ABSTRACT
Today, few if any countries are without at least one connection to the Internet. How did this worldwide expansion occur? Though the Internet originated in the United States, it did not simply spread from the United States to the rest of the world. Rather, its global reach resulted from the convergence of many streams of network development. Starting in the 1970s, many other nations built large data networks, which were shaped by their local cultures and which often served as agents and symbols of economic development and national sovereignty. The question was not whether these countries would adopt an “American” technology; it was whether and how they would connect their existing national or private networks to the Internet.
