Violence and Modernity: War
1. Modernising war
2. Large-scale state violence within its own borders = terror
3. Mass violence in absence of overall state control = civil
war (‘people’s war’; revolutionary war)
4. Violence of minorities aiming to overthrow the state =
terrorism
5. Low-level repressive state violence = civil violence
NB Weber’s definition of the state as the body holding a
monopoly of organised violence
Typologies of Violence
• 1. Violence between states = war
The problem to be considered
• Enlightenment expectations were that reason
and science would succeed in building a
harmonious, non-violent society
– Voltaire Essay on War
– Later in 19th C Socialists like the Duc de St. Simon –
trade and communications (railways) would so
integrate the world that conflict would be
impossible
– Also Marx and the ideal state of Communism
The terrible reckoning of violence
French revolutionary terror – c20,000 deaths
Napoleonic wars –
1.8 million French and allies (inc 600,000
civilians)
1.5 million allied forces (Britain, Russia, Austria,
Spain, Italy, Prussia
Total – 3.3 million
Deaths by category (France and allies)
• 371,000 killed in action
• 800,000 killed by disease, primarily in the
disastrous invasion of Russia
• 600,000 civilians
• 65,000 French allies (mainly Poles fighting for
independence lost in 1795)
• Total: 1,800,000 French and allies (mostly
Germans and Poles) dead in action, disease
and missing
War deaths
• Crimean War (1854-6) c. 600,000
• American Civil War (1861-5) 750,000 (620,000
trad)
• World War 1 (1914- 18) - 9m to 15m (6m
‘missing’)(6m civilians)
• Russian Civil War (1918-22) 10m
• Spanish Civil War (1936-9) – c. 500,000
• World War 2 (1939-45) - 60-70m dead (inc 27m
USSR; 0.25m USA; 0.5m Britain)
Deaths in recent wars
• Vietnam (1955-75): The South c 1m dead (inc 58,000 US
troops); The North 600,000 military – total of 2m – 4m for
war
• Gulf War 1 Kuwait (1990-1) 190 coalition troops killed in
action (189 died in accidents and ‘friendly fire’); 25,000
Iraqi civilians and soldiers
• Gulf War 2 – Iraq (March-May 2003) 172 coalition troops
killed c.200,000 involved – 30,000 Iraqi troops and civilians
killed)
• Afghan Wars – 1979-8 (15,000 Soviet military: 75,000 plus
Mujaheddin; maybe ) 0.6 to 1.0m civilians
- 2001- ?? (3,162 coalition dead; 15,000
civilians; Taliban – unknown)
Why have wars expanded?
• 1. Technology – weapons derived from industry
An army ‘marches on its stomach’ – Napoleon
• 2. Logistics – organisation
• 3. Soldiers – recruitment, conscription
• 4. Money = ever-larger tax revenues
• 2 + 3 + 4 = modern state – prerequisite for mass
warfare (+ ideology esp. Nationalism)
Military revolution - technology
• 1750 – muskets (accuracy 100/150 yards; 5
rounds per minute)
- Cannon – shot and some crude shells =
wars of mobility (cavalry) and close quarters
fighting
- bayonets, swords, daggers
Musket 18th.c; Indian Cannon 1799
Military revolution - technology
Begins to change in early 19th C
• C 1850 – rifle (rifling in barrel) increases
accuracy to 500 yards. Bullet magazines and
rapid re-loading increase frequency of firing.
1870 true rifle.
