Читать книгу The Secrets of Spies - Weldon Owen - Страница 30

Europe’s exploitation of Africa, the Americas, and Asia brought it

enormous wealth. European nations fought one other over who

would keep the best of these spoils. In the process, they carved

out vast empires for themselves. The need for information about

both their new conquests and rival imperialists drove the European

powers to develop spy agencies. Increasingly, good intelligence

went hand-in-hand with military and naval prowess.

The increasing professionalism of European intelligence services

included the development, first in France, of “black chambers”

for the interception of coded letters. This, in turn, encouraged

the science of cryptography. Skilled cryptographers were now the

single most important members of the intelligence world.

The success of the American colonies in breaking away from

Britain in the late eighteenth century owed much to their skills in

intelligence. Encouraged by George Washington, the spies of the

republic gained a significant edge over their British opponents in

North America. The British were more successful in Europe and,

alongside Russia, became the new masters of intelligence matters.