Prior to the creation of the World Wide Web, the United States had already had a similar technology to it. ARPANET, known by many to be the precursor to the internet.

“Not only did the ARPANET make it possible to learn what the actual problems of networking would be, the communication it made possible gave the researchers the ability to collaborate to solve the problems”
Ronda Hauben, Journalist and Historian

Initially, the ARPANET only connected a handful of American “computers” to other “computers”. It was also created by the US military. It should also be noted that at this time, mainframe systems were used instead of computers. Mainframe systems were also highly expensive, which would explain why very few connected to the ARPANET. However, through time many more researchers would be added to the network.

​​​​​​​In the 1980’s the ARPANET was divided into two separate networks. There was one for military use and one for civilian use. Notably, this was the first time that the term “internet” was used. Lastly, this would also be the last decade that the ARPANET was used, as in 1989 it was finally shut down.