• 1862 Gatling gun – hand-cranked machine
gun; Maxim gun – automatic – 100s of rounds
per minute
Military revolution - technology
• Second half of nineteenth century
– Dynamite and high explosive (chemical industry)
– Internal combustion engine
– railways
– Steel - e.g. armour plating of ships
Leads to - dreadnoughts at sea
long range artillery (20 miles by WW1)
high-explosive shell. Obliterate anything exposed so
Warfare becomes defensive – trenches (American CW and
Russo-Japanese War as prototypes of First World War)
(mortars 100-300 yds define distance of trenches)
Schlieffen Plan
Russian Attack on East Prussia
The Western Front
Battle of the Somme 1916
Thiepval
Military revolution - technology
• From WW1 to WW2
• Aircraft – airships (derived from hot-air
balloons) – failure cf gas
- biplanes/triplanes – spotting;
bombing; dogfights (NB first
flight – 17 Dec 1903 – 120 ft;
12 seconds (7 mph) alt 10 ft.)
• Tanks (diesel engines)– to break through
trenches
Blitzkrieg (lightning war)
• = blitzkrieg – massive concentration of power
at a small point – punch hole in defence –
pour through using mobile infantry, spread
out and attack from behind
Blitzkrieg – Volkhov Jan 1942
Mass bombing
Guernica 1937 c. 1000;
Coventry 1940 c. 1000 in two raids;
Dresden (Feb 1945) c. 25,000;
Tokyo (1945) 75,000 +
Nuclear bombs - Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Aug
1945) 100,00 each
Guernica 1937
Broadgate, Coventry 16 November
1940
Dresden Feb 1945
Nuclear Weapons
Hiroshima
Nagasaki
Hiroshima August 1945
Genbaku – A bomb Dome Hiroshima
1945
Hiroshima 2006 – Ground Zero
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cIjTodmfk0S
lide 49
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscr
een&v=slaNADrdPMA&NR=1
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKtCVblxDRc
&feature=endscreen&NR=1
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msHJLwYWX
30
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20JCGDwBt7
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Military revolution - technology
1945 a kind of apogee – military development
bifurcates:
1. The hi-tech path continues producing weapons
that, in many cases, can scarcely be used
• World War 2 and beyond
– Rockets – Katiushas; V1; V2 – missiles – ICBMs - mirv
– Jet engines
– Computers and communications (12 signals
exchanged at Trafalgar: 50,000 per hour in Gulf War 1)
– Cruise missiles; Drones
2. ‘Asymmetric warfare’- ‘People’s
War’
• Up to 1945 – size matters – the wealthiest and
best equipped win. But ‘conventional’ war is
increasingly challenged
• Post-1945 in anti-colonial and anti-imperialist
wars small forces have sometimes prevailed over
or counter-balanced the most advanced
equipment
– Guerilla and Revolutionary wars (‘People’s Wars) –
China; Cuba; Latin America; Kenya; Malaya
– Vietnam war – ‘bicycles versus B-52 bombers’
– Current wars in Middle East
NB – other components of military
revolution
• 2. Logistics – organisation
• 3. Soldiers – recruitment, conscription
• 4. Money = ever-larger tax revenues
• 2 + 3 + 4 = modern state – prerequisite for
mass warfare (+ ideology esp. Nationalism)
Logistics and organisation
In a modern army only around ten percent are
frontline troops – the rest organise, plan,
maintain, transport etc.
