Advancement In Ww1

World War 1 began on June 28, 1914 and officially ended five years later on June 28, 1919. It should be considered the first modern war because it was the start of the change in tactics and advancement in technology that define war today. In WW1, new weaponry and technology was introduced; it was the first time tanks, planes, effective machine guns, and chemical warfare were used in war. Due to these advancements, the way wars were fought changed. They were no longer fought in the Napoleonic style that was used earlier.

Technological advancements are a big reason why World War 1 should be considered the first modern war. Before World War 1, weapons such as knives, swords, bayonets, muskets, cannons, etc. were used and wars were fought by
two armies lining up and marching at each other. New weapons were introduced during WW1 that impacted the ways wars were fought and war in general, machine guns and chemical warfare being one of the big ones. During WW1, machine guns were a quick and efficient way to dominate the opposing army. The soldiers did not have to aim or reload much like they had to with the muskets and the gun allowed them to shoot bullets constantly; they could wipe out the opposing soldiers easily. Poison gas and other chemical warfare was also big because it could take out some of the opposing army without risking the lives of soldiers. These new weapons used in WW1 were much more “effective” in war and the death toll piled up as armies failed to adapt their tactics to the new weaponry. This technology led to a change in war tactics, such as trench warfare.

Trench warfare was the main tactic used during World War 1.
Armies would carve large dugouts that held many soldiers. These dugouts, or trenches, protected the soldiers from the machine guns and were usually surrounded with barbed wire to keep opposing soldiers out. Soldiers used small arms, poison gas, tanks, and grenades to blow up the opposing army’s trench or kill the opposing soldiers. This warfare led to the creation of the German “infiltration tactics” that consisted of Sturmtruppen tactics, commonly translated as “stormtrooper”, which are, in one form or another, still used today. The army would release short artillery bombardments, in order to keep the frontline defenders of the opposing army distracted, with groups of elite soldiers, or stormtroopers, who would sneak to the edge of the enemy trench system and, when it lifted, attack the defenders before they had a chance to react. Once the frontline was weak, bigger groups would move in to help while the stormtroopers moved deeper into the defensive system. This was a huge change from the “lining up and charging” tactics used when the war started, which were similar to “British
warfare”.

World War 1 should also be considered the first modern war because of the advancement of communication that took place.
It was the first war where communication and surveillance increasingly became a major part of warfare. The advancements in communications and transportation allowed new ways of protecting messages from falling into enemy hands to emerge, such as cryptology. Long distance communication between the combat area and command was possible due to the telegraph, but lines were susceptible to enemy monitoring. Due to this, the armies depended on codes to protect their information, causing the advancement of cryptology. On top of that, important information was also encrypted, which further concealed the messages, but these both required codebooks to receive and send messages which turned out to be a disadvantage. For example, during the war, many German diplomatic and military corps code books were found by British intelligence, causing a great disadvantage to Germany to remainder of the war. Communication like this allowed more information to travel and created more ways to intercept these messages. It allowed the United States to get involved in the war and stop the German plans to attack American ships in the Atlantic, known as the Zimmerman Telegram. The way of communicating and surveilling advanced because of this.

World War 1 should be considered the first modern war because of technological advancements and change in war tactics. It changed the way wars were
fought and opened up the opportunity of advancement in many different areas. It created new tactics, technology, and weaponry that is still used today.