How Did The Second Industrial Revolution Cause Ww1

The assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand set off a war that was like no other. What made World War One difference is that the technology that was introduced in World War One was like nothing the world had ever seen before. The cause of this being that the second industrial revolution had just ended, which made way for many new inventions. The second industrial revolution (1870-1914) had just ended which meant the whole world was adjusting to new machinery and they had created or bought from other countries new vehicles and guns as well as bombs and battleships were developed and created and were very eagerly waiting to be used. For Example, fighter planes are introduced in the war and the air force and air battles are introduced.
Machine guns become very popular and trench warfare develops and is used in many battles. Naval battles are much more common than before and chemical warfare is introduced but not used that much. Calvary (men on horses) are replaced by jeeps, cars, and tanks, swords are replaced by pistols and machine guns are much more commonly used. All these inventions show how much World War One influenced the inventions are weapons and warfare we still use today.
World War One was the first major war and this idea of international war sent countries scrambling to invent something different, something new that would give them the edge over the countries they were fighting against.
One of these inventions was the modern hand grenade, this was invented a few months before the war by English inventor Marten Hale. The grenade was very popular in world war one because of the popularity of trench warfare. Another thing that was invented before or during the war was poison gas, chemical warfare was very popular in the World War and gases were used mainly to clear large groups of men from a small part of trench quickly. The French first used tear gas in 1914, they filled small amounts in grenades and threw them in enemy trenches. Later in the war the French and Germans developed chlorine and mustard gas which was more effective and used them in larger quantities against more
troops.

Vehicles were also a source of great improvement throughout the war, one of the larger inventions was the introduction and use of warplanes during the war. This war was between many countries which means it was spread out between vast amounts of land and calvary and infantry alone could not cover by themselves and cars were still quite slow. Planes had been invented before but never for use in the war and especially not used for combat. At the beginning of the war the air forces were used to gather intel on the other countries and know the positions of their troops but later on in the war, planes were used for combat and were mounted with machine guns to fire at other planes now. This is largely recognized as the creation of the Air Force. One of the most famous and successful pilots in history, Manfred von Richthofen nicknamed the “Red Baron” was a pilot with immense skill and having little experience in aircraft. He is credited to have had over 80 career victories. Germans also used bombers and large balloons called zeppelins to attack and observe enemy camps. Air warfare played a vital role in the war as it allowed the countries to stay away from just using infantry and ground troops
Another popular addition to the first World War were tanks huge heavily armored vehicles, before the First World War using a few large armored and heavy troops were not common at all and the invention of tanks helped push those tactics into further wars. Tanks, as well as war planes were the response to the heavy fighting in trench and were used to take in damage and make a clear path for infantry to later follow. At first the tanks were slow and unreliable but later on the war, they were upgraded and fared much better in battle.
Naval warfare in World War One was also something new as large naval battles with aircraft took place that had never really happened before. The creation of HMS Dreadnought became the staple of battleships across the world, all battleships created before that to be known as pre-dreadnoughts. “When she was completed, in December 1906, HMS Dreadnought was the most powerful battleship in the world. She was the first all-big-gun battleship to enter service, and the first battleship to be powered by Parsons turbines. As a result, she was two and a half knots faster than her rivals, and carried twice the firepower of earlier battleships.” This battleship revolutionized the naval community right before World War One and has a result Britan and Frances navy much stronger than Germany’s and Hungary’s at the start of the war.
The enemy had to find a way to counter-attack this navy, so Germany and Hungary created a new type of vessel called the submarine. The submarine could go under the enemy defenses and attack them by surprise. The first kind of submarine the SM U-9 was created in 1910 and launched at the start of the war, becoming very successful in its first attacks, later in the war the British used convoys to slow the submarines down and it worked has the submarines attacks slowed down and then stopped later in the war. The navy was very important in World War One and carved new inventions that were used in World War Two and tactics we still use today.
Vehicles were very important in the First World War but even with all the new machinery the fighting usually stayed on the ground, long trench wars that would go on for months. Guns also undertook a major upgrade at the start of and during World War One. Machine Guns were created in 1890 and perfected in 1910, they were used a lot in trench warfare. Flamethrowers were also used a lot in World War One by Germany to cause havoc in enemy trenches, and injure many soldiers at once without killing them instantly. For small arms swords and sabers that were used a lot before are replaced by pistols which were more effective and easier to carry at close range. Artillery was also used heavily in World War One because of the advancements of Tanks and planes. Anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery was improved and became very important in protecting the trenches from bombings and other raids. In 1918 near the end of the war assault rifles were also introduced they revolutionized the way infantry operated in the battlefield and are the main infantry weapon today.
Transportation in World War One was also very revolutionary, before the war and at the start of the war the troops used Calvary with horses but they proved very ineffective at the start of the war because of an earlier invention, the Machine Gun which killed the horses and their riders quickly.
The armies had to find a new way to transport supplies and weapons to allies conveniently. A solution that they came up with was the railroad. Steam trains were made and railroads were constructed across the routes of supplies being delivered. The railroad was much quicker and more effective then horses and could hold more people and get there about as fast. During the war, Britain especially used boats to transport their goods along the English channel they were protected in convoys and used sonar to detect any enemy
ships.
The technology of the war on the field of battle improved but so did the technology off the battlefield, the gathers of intelligence and spies used different methods to obtain information on both sides. The radio was invented in the start of the 20th century and was used a lot in World War 1 to communicate. Radio was a quick way to transmit information, the telegraph was used before but it took much longer, the radio is much quicker than the telegraph and was very beneficial in the First World War. The sonar was also developed during World War One as a way of detecting icebergs but when the Germans started using submarines it was primarily used to detect them.
Spies were also used in World War One by practically every country involved in the war, they used concealed weapons and hidden cameras and communication devices. Many spies were caught and killed because of the often poor signal from the radio they received. Spies were often disguised as high ranking officials and sent to destroy or gather information on secret codes that the enemy usually used to communicate.
The First World War is the first major war of modern era and has had a huge influence on countless wars, ranging from World War two to wars that are going on right now. The second industrial revolution led to many inventions at the start of the war and during the war. This made the First World War to different from all the other wars and why it was nicknamed “The Great War” because it incorporated all these new inventions from the industrial revolution into a huge war between all these countries. New types of bombs were used like the hand grenade, new types of guns were developed like the flamethrower and updated rifles and pistols, practical machine guns were also invented and first used in World War One.
Tanks were created to rally the troops in the trenches and armed planes were introduced and the air force was created. Anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery was created to provide protection against these vehicles. Submarines and a new class of destroyer battleship were created. Transportation played an important role with the improved of railroads and steam trains that could transport roads much quicker than the earlier method of horses. World War One was also a breakthrough in intelligence, spies used new gadgets and with the introduction of the radio and sonar allies could communicate better and could detect things underwater. The First World War was a combination of years of conflict between two sides of the world and a plethora of new inventions that combined created the First major war in History, but it wouldn’t be the last.