Warfare Evolution

War is a never ending, yet historical event. It is supposed to be used to solve conflicts. It is supposed to determine which nation will be considered the more superior nation and to determine which nation would be considered to be the weakest. Although war is supposed to be used to solve conflicts, often times instead of solving conflicts it either makes matters worse or creates new problems. According to the Merriam Webster’s dictionary, war is defined as, “a state or period of fighting between countries or groups. It is also defined as an organized effort by a government or other large organization to stop or defeat something that is viewed as dangerous or bad (War, 2016).” War consists of a lot of violence, and unfortunately we as a society, think that is the best way to get our point across and the best way to solve problems. It is a situation that affects so many people. Not just those involved in the actual fighting in the war, but their families, their friends, and each country included in the war. When we send soldiers in to fight a battle, a lot of them will not make it back home to see their loved ones again. They may not even understand or agree with the reason behind the war. They just know they were called to serve their country and that’s what they will do. Based on the history of the United States of America, we have been at war for about 90% of the time since 1776. Some of the wars that have been instrumental within our history and that I will be discussing are World War 1, Battle of the Bull Run and Crusade. The process of warfare throughout the ages of time has evolved substantially; and these changes that have been implemented have drastically changed the way that we as a society view war and all that it entails.
Let me say that since I have been a part of two wars I can say there are changes that have and will effect warfare. Crusades with chainmail and swords were the way of war in the middle ages. Civil War was muskets and on line. World War was with automatic weapons, airplanes and trench warfare. Now we have so much more advancements in weaponry. Look how advanced our stealth fighters & bombers, submachine guns, snipers and our favorite weapon SEALS & Special Forces personnel. Not including how we can launch anything from our ships out to sea and the long range weapons that we can launch from here at home. This is the perfect describes of a faceless war, because it allow us to fight without putting our troops in harm’s way or even on land.
If you compare the war from the ages you can see the changes. Horseback to tanks to airplanes to drones is how wars have changed. War went from face to face to drones and warships. Think of how land wars used to be. Think of how your sword would have to be your instrument of death. Civil War when you had to stand in front of possibility your family and fire that shot. Back then it was head to head combat, and these usually lead to more casualties, you had people literally lining up facing each other. Unfortunately this is how many battles were fought and many lives were lost, if you think those people would have thought we would be fighting wars as we do today they would have never believed you, yes they had cannons and artillery but it is nothing in comparison to what we have in modern times where you can fire artillery miles away without ever seeing the battle field.
The people of Europe experienced a massive wave of religious enthusiasm. The outlet for this surge of religious enthusiasm ended up being a massive movement called “The Crusades.” The Crusades were essentially a war against the unbelievers in an attempt to convert them. Religious enthusiasm was not the only incentive behind The Crusades (Crusades, 2016). If the people went and fought in The Crusades, they were granted forgiveness from all of their sins. The Crusade that started them off was the “Peasant’s Crusade” also known as the “Crusade of the Poor (Crusades, 2016).” Pope Urban II’s speech started off this crusade, talking about the need to reclaim the Holy City and take revenge on the murderers of Christ, lighting a fire underneath the people. There was an overwhelming response, especially among the peasants earning the crusade its name. Though some of the motives behind the Peasant’s Crusade may have been misguided, it did help spark the other crusades. The First Crusade proved to be more successful and was compromised of knights recruited by Pope Urban II from the warrior class in Western Europe and especially France (Crusades, 2016).
The first Crusade took place under the command of Pope Urban II. It ended when the Mamelukes, which were Muslim slave soldiers, conquered what we know now as Israel (Crusades, 2016). What brought about the widespread conflicts were two radically different cultures. Muslims and Christians have lived in peacefully for a number of years but there are the times when it was all out war. The Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, had confusing and mixed messages about Christians. The degree to which these misunderstood believes led to the bloody Crusades is difficult to determine. As for European Christians, they did not understand that Muslims considered themselves to be part of the same covenant they enjoyed with their God. Most European Christians thought Muslims were pagans, when in fact, like Christians, Muslims were monotheistic and considered themselves to be intimately connected between Judaism and Christianity. In 1095, Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to holy places in and near Jerusalem (Crusades, 2016). When Jerusalem fell in 1099, crusaders massacred Jews, Christians and Muslims alike (Crusades, 2016). The armies of the Christian Crusades were only able to hold Jerusalem for about 90 years.
Something that most people don’t think about today is the Crusade. The crusade was a battle for the holy land, which was against Muslims. Back in the 11th century Christians were in a fight to slow the growth of Islam and take over the Mediterranean (Crusades, 2016). This war was a staple in our history. It was an attack against religion which is often thought of as an explainable reason to go to war. “The Crusades constitute a controversial chapter in the history of Christianity, and their excesses have been the subject of centuries of historiography. The Crusades also played an integral role in the expansion of medieval Europe (Crusades, 2016).”
