NationStates Jolt Archive

Completely ignoring questions of politics, which 19th C. war was most significant in terms of military science, a la technique and technology?

Napoleonic Wars:
the 'levée en masse' or mass conscription
independent and mobile artillery units with standardised calibers

Crimean War:
modern medical treatment
the first tactical use of railways
the first major military use of telegraph
the first 'live' war reporting
the start of micromanagement of military action from afar
the first war in which the public is widely informed of events

US Civil War:
often seen as the first true industrial and/or total war
the repeating rifle
rifled artillery
machine guns
land mines
the first wide scale use of trench warfare
the introduction of powered ironclads
the first sinking of a ship by submarine
early war photography

Others?

I would've said The Cold War...

I would've said The Cold War...
And what 19th C. war would that have been?

And what 19th C. war would that have been?
You make a good point.

Napoleonic wars, simply because they brought the ideas of the French Revolution across Europe. Without those there wouldn't have been any revolutions in Germany and Austria and other countries in 1848, and the ideas of liberty, equality, etc, wouldn't have appeared there either. Also with those ideas nationalism, especially in the old Austrian monarchy, boomed, which eventually led to the fall of the monarchy (together with WW1).

Definitely the Civil War, for the reasons the thread starter stated.

Otherwise, and I know this is off-topic, I'd go with the Spanish-American War. That conflict put the US on the world stage, and I challenge you to find someone you says that hasn't been important.

The US Civil War, for basically all of the advancements the poster stated. The industrial/total war nature and trench warfare, in particular, were leaps forward in military science and changed the way wars would be fought in the future. I've heard it said that the trenches around Petersburg (late-war siege) looked like WWI trenches, and by the end of the American Civil War, a lot of technological advancements that had been witnessed would be around until World War I and put into use then. IMO, the ACW most heavily advanced military science (and don't think that it just affected Americans- there were plenty of European observers throughout the war).

You could argue the case of repeating rifles in the Civil War, but rifles were still basically single shot in the generality, still mostly muzzle-loading as well; breech loading rifles were uncommon, and repeating rifles were rare. My choice for this would be the Spanish-American war. The navies that engaged each other were representative of the pre-Dreadnought superfleets that would spark an arms race, the first large all-steel navies that engaged each other in history. Repeating rifles and machine guns were used in larger numbers than ever before. The war was also a considerable advance in war tactics with the proliferation of popular propaganda in the form of "yellow journalism" on the home front, which would be representative of the extremely popular catchall wars like WWI and WWII, where we popularized war to an unprecedented extent and sold billions in war bonds. Amphibious tactics were considerably advanced with our Pacific campaign. Radio telegraph communication was used to spread information. In terms of technology, it was innovative in that it brought to fruition all of the post-Civil war technology that had been developed and new tactics for the 20th century.

I would argue the Franco-Prussian war. Prussia was one of the first, if not THE first, European nations to focus it's industrial might completely on war. The weaponry it produced made it so that the French never stood a chance, and they also made revolutionary use of railways in troop movements; troops no longer moved by horse and foot! That's big right there.

Completely ignoring questions of politics, which 19th C. war was most significant in terms of military science, a la technique and technology?

Napoleonic Wars:
the 'levée en masse' or mass conscription
independent and mobile artillery units with standardised calibers

Crimean War:
modern medical treatment
the first tactical use of railways
the first major military use of telegraph
the first 'live' war reporting
the start of micromanagement of military action from afar
the first war in which the public is widely informed of events

US Civil War:
often seen as the first true industrial and/or total war
the repeating rifle
rifled artillery
machine guns
land mines
the first wide scale use of trench warfare
the introduction of powered ironclads
the first sinking of a ship by submarine
early war photography

Others?


hmm i did not know that they had trenches in the u.s. civil war...they did in the crimean...

I'd say the 2nd Boer War. It introduced the concept of guerilla warfare.

I'd say the 2nd Boer War. It introduced the concept of guerilla warfare.
to the western world..but remember tribes have been doing that for centuries

The Crimean or the US Civil War.
The Crimean because it saw the first use of non-napoleonic tactics when som enterprising general said, "Hey, lots of people die if we line up and run at the enemies, so lets try...lining up in loose lines and running at the enemy!
And thus Russia experiences yet another war in which X million die on their side alone.
The US civil war because it saw actual large scale employment of such tactics, the use of snipers, guierrila warfare, trains, machine guns, artillary, and I think they started using hot air ballons for recon and artillary control.
Not sure about the last one...

The Crimean or the US Civil War.
The Crimean because it saw the first use of non-napoleonic tactics when som enterprising general said, "Hey, lots of people die if we line up and run at the enemies, so lets try...lining up in loose lines and running at the enemy!
And thus Russia experiences yet another war in which X million die on their side alone.
The US civil war because it saw actual large scale employment of such tactics, the use of snipers, guierrila warfare, trains, machine guns, artillary, and I think they started using hot air ballons for recon and artillary control.
Not sure about the last one...

its ok russia has loads to spare...i think they were using bloons in the napolionic era to ..for reconisence

Yes, hot air balloons were used in the ACW.

Can't believe I forgot the Spanish-American War, but still, I hold that the ACW was more innovative with regards to military science. After all, the ironclads that were used in that war wouldn't be around if the Monitor and the Merrimack hadn't been built. Additionally, the Spanish-American War did almost nothing for military science advancements not having to do with the navy. And, my most important point- that the longer a war goes, and the more desperate and high-stakes it becomes, the greater the strides in technology that will be made. This view, I believe, is backed up strongly by history: the American Civil War and World War 2 being the prime examples, but also World War 1 as well- wars that were the longest, and involved the most casualties, produced the most important and most numerous developments in military science as the various sides continued to look for ways to defeat the other through unexpected methods. This cannot be seen in the Spanish-American War, which was basically an easy victory for the USA.

Boer war. They showed what nasty little buggers some of those new (at the time) bullets could be. Helped further modern medicine because of the greater injuries some of these rounds caused, and a bunch of other stuff I don't want to think of.

Completely ignoring questions of politics, which 19th C. war was most significant in terms of military science, a la technique and technology?

Napoleonic Wars:
the 'levée en masse' or mass conscription
independent and mobile artillery units with standardised calibers


Hadn't standardisation of calibres already been done over a century ago :confused:

I choose the Crimean War.

Napoleonic wars, simply because they brought the ideas of the French Revolution across Europe. Without those there wouldn't have been any revolutions in Germany and Austria and other countries in 1848, and the ideas of liberty, equality, etc, wouldn't have appeared there either. Also with those ideas nationalism, especially in the old Austrian monarchy, boomed, which eventually led to the fall of the monarchy (together with WW1).
He said most important vis á vis military technology.

I'd say the 2nd Boer War. It introduced the concept of guerilla warfare.


Nope. The word guerrila is Spanish and means "little war". It comes from Napoleon's Peninsular War in Spain, which was the first use of modern Guerilla warfare. Spanish guerillas managed to force the French to garrison much of the countryside, thus tying up quite a few French troops.

http://www.georgianindex.net/peninsularWar/tactics.html
http://web2.airmail.net/napoleon/cruel_war_in_Spain.html


hmm i did not know that they had trenches in the u.s. civil war...they did in the crimean...

Yep. Check out the photos here (towards the bottom of the page): http://www.swcivilwar.com/FortsPhotos.html

Hadn't standardisation of calibres already been done over a century ago :confused:
Yeah independent mobile artillery units were first organized by Maurice of Nassau in the 16th century and Gustavus Adolphus first standardized artillery calibers in the 17th c.