Effect of Technology on World War I

Effect of Technology on World War I

Running Head: Effect of Technology on World War I

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Introduction

World War I was one of the defining events during the beginning of 20th century. The war took placed from 1914 to 1918 and it raged many parts of the world. The occurrence of the war is attributed to variety of factors that had been building up in parts of Europe and United States in the preceding centuries and decades. Nationalism experienced in Europe in late 19th century combined with emerging industrial capabilities gave rise to building up of military coups. Consequently, this led to tension in political situation throughout the continent. Notably, Middle East, United States and the larger European countries were much involved. The World War I is significant to technological history since it marked debut of numerous technological inventions and innovations (William 2010, 53).

The unprecedented inventions and developments of new warfare and military science / technology that occurred in 20th century marked the end of the relatively peaceful in parts of Europe. Prior to the war, the objective of many people around the world was to maintain and sustain peace in future, and these hopes were fuel by the ever-increasing prosperity in technology. However, the vision was shattered by the war, and this became profound when the technology escalated in the event of WWI. Apparently, the gains in prosperity of technological advancements were applied to civilian uses. Therefore, the benefits were always under the shadow of the horrors of technology that were commonly applied to warfare (Nosotro 2010, 1).

Right from onset of the war, those involved were much aware that technological advancements would have greatly influenced the outcomes. The flashpoint of the war began when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. The technological advancement contributed immensely to the occurrence of the war. The British Admiral Jacky Fisher statement, “The war is going to be won by inventions” reflect that the participants of the war were aware of the effects of technology during the war. In addition, the statement indicates that new types of weapons and other inventions were to be employed throughout the war. Note mentioning, World War I was brought to civilian populations by the new types of weapons such as tanks, the airplane, the submarine, zeppelin, the poison gas and the machine guns among others. During the inception of the war, the Germans shelled Paris using superior long range guns whereas the invaders bombed the London city from the air using zeppelins for the first time (Cross, 1991, 54).

During the early years of World War I, a clash between 19th century warfare and the 20th century technology characterized the event. The conflict between the two aspects occurred in the form of intellectual battles which resulted in the large number of casualties on both sides. The defining event of 20th century was the first major war to intensively to use electrical technologies that had been in invention and development at the turn of the century. According to Cawte (1996, 2), radio was one of the technologies that were used during the war, and it contributed greatly to progression of the war. Radio was embraced as an important tool for communications throughout the course of the event. It was used by invaders to communicate to each other hence promoted smooth war operations. The technological changes in the radio system had great impacts on the war. For example, transmission of voice as opposed to code made possible by electron tube, amplifier and oscillator had hue impact on the war. Electricity was very useful during the war and had great far reaching effects on its progression. For example, electric signaling lamps, electric fire alarms, electric helm indicator and remotes control contributed a lot during the war. The electric power contributed to development of turrets and guns and marked the beginning of superior round of ammunition

According to Findley and Rothney (2006, 144), technological history is characterized by emergence of chemical and metallurgical industries along other innovative inventions. This technological advancement that occurred at the turn of 20th century resulted in development of new firepower that rendered defense invincible. In addition, new firepower made attack impossible. Hydraulic recoil mechanisms, rifled artillery, bolt-action infantry rifles, zigzag trenches and machine guns are some of the innovations that contributed to the warfare. The application of these technologies had the effect of paralyzing the cross defended ground. Though not well developed, the hand grenade that was already existed was employed in attacking trenches. The presence of high explosives shells contributed to the war as evident by the drastic increase in the lethality of artillery in 20th century (Sheehan 2003, 33).

As with other technological advancements, aircraft underwent very rapid improvements after the inception of World War I. Prior to the war, aircraft designs were similar to those of original Wright Flyer which was made in the past decades. During the war, air spotters began firing each other by throwing spears. With intensification of arms race during the war, agile planes which were equipped with machine guns were widely used. The innovation of interrupter gear allowed machine gun to be mounted behind the propeller to enable the pilot to fire directly along the flight of the plane. Airplanes were extensively used for gathering intelligence concerning enemies’ positions and aid in bombing their supplies behind the trench lines. The war witnessed the use of large airplanes with observer to reconnoiter the position of the enemies so as to avoid unmarked bombing of their supplies. Sheehan (2003, 56) asserted that the aircraft use saw the possibility for any nation army to acquire broad view of enemy’s territory and the position of their troops. Airplanes were used by attackers to demolish troops of their enemies. They used them to bomb the supply bases of the war industries. The common adage “Necessity is the mother of invention” is relevant to events that occurred during the World War I especially in regard with use f airplanes for fighting. This is because the use of airplanes as an appropriate method of attacking the enemies without adverse effects led to development of new problems which called for new methods. Consequently, camouflage and fighter airplanes were devised (Ross 2003, 64)

Air warfare became common after the German invention of Zeppelins which enabled them to utilize airships when bombing raids on London and other British cities. At the beginning of the war, the impacts of the airship bombing were not great. However, long range strategic bombing adopted by Germany later in the war had great impacts. These strategic bombing had limited tactical value; however, it managed to demoralize the British military. In an attempt to counterattack the Germany invaders, the British adopted air forces as a tactical means of maintaining squadrons that could safeguard them against air attacks by Germans. According to Meyer (2005, 565), the air warfare tactic used during the war was also facilitated by the manned observation balloons that could float high above the trenches hence could offer accurate information about the position of the troops of the enemies. Consequently, this could effectively direct the artillery fire. Strategically, the observation balloons were used to target the aircraft of the enemies. These balloons could not be easily attacked in air because they were heavily protected by large concentrations of antiaircraft guns (Meyer, 2005, 565).