The Catholic Church attacked the Holy Land in 1095 and relations between Christians and Muslims have been poisoned ever since. By 750 AD, this Muslim empire replaced the Roman Empire as the dominant power in this region of the world (Crusades, 2016). But what is less well-know is how the Muslims embraced the Greco-Roman culture they encountered. For two hundred years, Christian soldiers voyaged eastward and into Spain, ostensibly attempting to free these areas from Muslim control, but in reality, opening Christian Europe to Muslim works. After Muslim preservation, the works described above were translated from Arabic into the dominant European language, now Latin. The crusades stopped the advance of Islam for several hundred years. That gave Europe the breathing space to start the Renaissance. This is the point where Islam was made to be the bad religion.
Even though the Crusades were not successful in their original movement, they did manage to impact the economy and the civilization as a whole. The crusades effect on the economy was highly noticeable when it came to the decrease in the power that the church had against economy and how with that decrease the lower class citizens were able to increase their power. They were able to profit from their own goods since their products were in a higher demand than they were when they were under the control of the church. They also helped eliminate young warriors that would have ended up fighting each other. Unfortunately, they did massacre the Jewish people and failed in their original movement. Their short term effects were not as obvious or as great as the far-reaching effects of The Crusades. Architecturally, castles were built for fortification and many of them are still standing today, giving us insight to what life was like back then. Since The Crusades spread people to new areas, cultures, ideas and knowledge spread with them. Geographic knowledge was spread as well as medical knowledge and warfare skills. The Crusades provided an outlet for the religious movement and enthusiasm and helped spread the cultures and ideas through the Crusades. During that time, they did not appear to be a huge success but later on, and even today, it is evident that they impacted society. Originally, the motives were pure, though carried out in the wrong way, but over time the motives became corrupted and lead to the downfall and overall short term failure of The Crusades.
The Battle of Bull Run was first major battle of the American Civil War. This battle wasn’t thought to be a major fight at the time so people brought their families and some even had dates (Davis, 1981). The name of the battle was initially called the First Manassas by the confederate troops and it was also the location of the battle. This battle took place in 1861 because the Confederates did not want President Lincoln to tell them what they could and couldn’t do when it came to slaves (Davis, 1981). The outcome of this battle was that the Union lost a very embarrassing battle and it began the uprising revolt of freeing slaves.
The start of the civil was April 12, 1861 (Longacre, 2014). The southern states had seceded and they were able to capture Fort Sumter. After this act of aggression the union and confederate began preparing for war by raising armies. On July 21, 1861, two armies, one confederate and the other Union, prepared for the first major land battle of the Civil War (Bull Run, 1861). In 1861 Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President. The first Battle of Bull Run took place near Manassas Junction, Virginia, an important railroad junction twenty five miles west of Washington, D.C. Bull Run Creek twisted and turned through Manassas Junction (Bull Run, 1861). In July 1861, two armies faced each other in Northern Virginia. General Irvin McDowell, commander of the Union Army of the Potomac had 31,000 men in Washington. General Beauergard of the Confederate Army had twenty thousand troops camped around Manassas Junction (Longacre, 2014).
The first battle of the Civil War was a victory for the Confederate forces. Although it was considered to be a victory for the confederates, both sides received heavy casualties. There were about five thousand men that died from both sides. From those five thousand deaths, three thousand of them were Union soldiers (Bull Run, 1861). The Union leader General Irvin McDowell would receive the majority of the blame for the defeat and would eventually be replaced as leader of the Union army with a man named Major General George B. McClellan (Bull Run, 1861). This was the first major land battle of the Civil War. It was also the battle that made the war become real in the eyes of the north. Before the First Battle of Bull Run, many in the north and the south had romanticized the war. However, with the deaths of so many troops and civilians, the reality of war was brought home. President Lincoln signed a bill allowing for the enlistment of an additional five hundred thousand men, a prelude to the casualties to come (Biography).
In today’s society, we couldn’t imagine any large scale military action taking place without having tanks involved; but in World War One, tanks were a new thing and many people had not heard of them. The tanks started off as just tractors used to tow artillery pieces. The tanks then, progressively evolved into the idea of the tank that we know of today. During World War one, the Americans did not have any of their own tanks. The only countries that designed any tanks to fight with were the French, British and the Germans. “When the United States army reached Europe, they had no American made tanks. The commanding general of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), John Pershing witnessed a successful tank assault at Cambria, and was impressed with its potential (Biography).” Once John Pershing saw this successful attack, he made sure that the Americans had tanks as well. The entire tank was mounted on a rocking device used to simulate movement over rough terrain while a trainee fired at a fixed target. By September 1918, they were ready for battle. The American tank crews were now operating the light (8 tons) French Renaults with a 2 man crew and a small number of the British Mark V. Three tank brigades were organized (Biography).
