The role of technology in determining the outcomes of WWI

The of technology in determining the outcome of two twentieth century war

WW1 and WW2 were terrifyingly powerful and at the same outstanding in terms of the progresses made in technology. In WW1, war in the air was introduced with, war airplanes, war in the sea was also introduced for the first time with the Dreadnoughts and the German U-boats, and finally, war at land was developed, with the introduction of tanks, machine guns, artillery, and poison gas. In WW2, all this knowledge acquired was further developed and made easier to use and more mobile. There are both similarities in terms of the technological innovations and naval innovations but also differences in terms of the nature of the war and… that led to the outcome of WW1 and WW2. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting the role of technology in determining the outcome of two twentieth century war.

Firstly, it could be argued that both wars resulted in the technological innovations to fight war on the ground. In WW1, this was seen in the form of poison gas, tanks, machine guns and artilleries. Great Powers like Germany, Russia, Britain, and France had already doubled their production of armaments in the beginning of the war, and so these technological innovations led to increased confidence in starting a war. In WW2, tanks were refined and more mobile, and used in the German’s Blitzkrieg strategy which allowed them to conquer various territories and increase their confidence on conquering others. There was monetarized infantry, radio communication, so that countries could communicate faster with their allies that they were being attacked. For example, radio communication with the improvements made in artillery fires led Germany to win the battles with France and Poland during the war.

It could be also argued that naval innovations were similar in the outcome of WW1 and WW2. In WW1, German U-boats were part of bringing the U.S into the war. This was mostly due to unrestricted submarine warfare tactic that Germany and adopted in order to try to win the war by strangling Britain. This almost worked, however, Germany sunk many American merchant ships around the British Isles and therefore the U.S was outraged by Germany’s aggressive policy and was forced to declare war on Germany in order to protect its economic empire. Similarly in WW2, in the Battle of the Atlantic, fought between the Western allies and the Axis powers (mainly Germany) link with the WW1 technological events. Germany was building and strengthening its naval army, their confidence was building up at the same time. Therefore, they were sinking ships faster than they could produce them, and America and Britain were able to produce ships faster than Germany and win the Battle. This highlights that naval innovations during both WW1 and WW2 cost Germany their sense of reality and intensified relationships between the Axis Power and the Allied Powers.

However, with similarities between WW1 and WW2 they are also great differences in the nature of the war. WW1 mostly used trench warfare, meaning that the defenders had an advantage over the more aggressive ones. Casualties would normally be high with not always significant outcomes. For instance, in the Battle of the Somme, which was one the bloodiest battle of WW1, France and Britain did not achieve the results they hoped for. This can also be seen in the Battle of Verdun, where the outcomes were not as significant as the number of deaths. In WW2 however, the policies were much more aggressive due to technological progress. Germany for example tried to break Britain down in the battle of Britain via strategic bombing, but the limited range of German aircraft, the strengths of the Royal Air Force and the resilient British public limited its effectiveness. On the other hand, the RAF and the US air force successfully used strategic bombing on Germany, near the end of the war. Destroying key industries and forcing Germany to divert resources from Russia. The U.S also firebombed Tokyo before dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which led to Japan’s surrender. All this information highlights that in WW1, the most effective way to win the war was by implying defensive strategies while in WW2 it was the opposite due to technological improvements and more confidence, such as using strategic bombings and atomic bombs, where the damages were much more significant and triggered several conflicts that led to several battles, such as the

Another difference was the use of air warfare during WW1 and WW2. Air warfare was very limited during WW1. In WW1, airplanes were fragile, and once planes had completed their mission, they could not return to where they had departed since they couldn’t fly long distances and therefore had to be ditched in the water. Pilots would then climb to the tail of the plane and await rescue. Planes were fragile, and so many were used for photographic purposes, so that they could look at enemies’ trenches and prepare attacks. Therefore, air warfare had little impact in the outcome of WW1 compared WW2. During WW2, aircrafts were stronger, could fly long distances and carry armaments. Sometimes, allies targeted enemy cities with limited justification for civilian casualties. For instance, in the Bombing of Dresden in Germany around 200,000 civilians were killed due to bombings dropped by air warfare planes. This led to additional technological ideas for revenge such as the German invention of pilotless rockets. Even though one may argue that these rockets had limited effect since allied powers were able to control the impact of those rockets, this still highlights that due to the aggressive use of aircrafts, great powers founded ways to have revenge and therefore led to additional conflicts due to technological improvements.