IGNOU HISTORY NOTES : History Of Modern Europe (Mid 18th to 20th Centuries)- NATURE OF THE WARS

IGNOU HISTORY Study Notes for IAS, UPSC Exams

History Of Modern Europe Mid 18th to Mid 20th Centuries

NATURE OF THE WARS

Structure

31.0 Objectives
31.1 Introduction
31.2 The Notion of Total War and its Implications
31.2.1 Trench Warfare as a War of Attrition
31.2.2 Naval Blockade and Submarine Warfare
31.2.3 The Nature of Mobilisation in the World War I1
31.3 Technological Innovations for Mass-Slaughter
31.3.1 Artillery
31.3.2 Infantry
31.3.3 The New Forces of Mechanised Warfare
31.3.4 Military Aviation
31.3.5 Chemical Warfare
31.4 Nuclear Weapons: Achieving Technical Feasibility for Total Annihilation
31.5 Transformation of Military institutions and Administrative Machinery
31.6 The Results of Total War
31.6.1 Mass Destruction
31.6.2 Genocide
31.6.3 Apatride
31.7 Let Us Sum Up
31.8 Key Words
31.9 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

31.0 OBJECTIVES

In the prev'ious Unit you learnt about the factors that caused the two world wars. You also
learnt that scholars have recently been referring to the two World Wars as basically one war
which went on for thirty years with a long period of truce in between. This Unit, therefore,
talks about the nature of this long war. After reading this Unit, you would leam about:

the nature of modern warfare, its hbsolute nature and its implications for human society;
the major technological innovations which took place in different kinds of weapon systems;
the transformation in the nature of military institutions brought about by modem warfare, and;
the nature and extent of mass destruction, genocide and homelessness brought about by the war

31.1 INTRODUCTION

The nature of modern warfare was the result of two simultaneous processes. One was
the emergence of modem politics which implied mobilisation of masses around some
specific idea, goal or policy. Its manifestation was in the idea of 'nation in arm' or
conscription in the French Revolution. This gave men equality in battle which was denied
to them in actual life. This 'democratisation of war' transformed wars into mass-wars
or people's war in which civilians and civil-life itself became the proper and sometimes
the main target of military strategy. The other was the growth of industrial economy which
provided the resources, the organizational techniques and methods of motivation needed
to fight mass-wars. thus rernodelling them as total wars, i.e., towards total involvement of