2.1 The impact of industrialisation and technology
Industrialisation: “the development of large scale and developed industries which used machines in
factories to enable mass production, precision engineering, and technological innovation”
Mass production
French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
Industrial developments had a limited impact on the nature and outcome of the wars
o Few significant improvements in weapons available
o Industry had not yet brought about the large-scale production of weapons that
could bring about mass destruction
However, the increased role of the state in taking over industry did see greater production
of weapons like artillery
o Battle of Wagram 1809: 500 cannons on both sides
The American Civil War
The first war where outproducing the enemy = as important as fighting them
o Grant’s strategy of attrition relied on exploiting superior Union resources and
productive capacity, as the South could not hope to match them
It was the industrial capacity of the North that decided the ultimate outcome
o In 1860 the North produced 97% of US firearms and 94% of its pig iron
o Overall the North had 10 times the productive capacity of the South
o Confederate productive capacity was impacted even further by the Union blockade
and Sherman’s 1864 march to the sea which targeted industrial centres
This war was the first sign of industrialisation turning war into a contest of economic
strength
The Wars of Unification
Mass production and the industrial strength of Prussia saw victory over the less industrially
and economically developed Austria
o Industrialisation = ability to equip entirety of Prussian forces with modern weaponry
such as the superior breech-loading Dreyse needle gun (marked change from the
Napoleonic Wars where only a select few ‘elite’ units in the British army were armed
with the Baker rifle)
The First World War
Industrialisation ensured that war had a greater human cost
o Mass production of machine guns meant that a small number of soldiers could hold
territory and inflict large-scale casualties, such as the British at the 1914 Battle of
Mons
o Industrialisation saw the mass production of large artillery weapons and millions of
shells
Battle of the Somme 1916: British fired over 1.5 million shells in a week-long
preliminary bombardment
In 1916 Russia produced 4.5 million shells a month
Mass production and the increase in industrial capacity meant WW1 lasted far longer than
the Wars of Unification
, o 3-year stalemate on Western Front caused by scale of defensive weaponry and
continuous supplying of armies on the front line
War increasingly becoming a contest of economic strength by WW1
o Mass production meant competent economic organisation became increasingly
important. Germany’s war economy was not as strong or well managed as France
and Britain’s
The Hindenburg Programme of 1916 was unrealistic and its production
targets were not met
o The Allies were able to produce far more tanks than the Germans
By 1918 the Allies had produced hundreds of tanks compared to the
Germans’ 20
At the Battle of Amiens (August 1918) Rawlinson achieved a breakthrough
using over 500 tanks
o Allied industrial output was over 3 times greater than that of the Central Powers
The Second World War
Germany’s failure to win a quick war in Russia turned WW2 into a contest of rival economies
and productive capacity
o Soviet productive capacity was significantly larger than that of Germany; this
enabled a war of attrition which swallowed up vast amounts of German resources
o The German panzer was individually superior to the Soviet T-34, but the Soviets
were able to produce over 80,000 T-34 tanks
o The USSR’s ability to go on the counterattack in 1943 depended on mass production
of tanks and heavy artillery
Germany was consistently outproduced by the Allies throughout the war
o Germany was behind in production of combat aircraft. By 1944:
Germany was producing 40,000
The British Empire was producing 47,000
The USA was producing 114,000
o Mass production enabled Allies to maintain air supremacy and win the war in the
skies
Mass production of landing craft enabled the Allies’ various amphibious landings, including
most importantly D-Day in June 1944
Precision engineering
Precision engineering enabled the development of new weapons technology, particularly through
the rifling of small arms and cannons & breech-loading technology
The Crimean War
The British and French enjoyed overwhelming technological superiority over the Russians
thanks to more developed industry
o They possessed better artillery and rifles
o The Russians relied on the smoothbore musket, while the Allies used the rifle-
musket
This was accurate up to 600 yards – 5x the range of Russian muskets
Battle of Inkerman 1854: British infantry successfully repulsed Russian
frontal assaults using Lee Enfield rifles
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