Naval warfare was another tactic that was employed during the war, and this was facilitated by numerous technological advancements. The years leading to the emergence of the war was characterized by extensive use of more advanced metallurgical and other numerous mechanical methods to produce ships which could carry huge number of guns. At the beginning of 20th century, HMS Dreadnought was launched which revolutionized battleship construction that became useful during World War I. At the commencement of the war, many navies in the larger Europe capitalize on the newer ships hence the older ones were rendered obsolete. The great Battle of Jutland of 1916 marked the beginning of intensive use of the long range gunner between fleets in the war. Noticeably, United Kingdom had the largest surface fleet hence took advantage of the Naval Warfare technique. Using the long range gunnery, the British ships blockaded most of the German ports and handed down their ships (Halpern 1995, 56).

WWI has been considered the first major conflict that saw extensive use of submarines as a serious weapon of the war. The years that preceded the war experienced the introduction of the superior propulsion system of diesel power. During the World War I, the United Kingdom relied heavily on these systems to feed its population and supply the war industry. In an attempt to counterattack the Britain, Germany blockade British U-boats, and this gave rise to First Battle of Atlantic. In the event, Germany revamped its submarines whereas the British sought alternatives of protecting their merchant ships. At early stages of World War I, Q-ships attack vessels were used as the best strategy. With changes in technology, the merchant ships were consolidated into convoys which commonly protected by armed navy vessels (Simon 2007, 45). However, this strategy was marred by great deal of debate some arguing that it would provide German U-boats with advantage of wealth convenient targets. No sooner than later when the passive sonar devices and anti-submarine weapons were developed, and this helped reduced British losses to German U-boats (Ferguson 2005, 52).

Since Medieval times, cannons had been used as an important weapon of the wars, but the World War I marked significant improvement on the devastation, the accuracy and the range of the vessels. Evidently, the Germans revealed the massive 8.4 inch guns during the Somme Offensive of 1918. They were also called “Big Berthas” and could fire projectiles for about 70-80 miles. The secret weapon was used by the Germans to bombard Paris in an attempt to demolish the French moral. Alongside the cannons, drastic improvements were also made on the shells that already existed. During the war, upcoming technologies enabled the Germans to upgrade the shells. This led to replacement of the ordinary shells by highly explosive shells which were thin and filled with very tiny lead pellets. These were very effective and efficient and enabled the artillery fire to kill thousands of people within the shortest time possible (Archer et al 2008, 34).

Flamethrower had been widely used prior the World War I, but new versions were introduced immediately when the war began. Some of the earlier versions included Byzantine’s use of fire ships which were capable of throwing fire out of tubes to catch the ships of the rivals on fire due to presence of volatile chemical that has not been revealed up-to-date. French and British troops feared this weapon. The use of aircraft during the war resulted in changes of tactics of fighting (Bass, 2002, 424).

Prior the World War I, Western Front was immobile. However, the war saw huge German advanced. After the October Revolution of 1917, Russia surrendered thus allowing the Germany troops to move to the Western Front. During this time, the Germans adopted stormtrooper tactic developed by Oskar von Hutier (Moyar 2007, 226).

The Word War I had far reaching social and cultural effects in many parts of the affected countries. Social trauma occurred following high rates of casualties that commonly manifest themselves in numerous ways. People in some countries were revolted by nationalisms in an attempt to work towards achieving internationalism. Notably, some proponents of the war supported the formation of organizations such as Pacifism and League of Nations. However, section of people was against such moves hence opted to military as source of strength during the chaotic and inhumane world. This led to emergence of anti-modernist societies whose views were centralized on outgrowth of the numerous changes that were penetrating the societies. The experiences of the war resulted in collective social trauma shared by the participating countries. The war saw the destruction of la belle époque and the emergence of the Lost Generation which comprised of all individuals who participated in the war. The end of World War I set a good stage for other world conflicts such as Bolsheviks and creation of the Soviet Union (Tucker 2005, 935).

Conclusion

WWI was the first major war to use superior types of weapons. It was the first war to benefit fro m technological advancement such as electric power and radio to mention just but a few (Prokosch 1995, 21). The technological advancement that occurred during the course of the major event reflected a trend towards application of mass production methods of new types of weapons and to the overall warfare of technology. The trend began more than forty years prior the war particularly during the U.S. Civil War, and it continued through other small conflicts which the efficacy and the appropriateness of new weapons were tested (Meyer, 2006, 43). Different strategies were adopted by both sides.

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