Qatar National Library: Qatar Digital Library Sheds Light on the First Communications Revolution in the Gulf

Qatar National Library: Qatar Digital Library Sheds Light on the First Communications Revolution in the Gulf. “…in the 1860s, Britain sought to build a commercial telegraph line all the way to its most important colony, British India. As a result, the Gulf became one of the most important communication corridors of the British Empire. A series of historical documents held by the British Library and now available on the QDL reveal how the proposal to extend Britain’s telegraph line through the Gulf was first made in May 1860. That month, John Wortley de la More, an entrepreneur in the telegraph industry, outlined his plans to extend the existing lines further through Persia and the Gulf by establishing a link first from Baghdad to Basra, and then from Basra to Karachi, British India’s westernmost port (in modern-day Pakistan).”