Industry & Tech

• Revolutionary Wars & Napoleon


  Technology played a minor role although Napoleon was helped by the introduction better weapon production (St Etienne workshops = 97,000 handguns)

  The CPS had established 20 new sword and bayonet factories and 12 canon factories

  Industrialisation also helped with inventions such as Shrapnel.
• Small Wars(Crimea)

  New Enfield Rifled Musket - The Russians still used smooth bore weapons

  The British were also using Percussion caps and Minie bullets to improve the quality of their rifles

  Russians had too many men but few railways

  Ships, rail and telegraph = important
• American Civil War

  Outproducing enemy = as important as outfighting them

  The more industrialised North had a tremendous advantage

  Much of the fighting was about key Railway (Chattanooga)

  BATTLE 1 st Bull Run the North were slow and the South brought in reinforcements by rail

  The North produced 94% iron, 90% of boots, 6x the factories, 10 x productive capacity

  Sometimes a lack of training could minimise the impact of the tech e.g. at Gettysburg 18,000 muskets gathered after the battle had been accidently double loaded.
• Small Wars

  Prussians: Dreyse 4/5 quicker, allowing new ‘mission tactics including troops able to load lying down (BATTLE of Sadowa)

  The Prussians used their organisation (General Staff, Railways, Reserve system) and their Krupps Breech loading steel artillery guns to decisively beat the French (Battles of Metz and Sedan).
• WW1

  GR produced 13.15 million tons of steel by 1910, surpassing GB​

  GR = lead over Europe in chemical industry​ used at BATTLE Ypres

  Mass production of machine guns and artillery inflicted huge casualty rates. War = more costly
• WW2

  Little change to begin with just improvements

  Such as tanks, armoured vehicles and aircraft =Stuka, Spitfire and Hurricane ​

  New tech: radar = crucial in BATTLE of Britain and computer to break Enigma code ​

  GR develop? jet engine and V1 and V2 rockets​

  Allies = atomic bomb