Requires a major bureaucracy to sustain it with
endless skills, technical, practical and
managerial
Recruitment
In 18th c – volunteers, mercenaries, press-gangs
Napoleon institutes first nationwide
conscription – Levee en masse
- originates in 1793 with CPS as a mass call to
arms and defence (embryonic total war – men
called to fight, women to work in factories –
linked to emergence of citizenship)
- institutionalised from 1797 on
Rise of Modern Nation State
United States Federal, State and Local Government Spending
Fiscal Year 1845
•
•
GDP: $1,842.0 million(1)
•
Amounts in $ million
•
•
•
•
•
•
Fed
Total
Pensions
0
0
Health Care 0
0
Education
0
0
Defense 14.4
•
14.4
Welfare
0
0
Protection 0
0
Transportation
•
General Government
•
Other Spending
•
Interest
•
Balance
•
Total Spending
•
•
1
1
0
0
a
a
0
0
0
0
11.8
11.8
a
a
a
a
27.3
27.3
-7
-7
15.9
15.9
•
Federal Deficit
•
Gross Public Debt
•
Legend:
•
a - actual reported
•
source: usgovernmentspending.com
Gov. Xfer
State
Local
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
a
a
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
a
a
a
a
a
a
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
United States Federal, State and Local Government Spending
Fiscal Year 1900
•
GDP: $20,567.0 million(1)
Amounts in $ million
Fed
Pensions
Health Care
Education
Defense
Gov. Xfer
0
0
0
0
0
0
331.6
331.6
Welfare 0
0
0
Transportation
0
0
General Government 0
0
Other Spending
256.8
256.8
Interest 40.2
a
a
Balance 0
a
a
Total Spending
628.6
628.6
Federal Deficit
-41
-41
Gross Public Debt
2,137.00
2,137.00
Legend:
a
a
0
Protection
a
a
0
State
•
a - actual reported
•
source: usgovernmentspending.com
Total
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
a
a
a
a
a
a
Local
0
0
40.2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
United States Federal, State and Local Government Spending
Fiscal Year 1930
•
GDP: $91,200.0 million(1)
•
Amounts in $ million
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Fed
Total
Pensions
21.2
84.2
Health Care 103.4
516.4
Gov. Xfer
State
i
i
i
i
0
15
i
48
i
0
196
i
217
i
i
i
-11.2
243
i
2,027.00
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
372.9
2,036.10
123.9
568.9
899
2,377.60
i
i
i
i
0
1,465.30
Welfare
3.5
339.5
Protection 26
648
Transportation
i
General Government
i
Other Spending
i
Interest
648.9
1,321.90
Balance
269.6
282.6
Total Spending
3,956.10
Education 22.4
2,281.20
Defense 1,465.30
i
Federal Deficit
Gross Public Debt
i
11,921.70
-874.1
-874.1
16,185.30
33,523.30
-1
i
Local
0
i
0
0
108
i
229
i
88
i
534
i
i
692
i
1,108.00
106
i
339
i
223
i
1,284.00
100
i
573
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
0
-136.9
0
i
3
i
10
i
i
i
i
i
a
i
-177.4
i
1,774.00
i
6,369.00
0
-28.4
0
0
0
2,450.00
0
i
14,888.00
United States Federal, State and Local Government Spending
Fiscal Year 1950
•
•
GDP: $293,700.0 million(1)
•
Amounts in $ million
•
•
•
•
•
Fed
Total
Pensions 994
1,355.00
Health Care 963
2,711.00
Education
a
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Defense 24,239.00
24,239.00
State
a
a
a
a
0
163
a
198
a
0
947
a
801
a
2,839.00
9,647.00
a
a
a
a
1,358.00
a
5,819.00
1,622.00
5,689.00
Protection 88
1,656.00
Transportation
a
General Government
a
Other Spending
a
Interest
4,404.00
4,862.00
Balance
1,410.00
1,357.00
Total Spending
a
a
a
a
a
i
1,122.00
5,066.00
514
1,555.00
6,605.00
12,197.00
a
a
a
a
44,800.00
70,334.00
Federal Deficit
Gross Public Debt
Welfare
a
•
Gov. Xfer
Legend:
-369
0
-1,346.00
Local
0
a
0
0
3,583.00
a
1,830.00
a
283
a
1,285.00
i
a
2,058.00
a
2,315.00
317
a
724
a
2,099.00
a
3,720.00
109
a
349
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
0
-429
0
a
-53
a
0
a
a
a
-2,371.00
a
10,864.00
a
17,041.00
1,273.00
a
a
0
0
256,853.00
a
a
0
5,285.00
1,273.00
280,968.00
0
-227
0
a
18,830.00
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cIjTodmfk0S
lide 49
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscr
een&v=slaNADrdPMA&NR=1
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKtCVblxDRc
&feature=endscreen&NR=1
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msHJLwYWX
30
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20JCGDwBt7
A