How has the character of warfare evolved in the modern and contemporary world?

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How has the character of warfare evolved in the modern and contemporary world?

Ed Skinner (0349801)

Tutor: E Balabanova

Warfare changed forever in 1861 when Dr Richard Gatling patented the world’s first effective machine gun, known as the Gatling gun. It was capable of firing 200 rounds per minute. The Gatling gun, whilst not being the first machine gun, was the first machine gun to have a widespread impact on the military establishment. It was invented during the American Civil War, and Dr Gatling sincerely believed his invention had the ability to end wars forever due to the destruction each gun could cause. His hopes were very idealistic, and with hindsight very misguided. The development of the machine gun started an effective arms race between inventors, all trying to win lucrative military contracts by inventing guns capable of firing more and more rounds per second. In 1879, the Gardner machine gun was produced and immediately purchased by the British Army. This gun had almost twice the power of the Gatling gun and was able to fire 370 rounds per minute. By 1889, the Maxim machine gun was firing 500 rounds per minute. At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the Vickers machine gun could fire 600 rounds per minute. Modern machine guns such as the 5.56mm small machine gun used by the British Army can fire 1000 rounds per minute.

These machines automated war. More than that, they fundamentally changed the way in which wars were fought. In the days prior to the machine gun, it was single shot guns and rifles which were the most used weapons in person versus person combat. Being single shot, using a rifle meant singling out your target before shooting. To some extent, one had control over where they shot their victim. There may have been eye contact made in the second before the bullet was fired. As far as is possible in warfare, it was human. Machine guns removed this tenuous human contact altogether. Machine guns are machines that mass produce death and injury on a scale only natural disasters had been able to achieve prior to their development. It can be argued that machine guns removed the glory from war. In a battle the advantage shifted away from the more talents or the braver warrior, to the person with the best machinery in their possession.

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The World Wars, particularly the 2nd World War, were ‘total wars’. It was a war of production, with the resources of one country pitted against those of another. The technology at the front line was just as crucial as the technology at the production lines. Britain and the US were as successful attacking German cities as they were, largely because they were able to produce more bombers than the Nazi’s could produce fighters. This is of course a simplified example, but a certain amount of truth remains.

Over the course of the 2nd World War, another milestone in military technology ...

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