Lesson 4 - War at the Dawn of the 20th Century

INTA 4803 TP WAR IN THE 20th CENTURY

War at the Dawn of the 20th Century:
The Emergence of Total War

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"Victory smiles upon those who anticipate the changes in the character of war,
not upon those who wait to adapt themselves after the changes occur.

Air Marshall Giulio Douhet
The Command of the Air (1921)

Victory smiles upon those who change the character of war to their advantage, not upon those
who merely anticipate the change or wait to adapt themselves after the changes occurs.

Joseph A. Engelbrecht, Jr.
Research Director, Project AIR FORCE 2025 (1996)

Lesson Objectives

• Build a foundation for understanding the wars of the 20th century.

• Understand and describe the concept of Military Revolutions and how they have impacted the evolution of modern war.

• Describe how weapon technology changed the character of war at the beginning of the 20th century.

• Define total war and describe its roots in the 19th century.

• Begin to understand the importance of logistics in modern war.

Study Guides

• Define "total war" and give examples of conflicts in the 19th and early 20th century that contributed to this evolutionary definition.

• Describe five weapons or war-related technolgies develped in the last half of the 19th cntury that had major impacts on war in the 20th century.

• Why has logistics become such a critical component of modern war?

Assignment

Readings:

"Total War" (Scroll to and read the second definition, "Military History Companion: total war")
Hugh Bicheno
Oxford Companion to Military History
     • NOTE: We will use the first sentence of this reading as our working definition of "total war."
     • The text presented at this link (Answers.com) is identical to the cited volume.

"The Emergence of Modern War: The Dawn of Modern War"
• Read entire page.
"The Emergence of Modern War: Naval and Air Weaponry"
    • Read entire page.
Source: Richard A. Gabriel and Karen S. Metz
             A Short History of Modern War, Chapter 5
             Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 1992.

"Total War"
Wikipedia
   • READ: "Etymology"
   • READ: "French Revolutonary & Napoleonic Wars"
   • READ: "American Civil War"

"For Want of a Nail: A Brief History of the Quartermaster Supply Mission"
Dr. Stephen E. Anders
Quartermaster Professional Bulletin Spring 2003
   • READ down to graphic "Supply Wins Wars"

Charles Joseph Minard: Mapping Napoleon's March, 1861
John Corbett
Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science

        • Translated version of Minard map
        • "It may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn."
           (Edward Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 1983).

"Maxim Gun"
Wikipedia

"Recoil Systems" (animationion: click on trigger to operate)
"Blowback System" (animationion: click on trigger to operate)
"Gas System" (animationion: click on trigger to operate)
How Stuff Works

"French 75 Cannon" (animation: click on white arrow to operate)
Le Canon de 75 (French)
       TRANSLATIONS: Title: "The Operation of the shooting brake of the 75 [mm] gun"    huile = oil    azote = nitrogen

Supplemental Resources:

"Napoleon's Moscow Campaign: 1812"
Marjie Bloy
The Age of George III
A Web of English History

"Cavalry to Computer: The Pattern of Military Revolutions"
Andrew F. Krepinevich
National Interest, September 1, 1994
     • READ: Pages 1 and 4-11 down to (but not including) "The Current Revolution"

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