Lecture #8 - A Technology Revolution 1865 – 1914
This period in time saw the greatest advances in technology the world had ever experienced. These advances applied in nearly every field and are the basis for our modern world. We shall discuss many of these advances and how they related to the colonial wars of the period.
Firearms technology videos that should be viewed are the videos titled Breechloader 1860-1890,
Smokeless Powder and Bolt Action Rifle. When you view the above videos, you will gain an understanding of today’s modern firearms because the capability of modern firearms reached its pinnacle of development with the 1903-A3 US Springfield rifle. All modern firearms use the same basic technology and are only variations on the original concept. Later developments will be the machine gun and the assault rifle but they will still use the basic cartridge developed during this period. Note carefully the range, rate of fire and terminal effect of these weapons because it will be essential in understanding how land warfare developed in the 20 th
Century.
Warfare at Sea – By 1900 , t he technology revolution had produced an all steel warship with multiple revolving turrets for large naval rifles that were driven by reciprocating engines that burned coal. These ships became known as battleships and were the basis for every large navy. Every industrialized nation
(England, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Japan and the US) had a battleship fleet and a building program to incorporate new designs. When Britain launched HMS Dreadnought in 1906, the event instantly rendered all other capital ships in the world obsolete. Dreadnought was equipped with oil-fired steam turbines for superior speed and armed with multiple long-range 12 inch rifles that were placed in fully revolving turrets.
Fire direction and control of these rifles was centralized and directed over the horizon by large optical range finders placed high up on a tripod mast. Not only was Dreadnought heavily armed, she was heavily armored above and below the waterline to withstand enemy battleship fire and the explosion of Whitehead torpedoes.

The Whitehead torpedo was developed from a device in the American Civil War that was really a mine into a device that was launched from a special boat (a torpedo boat). It traveled under the surface for long ranges to deliver a nitroglycerine charge weighing several hundred pounds against the side of an enemy ship. The
Whitehead torpedo was propelled by steam generated by a small alcohol-fired boiler that fed a turbine. It was later installed on other types of surface ships but saw its greatest use aboard the newly developed submarine.
Submarines were made possible by the newly invented diesel engine and the rapidly developing use of electricity in generators and motors. Although early submarines bore little resemblance to the technological miracles of today, they still had many of the same basic components we are familiar with and would become a pivotal weapon in both world wars.
The launching of HMS Dreadnought started a naval arms race that would only end in World War I. Great
Britain and Germany would emerge as owners of the two largest fleets with the US a distant third. Arms technology coincided with a naval strategy revolution based on the writings of the US Admiral Alfred
Thayer Mahan, the author of “The Influence of Sea Power on History”. Mahan theorized that all great nations based their wealth and status on overseas commerce and insured that their commerce was protected by battle fleets. This theory resonated well because Great Britain was at its zenith and had built their empire on just those elements. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and President Theodore Roosevelt were advocates of
Mahan’s theories. The Kaiser led Germany into a naval arms race that would later prove futile and
Roosevelt would base the strategic security of the United States on his interpretation of Mahan.
What Mahan and Roosevelt understood is that in the late 1800s, the United States was already the dominant industrial power in the world. Because the US is situated between two oceans with a great many natural deep-water ports and significant inland waterways, she also had the potential to be the greatest nation in the world. The American people however, were very reluctant to assume that role and the US Navy was chronically under-funded with only enough ships to comprise a fleet in one ocean. To combat that problem,
Roosevelt initiated the Panama Canal project so that warships could be shifted from one ocean to the other.
Not until World War II did the US Navy become a true Two Ocean Navy with worldwide capabilities.
Colonial Wars – This was the age of colonies….foreign nations occupied by one or the other industrial powers that provided raw materials for the occupiers and markets for goods manufactured and shipped back to the colony. Occupying colonies against the will of the inhabitants often led to war with the inhabitants of the colony who took offense to being essentially enslaved. The Spanish American War for the US led to such a confrontation in the Philippines and led the US Army into the first counter-insurgency in modern times. The industrial powers of Europe all fought on the continent of Africa with Britain being the most heavily engaged in the Boer Wars in South Africa. All the major industrial powers including the US occupied portions of China which led to the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.
In addition, the first modern war between industrial powers was the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 which showed the world that the nation of Japan had become a player. President Roosevelt’s strategy of extending
American influence to the far side of the Pacific Ocean and making the Pacific an American lake was greatly enabled by his successful mediation of that war, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Other Developments if listed would be extensive. Some of the better known are the telephone, gasoline engine, airplane, and electric light. Germany developed the forerunner of the modern chemical industry. In
1897, the Bayer Company patented aspirin, still the most widely used medication in the world. All would contribute to the greatest conflict the world had ever seen, the 1 st
World War.