Military Conduct (I.R. Impact)

Industrial Revolution Impact on the Conduct of War

Like all social phenomenon, ideas underlie the impetus behind the Industrial Revolution and its impact on the conduct of war. The Age of Enlightenment were responsible for promoting these ideas. These ideas were actually formulated and applied to military conduct during the eighteenth century, even though the Industrial Revolution's most dramatic impact on the conduct of war would not been until the mid-19th century through the end of World War I on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. During the 1700's the concepts of clockwork precision and machinery were transferred to the battlefield by Frederick I of Prussia, concepts that were developed to perfection by Napoleon. Prior to this time, military conduct consisted of lining up troops and marching them straight ahead toward one another, where they would attack opposing troops who were often told to hold their fire until they saw "the whites of enemy eyes." Napoleon was able to achieve many a victory by his ability to move armies by applying concepts of machinery like forming units, drilling them, and mobilizing mass numbers of them. The Industrial Revolution concepts of organization, discipline, and mass-production were ideally suited to warfare, whose organization in turn was ideally suited for society "So far war has been the only force that can discipline a whole community, and until an equivalent dis

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cessary solely because of the machine-gun "The attempts of French and British armies to turn the German retreat into a rout were unsuccessful, and so were moves by both sides to outflank each other in Northern France. As a result, both sides began to dig trenches to protect themselves from machine-gun fire." The invention and production of the airplane also developed new forms of combat such as the now-famous dogfights of World War I. The industrial production of airplanes also allowed for a much greater means of surveillance of enemy troops. Many surprise attacks were eliminated because of this increased surveillance ability. While these planes were limited in capacity and ability, they served a valuable purpose during the War where military intelligence is concerned "Britain, France, and Germany all established aircraft construction industries, and used them to some effect during the First World War. Neither the range nor the lifting capacity of the aircraft of the times was great enough to do much damage, with the result that the flying machines were most useful in gathering tactical intelligence." Further, the mass production of fleets of ships occurred. These ships enabled the allies to mobilize and train and supply

Category: History - M