The idea for the tank came from studying farm equipment with caterpillar tracks. It was nicknamed a tank as it looked like a metal water carrier. The first tank that was developed in 1915 weighed in at 16 tons, length of 8 meters and a top traveling speed of 3.2 kmh (Biography). Tanks were a very important part of the war. There were 10 different versions made with speeds going up to 13kmh. In November, 1917, all 474 tanks of the British Tank Corps fought at the Battle of Cambrai (Biography). The French and the US armies were impressed and developed their own tanks. While tanks were very unreliable it helped with the horrors of trench warfare. The first American-built tank was called the “America”. It was steam driven and weighed 45 tons.
Now that we have looked at a few battles thru the ages think of what we see daily. War is always on television. Acts of terrorism is a common thing. War is faceless now. There are drones and jets in the air with nothing but airstrikes. We don’t see who we are killing anymore. We are bombing multiple countries right now as we speak. Being in America we tend to not think about the nameless people that have been affected by this war and we should. The people we are killing are often times not even involved in the war. For instance, our society has classified all Middle Eastern Muslim people and those that wear a hijab headwear, as terrorists and has taught us to fear them as well. But do you know that majority of the violence that happens within the United States is done by white American males. But since this is not what society wants us to believe, they try to cover it up and blame a whole different nation of people for all of the violence our country sustains.
Think about how war is reported about today. It is streamed all day on new channels and on the internet. Look at how this little act of reporting news has changed. It changes how people look at other individuals, other countries and how they start to think overall. Think about how long it took to report back news of a battle in the Middle Ages. It would have taken weeks if not months to report about battles. Civil war reports could be days or weeks depending on where it was going. World War 1 was down to days with cars and planes. In today’s society, now we are able to report in live feed. We have the ability to have broadcasts with the service men and women reporting live as they are engaging in battle. How ironic is that. They are on the first line fighting for our country and these reports on their own can be a test. Sometimes it can be detrimental to the soldiers and their safety because the news broadcasts too much sometimes. News now is really just the same thing over and over on multiply channels and newspapers. It even helps the other countries because if for some reason the opposing country gets their hands on a person from our country they are able to live feed the torture and massacre of the individuals live on television and on the internet.
When it comes to war, everyone wants to believe that the cause they are fighting for is the correct cause and no other cause matters. They believe everyone should back them up and feel the way they do. They believe that their way of thinking is the only way of thinking and their way of settling conflict is the correct and only way to solve conflict. As the examples in this essay demonstrate, war is an extremely serious matter. The Battle of Bull Run, World War 1, and the Crusades were wars that changed society all together. Without these three wars, the world as we know it would be a lot different. It would be nice to say that this was the last of the wars our nation had to endure, but that is not the case. There will always be a reason that countries and people go to war. There are territories to be fought over, wars on terrorism to be fought, water sources to be fought over. There are wars against minimizing weapons of mass destruction that other countries have, and although we try not to admit it, religion will often play a factor as well. When it comes to war there are always a massive number of casualties, unanswered questions, and even sometimes the initial reason for going to war in the first place is often forgotten. When war goes on for months and even years for that matter, we have to ask ourselves if the fight is even worth it. When thousands upon thousands of innocent soldiers and people are being killed it makes you think that what we are fighting for no longer matters because now we have changed the lives of so many people in the matter of just an instance. Someone has lost their mother, their father, their sister, brother, cousin, uncle, son, daughter, or spouse. It changes the lives of everyone and divides the country more than it already is. It can often cause people within their own country start to resent their own country and will make them feel as if those in charge of their nation no longer care about them. It will make them hesitant to support their own country and try their best to find a different way to solve problems. It would be nice to say that hopefully one day we will be able to resolve conflict without having to sacrifice the lives of so many people but I know unfortunately that will never happen. The process of warfare throughout the ages of time has evolved substantially; and these changes that have been implemented have drastically changed the way that we as a society view war and all that it entails.

References
Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Official Website of General George S. Patton, Jr: http://www.generalpatton.com/
Bull Run. (1861, July 21). Retrieved from Civil War Trust: http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/bullrun.html?tab=facts
Crusades. (2016). Retrieved from Encyclopaedia Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/event/Crusades
Davis, W. (1981). Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War. LSU Press.
Longacre, E. (2014). The Early Morning of War: Bull Run, 1861. University of Oklahoma Press.
War. (2016, April 24). Retrieved from Meriam-Webster: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/war