World War I's Technological innovations and its impact on modern Essay

World War I's Technological innovations and its impact on modern warfare - Essay Example Nationalism among European countries combined with growing tension and rivalries due to industrialization has led military buildups throughout the continent. Nations became aware of their neighboring nations and in response to this tension, England, France, and Russia formed an alliance which they called "Triple Entente". This alliance was aligned in preparation against Germany who allied with Austria-Hungary. Such alliances divided Europe with strict guarded borders thus the onset of an impending World War became virtually impossible to avoid. The beginning of war in Europe started when in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir of the throne of Austria-Hungary was assassinated. Serbia was suspected to be behind the killing. Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia but it was protected by its ally, Russia. Then Germany came to the rescue for the Austrian because they were the ally of Austrian-Hungary. Militaries from different countries came to the rescue for their respective allies and the conflict grew out of scale. In more than a month, Europe and its neighboring countries were engulfed in war. But the militaries of different nations were not perplexed. This is because each of them has their own weaponries and technology to defend themselves. British Admiral Jacky Fisher wrote in 1915 that, "The war is going to be won by inventions." Weapons never been seen before such as tanks, the zeppelin, poison gas, the airplane, the submarine, and the machine gun has nevertheless fired their way through. World War I suddenly drew upon electrical technologies that had been under development for decades. Radio has become essential for communications and its transmission of voice was developed rather than codes. Electricity also contributed on the advancement of war. Battleships or tanks, for example, did had electric signaling lamps, helm indicator, fire alarms, remote control for bulkhead doors and controlled whistles which all uses electricity. Guns and turrets and raised gun magazine ammunitions also uses electricity. Incandescent and carbon-arc searchlights became usable during nighttime navigation, long-range daytime and nighttime signaling illuminates enemy ships during night engagements. Some of the most technological advances World War I has innovated and created were meant for attack and defense. These were the following: Weapons of War: Submarines. Although they had been around for decades, submarines became powerful weapons and became potential threat to any ship that sailed in deep waters. Their torpedoes can sink any ship that would invade territorial waters and these ships have become every nation's weapons in the waters. But the use of submarines was without restrictions that in May 1915 German submarine torpedoed Lusitania, a non-combatant U.S. ship killing 1,195 people on board. From then on, allied ships and submarines were outfitted with sensitive microphones that could detect engine noise from enemy submarines and ships. They developed sonar, but its development came nearly during the end of war (Museum). Aeroplanes. Ten years before the eruption of World War I, the Wright brothers have just made a second flight of their first