18th And 19th Century: Industrialization Analysis

Over the course of two centuries, the ways that wars and battles are fought have changed drastically, and yet the end goal has always remained the same, to win and not be defeated no matter at what cost. As the progression of the Industrial Revolution escalated, it paved the way for what could be produced to help military forces win in battle. Industrialization during the 18th & 19th centuries caused the battles of Waterloo and the Somme to be a great example of how industrialization helped evolve war tactics and weaponry to effectively defeat the enemy. The battle of Waterloo in 1815, was forever marked as the day Napoleon Bonaparte French reign ended, it also marked how the Industrial Revolution had changed the way battles affected both the soldiers and how the technology had impacted the battlefield. By the first four hours of battle, the damages causes by the weapons developed in response to the Industrial Revolution, the cannon and black powder artillery, had proven to be only the beginning of industrial
Yet the effectiveness of the machine gun made up in a sense for the limited training. It dehumanized and the fact that 1300 rounds could be fired off within a minute it was more or less the act of pulling the trigger and not letting go towards the direction of the enemy. Since the French and the Germans were at a stalemate, they knew that the only way to protect themselves from the enemy was to dig, leading to trench warfare (Keegan, 258). The trench warfare became a game of sending men across no-man’s land in order to gain some leverage over the enemy. Conditions in the trenches was revolting with bodies of dead men and feces creating the perfect condition for disease, as well as trench foot caused by prolonged exposure of the feet to damp, unsanitary, and cold