production and invention would again transform the conduct of war when the machine gun was developed in the 1870s. The machine gun proved effective during the Franco-Prussian War, wherein the Prussian forces were able to defeat the French in three months time, mainly due to the new technology of the machine gun. This heralded in an era of literature and theorists who argued that wars were economically unfeasible and that future wars, due to industrial production and invention, would be short wars. This analysis of the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the conduct of war will focus on World War I (1914-1918) in order to demonstrate the enormous impact the industrial revolution has on war conduct, an impact that soon proved wrong the theory that wars were no longer economically sustainable so any future wars would be of short duration. A conclusion will discuss how the industrial
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