sources that have rarely, if ever, been used before, including correspondence dispatches, newspapers, almanacs, public notices, and even documents detailing secret society meetings. In doing so, this book reveals how imperial communication networks functioned at the ground level, as well as who were the gatekeepers of information in areas far removed from the metropoles.