To what extent did weapons technology represent the biggest change in warfare in the period 1792-1945?
To what extent did weapons technology represent the biggest change in warfare between 1792 – 1871?
Between 1792 and 1871 there were many significant technological, social, and political changes which were often closely linked that greatly affected the nature of warfare. There were highly important changes in strategy and tactics, and in the quality and numbers soldiers. However, to a large extent the biggest change that occurred has to be that of weapons technology.
The area of warfare between 1792 and 1871 where the biggest change occurred was in weapons technology. Pre 1792 muskets were unreliable, and although the adoption of the matchlock increased accuracy to 200 yards, it took twice as long to load and was twice expensive. Moreover artillery had poor accuracy, and was often prone to backfiring, furthermore soldiers were forced to fire blind due to the smoke produced by the equipment. Although there was little significant change in weapons technology in Napoleonic Warfare due to a lack of progress in industry, the rate of change soon accelerated as the German Wars of Unification approached. Most importantly the development of artillery had a profound impact on warfare. The technological breakthrough of rifling and breech loading in small arms could be applied to artillery. Prussian steel cannons were lighter more mobile and could fire greater ranges than French adversaries link to tactics. Explosives left no cloud of gun smoke to give away gunners positions and as the range expanded to 5 miles it could be safely concealed positions often miles behind the front. All these artillery related changes had a huge impact on tactics in warfare as it meant that the benefit was now with the defender instead of the attacker due to the increased rate and range of fire. These defensive benefits that occurred due to improved artillery were evident in the American Civil War in the battle of Fredericksburg where six successive waves of Union troops attempted to storm Confederate troops out of Fredericksburg but were repelled by efficient artillery leading to heavy losses. Another significant area of change due to weapons technology was the development of the modern maxim machine gun, this was capable of causing huge casualties and thus wasn’t always adopted by governments due to growing accountability, this shows how public opinion also had an impact on warfare in this period. The Dreyse rifle changed warfare as it eliminated the need for muskets, and was excellent as it could be fired and loaded from lying position allowing effective cover. After initially seeing service during the 1849 May Uprising in Dresden it quickly proved its effectiveness during the the Austro-Prussian War (1866). During this war Prussian soldiers were able to release five shots to each fired by their Austrian counterparts. This massive advantage in firepower contributed to Prussia's swift victory in the conflict. However despite all these changes in weapons technology there were some continuities as new inventions weren’t always adopted quickly such as the French being slow to adopt the mitrailleuse as it was too expensive and not enough were trained to use it. Moreover there was continuity in this period in that the bayonet was still used.
