In The Modern Era, Technology Has Become The Driving Force

Going beyond our wildest imagination, technology has the power to make the impossible possible. Empowering us as human beings, technology provides us with the ingredients to revolutionize the world around us. Giving us the foundation needed, this potential can be used for a variety problems that we currently face. No matter the field, technology always finds a way. Underappreciated, technology has been drastically evolving our way of life for the better.

Technology at times have been referred to as inventions which create values for human beings and help them in living a better lifestyle, but no one would have ever thought technology would have even played an important role in war. The way wars are conducted have changed leaps and bounds from early 1800s to modern days. Industrial revolution and technologies have transformed how the warfare is conducted. Although technology might have helped opponents of the war to showcase their strengths during warfare and win wars, however certain reforms used in warfare had its effects (positive or negative) on the civilian citizens too.

Technology has changed drastically from the 1970s to now. We have exceeded what most people back then could ever imagine. The technology used in schools, homes, and in public places has evolved into technology that makes the “cutting edge” technology of the 70s look very simple. Things such as the personal computer, the cell phone, electronic games, TVs, and even watches have changed completely. The ways that they have exceeded expectations is truly unbelievable.

Artillery in WW1 was a prerequisite for trench warfare and battle success. Artillery was key to counter trench warfare by firing upon enemy trenches, fortifications, and lessening enemy troops. Using Artillery gave the ability to armies striking enemies without directly facing them, it also can indirectly destroy barbed wire. Not only artillery affected enemies physically were their mentality. Imagine that you were a soldier, crossing no

Trench warfare is a brutal type of war and extremely deadly. With the rise of the industrial age it changed the tactics and mindsets commanders and generals. During this era it become extremely easy to mass produce the tools of war such as machine guns and artillery. With what seemed like unlimited resources tactics and strategy used in trench warfare did not accommodate the price of a living human's life but instead saw it as another tool such as a gun. Trench warfare was unlike any other type of war the world had seen at this point and was extremely deadly and not just because war is deadly but because of some of the strategy used.

History). The civilians that were killed ranged from children all the way to senior citizens. Other

What artillery is, is it is a mounted projectile of either guns or missile launchers which can be mobile but are usually heavy and stationary but was highly used and very deadly throughout the war. The advancement in artillery technology contributed to the result of major destruction in war and was highly powerful in which gave it the number one piece of technology for casualties (Tucker 133). Artillery provides the necessary power in order to take over enemy lines. The power that artillery brought to the battlefield was like nothing before world war one. What makes artillery so deadly is it has giant shells which shot into a specific area where it was fired into, and then the real damage would come when it exploded!

It is estimated that between 8.5 and 12 million people died while fighting in the trenches. The estimation, in fact, is difficult to prove after the collapse of several countries’ government such as Russia, Austria Hungary, or Germany. The lives in the trenches were absolutely horrific. Soldiers were not aware of the life threatening conditions of the trenches when deciding to fight for their country. Indeed, the life in the trenches were dangerous and horrible for the soldiers fighting in World War One. This played an important role on soldiers’ physical and mental condition during and after the war.

A smart, scholarly and skillful author named Aldous Huxley once said “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards”. The advancement, improvement and the wrong use of technology has affected the world in a really negative way. When technology first started to improve and become more advanced was during the WW1 and WW2, which caused the most destructive wars in human history. For example the wrong use of technology led the Americans to produce one of the most destructive bombs that killed about more than 80,000 innocent people in Japan, Nagasaki. Another perfect example could be the production of nuclear weapons and missiles in Russia and Iran, which are made to eventually be used in another

“A nation 's ability to fight a modern war is as good as its technological ability.” An English inventor who was of great importance in the invention of the turbojet said these words. I partly agree with him, as technology is the basis of most aspects of war. If a nation were to fight a war without the use of technology it would fight with sticks and stones. Technological innovations in the First World War (WW1) have led to much of the technology that we have today, ranging form the various weapons modern armies are equipped with to the radios used for communication. If something is significant then it has an important influence on a thing, such as an event, that will happen in the future. In this way, did the technological innovations in WW1, such as gas, communications and the machine gun, not only have an effect on the outcome of the war but also have an effect on how our world is shaped today?

