Industrial Revolution Warfare Essay

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The beginning of the 19th century, warfare began to transform to a modern form that prevail the world for the next centuries. It revealed the results of the technological advances in industry as well as agriculture, which were to revolutionise warfare. To fully understand the importance the Industrial Revolution, one must look at it relating to a century of rapid and drastic change, one in which new advances in industry, technology, and system is readily applied to the conduct of war. There are two key changes of this transformation. First is the rise of a new war-making entity i.e. the massively scaled of military that served to further the aims of the popular nation-state. Second, industrialisation made warfare more destructive. Industrialised nation-states could usually exercise that destructive force decisively when they fought pre-industrial opponents. When industrialised nation-states made war on each other one side might achieve a decisive victory, but the combatant militaries temporarily formed death and devastation on a surprising new scale.

The logical starting point for a global history of modern warfare is to see how the regions most transformed by industrialisation and massive nationalist mobilisation affected the 19th and early 20th century world at large. Latest technologies made it possible to mass-produce weapons through enhanced accuracy, power, and also range. Many of the new weapons and corresponding tactics went against the essential concepts of what constituted proper conduct of war, making change complicated and unsettling. Military conditions are in consistent flux throughout industrial age as new weapons were developed and transportation and communication improved. The American Civil War watched the loss ...

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...ecame more accurate at long range. Repeating weapons were improved, and the machine gun was invented in time for use in the American Civil War. The invention of the screw propeller, combined with the steam engine, brought about a new kind of naval ship and ended the age of sail. Mobile field artillery came into use, assuring the demise of cavalry units until motorized cavalry appeared in the 20th century. Communications and transportation systems were vastly changed. In the 20th century, there has been such a proliferation of inventions applied to war that no list could be complete. The Industrial Revolution is far from over. The world still may witness many tremendous changes in warfare as third world countries that are just now industrialising becoming great industrial powers. The impact of the Industrial Revolution on warfare will be felt for many years to come.

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