Biological Weapons: 1914-1947 Chapter 1 This Chapter sum

This Chapter summarizes the evaluations made by historians with respect to the foundation, usage and major events of biological weapons between 1914 and 1947.

A consensus exists among scholars that during World War I the major warring powers concentrated their advanced scientific efforts in respect of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) on chemical as opposed to biological weapons. Public revulsion against the use of poison gases led to the 1925 Geneva Protocol which banned the use of chemical and biological weapons in warfare. Gathering international tensions led in the 1930s to intensified efforts by a number of countries to develop biological weapons. During World War II substantial progress was achieved in Europe and North America in creating and producing biological weapons and improving their means of delivery. However, the Allies and the Nazis made little use of such weapons in that war. As the veil of secrecy diminished during the postwar period, historians explored those developments in greater depth. Western historians failed at first to recognize the extent and vicious character of Imperial Japan's biological warfare program, which utilized experiments on prisoners of war and other human victims and involved combat use of pathogens by the Japanese Army against China. Eventually, its full extent found its way into historical accounts, including its coverup and exploitation by American authorities.

Related Essays

Chemical and Biological Weapons The term "chemical and biological .... recount that contemporary chemical warfare began in 1914 during World .... main four were anthrax (the "granddaddy of biological weapons"), brucellosis, tularemia .... (2089 8 )

The End of Britain's Trade Empire In the years .... Having abandoned ninetieth century rules of honor, the Germans brought in biological weapons (to use against the horses of the .... World War One 1914 - 1918. .... (1178 5 )

THE NEW TERRORISM Introduction The terrorist a .... movement in Japan, which attempted several chemical- and biological-weapons attacks, most notably .... of the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in 1914, which resulted .... (8964 36 )

Scientific Paradigm in Literature .... of Darwinism is not to speak of biological observation but of .... and America a view that the weapons had indeed .... from the mid-eighties to about 1914" (Allen, 1954 .... (3793 15 )

BiLateral Defense Agreements and Canada .... organisation will develop a nuclear, chemical, or biological weapon of mass .... the most worrisome potential future holders of weapons of mass .... World Since 1914. .... (4754 19 )

ep on Gruinard island off the Scottish coast in 1942 contaminated it for 47 years (Barnaby 80). In 1945 thousands of aerosolized bomblets containing anthrax were ready for use in RAF bombing raids but the war ended before they could be used. Botulinus toxin is believed to have been incorporated into BTX grenades which were given by the British Secret Service to members of the Czech resistance who threw one at Nazi Reich Protector of Bohemia Reinhard Heydrich, thereby causing his death in May 1942. The British biological weapons program remained highly classified until the late 1970s when historians Harris & Paxman exposed it in a BBC television docudrama. Canadian Biological Warfare Assistance. Canada also conducted research on anthrax. Its greatest contribution was in making available uninhabited testing fields in Suffield, Alberta (Barnaby 83). Later in the 1940s, Canadian biologist Dr. G. B. Reed at the Defense Research Laboratory in Kingston, Ontario studied biting insects, mosquitoes, chiggers, fleas, flies and ticks and developed insect bombs designed primarily to spread pneumonic plague (Endicott & Hagerman 75-77). American Biological Weapons Program. America was a latecomer to the biological warfare arms race. In 19

Category: Government - B