A completely different approach from battles in the past was that in World War I, civilians became a new target. When Germany would invade a country, the troops would attack civilians and even imprison them (Audoin-Rouzeau & Becker 45). These prisoners of war were then put into camps on German territory and because of the blockade against Germany created by Britain to lessen their resources; the prisoners were being “deprived” of food (Audoin-Rouzeau & Becker 62). German military would even use the prisoners in battles, turning them into “human shields” for protection (Audoin-Rouzeau & Becker 77). German troops even went to the extreme with attacking civilians by exiling them to face starvation, as German military did with the Armenians (Audoin-Rouzeau & Becker 64). The German military used genocide to ultimately fight against their opposing nations. Another way opposing sides would fight against one another was through the use of tanks and planes, a concept never used before because of technology. Bombs were then dropped onto enemy’s territory, killing almost all innocent people (Audoin-Rouzeau & Becker 108). By using excessive violence, “psychological damage” that was irreversible was inflicted on a vast majority of soldiers, still inflicting harm even after the war ended (Audoin-Rouzeau & Becker 25). This new style of fighting

Technologies played an important role in our lives before and right now. The development of the science and technology promoted the progress of the society. The wide spread of using electricity boosted economy around the world; the invention of the telephone made people’s communication become easier; airplanes make people travel longer distances in shorter times. As same as other time period in the history, during the Cold War, the great inventors from different countries invented better weapons and things to make their country win the war. Those new weapons and technologies changed the strategies used by the commanders, the way the soldiers fight, and the form of the war. Technologies certainly affect the war.

Throughout history, war has been both a cause and a means of solving political conflict (Military Technology). The technology used in a war determines the strategies, methods, and almost every other aspect of the war (Military Technology). There have been many pivotal points in warfare driven by advancements in technology. For instance, the invention of gunpowder eventually led to the creation of many new weapons which called for changes in the way battles were fought. Nuclear weapons ended World War II and caused major tension during the Cold War. The invention of the Internet gave way to a completely new branch of warfare, cyber warfare.

Also, in total wars, people tend to not differentiate between soldiers and civilians. Most of the time in World War II, sadly, no one did. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are examples of a belligerent attacking a group without prejudice as to whether or not they are soldiers or, a strategic bombing. Some other examples would be the firebombing of Dresden, the firebombing of Tokyo, and the Battle of Berlin. Looking at the numbers, one cannot even imagine the horrors that each of the affected went through. One victim in particular, Toshiko Tanaka, was only in elementary school when the bomb exploded immediately above her. She was blinded by the flash and received severe burns on her right arm, head, and the left side of her neck. After returning to where her house once stood, she fell into a coma for a week; because all the doctors and hospitals were gone, her mother believed she would die. Luckily, she lived, although she started to suffer from several disorders in her teenage years including mouth ulcers, sore throat, herpes labialis, and sudden fainting. In an interview, she tells of how people who seemed to be fine would suddenly develop purple spots on their skin, have their hair fall out, and bleed from their gums. She also says, “Have you peeled tomatoes in hot water when you make salad? The same thing happens to the human body. Our skin peels by heat. Whenever I see tomatoes, the nightmare comes back to my mind.” All of these tragedies

Before modern technology, men would band together for the protection of their families. History has proven people group together for survival, whether that be warmth, food, or protection. The idea was that a group is stronger and more profitable than one person acting alone. Each tribe or gathering of individuals working together is considered a society. A society is nothing more than a group of people living together for a common purpose, or simply because it is more convenient. But, if all societies were thriving entities, then we would not know the hardships that have repeated throughout history, such as, poverty and famine. On the contrary, a society that works well is a society that works for the well-being of its individual members. A high functioning and successful society is built on a foundation of trust and equality and enforced by a governing body.