Outline+and+analyze+the+consequences+of+warfare+since+WWI


 * Thesis:** Although development and innovation of arms persisted since World War I and onward, dangers of weaponry swelled throughout the time period and objectives of warfare altered with increasing nationalism.


 * __The Consequences of Warfare Since WWI__**
 * World War I was a new kind of war, particularly because of recent improvements in military weaponry. The use of machine guns and gas led to a significant increase in casualties. The war became defensive as trenches were built and defended. The heroic notion of war was gone.
 * The first World War was a turning point in development and deployment of munitions, troops, supplies, and tactics, introducing tanks, airplanes, telegraphs, etc.
 * The arms race between Germany and Britain during World War I in which they maintained increasingly large fleets also led to a hope that new tools of war would be used in the future.
 * New technologies were born during the World War II as both the nations of the world sought to outdo each other. The Germans and British developed radar technology to detect each other's planes. Sonar was invented to locate unseen submarines. Rockets were used in war for the first time - most notably by the Germans - as they delivered high explosives to Britain. But the most destructive weapon of all was the nuclear bomb which America developed and used to finish the war against the Japanese.
 * Everything that is used in WWII is mostly just an improvement on WWI technology.Development of nuclear weapons changed the nature of war. During the Cold, War, the major goal was that each superpower( U.S an Soviet) tried to stop one another from dominating. With more nations access to weapons of mass destruction, diplomatic issues became more tenuous.
 * In WWI, you see the introduction of Bi-plane aircraft first as observation and reconnaissance assets. And in around 1916 they started to put machine guns and bombs on aircraft and started to fight with them in small scales. In WWII aircraft appear as the premiere tool of warfare, with huge aircraft to aircraft battles and massive bombers that can carry up to 16 tons of bombs to drop on cities. WWII also sees the first use of jet aircraft by the Germans starting in 1944.
 * WWI also introduces the first truly practical submarine. The submarines can submerge for times in excess of 30 minutes. They are used to fire torpedoes undetected at ships. WWII improves on the submarine design and early on is the U.S's main naval weapon. In WWII the submarine sunk over 2,000,000 tons of ships and supplies.
 * The Machine gun. WWI shows the first use of the machine gun as a primarily defensive weapon because of their size and weight. The MG was used as a weapon of terror and is responsible for a majority of combat related deaths during the war. In WWII improvements made the machine gun lighter, it became a weapon of both offense and defense.
 * The Rifle. WWI sees the first massive use of bolt action rifles. An average soldier can fire anywhere between 20 and 30 rounds a minute. WWII saw a huge amount of improvements on the rifle. The United States upgraded to a gas-operated, semi-automatic rifle increasing the rate of fire to nearly 80 rounds a minute. Most countries, however, only made improvements to their bolt-action rifles from the first world war. The Germans made it shorter and lighter, the British changed the firing mechanism, the Russians and Japanese did absolutely nothing.
 * Ships, the navies of the world made their greatest changes between 1900 - 1908. The U.S. called it the Great White Fleet in 1908. A good number of the ships used during WWII were commissioned in WWI and refitted with bigger guns and better air defense. The only real big difference is in the invention of aircraft carriers by the British in 1928. The United States commissioned its first aircraft carrier, the USS Ranger, in 1935. The aircraft carrier became the decisive ship in warfare and is what made the allies capable of victory in the Pacific Theater.
 * In WWII you see the first use of rockets. The Germans developed two rockets the V1 and V2 to attack cities in Britain from France (V1) and Germany (V2).
 * WWI also introduced the tanks into warfare. During the first world war, the tanks were an infantry support weapon armed with machine guns and light armor of about an inch or two. They were capable of about 4 or on a real real steep slope 5 miles per hour. Tanks came into their own in WWII. The Germans truly mastered the tank design with anywhere between 6 - 8 inches of armor and guns usually about 88mm in diameter. The American tanks were much smaller usually about 4 - 5 inches of armor with 20 - 60mm guns. The U.S. tanks were capable of speeds of about 25 mph.
 * Medical technology. WWI had seen improvements to sterilization of bandages. WWII saw the introduction of penicillin. Numerous amounts of different local anesthetic and pain medications. The first use of blood-transfusions was in WWII.

this page was edited/rearranged and validated- by Jhann W. Validated by Alisha Allen, Alex Wallace and Ruby Rasavong: Well Done, nicely gives information in context of the topic. This page was validated by the __//**James Bennett**//__