Page 185 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

1962 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Neither ridiculous shriekings for revenge by French chauvinists, nor the Englishmen’s
gnashing of teeth, nor the wild gestures of the Slavs will turn us from our aim of
protecting and extending German influence all the world over. • Anonymous

keep European armament well behind that of the United supply running between the United States and Britain/
States in the age of information warfare. Soviet-style France in World War I and between the United States and
mid-twentieth-century weaponry from Europe like the Britain/Soviet Union in World War II.The largest cross-
(in)famous Kalashnikov or the Scud missiles (the latter ing of armies and supplies ever took place on D-Day
with West German “improvements”) still play a major role (6 June 1944), when the Allied forces crossed the Chan-
in conflicts all over the world—except in Europe. nel from Britain to France to liberate Europe from Nazi
rule. During the Cold War nuclear-powered and nuclear-
Naval Armaments armed submarines became the last resort in any strategy
The development of weaponry was not limited to land of deterrence. In the “War on Terror” Europe has to
and air: Some European nations (first Spain and Portu- guard with its navies the Bosporus and the Strait of
gal, later Britain, France, and the Netherlands) relied Gibraltar; European navies also participate in guard mis-
heavily on navies for European dominance and for con- sions in African and Asian waters.
quest and control of their interests and colonies outside
Europe. The process of developing warships was quite Price of Warfare
comparable to the development of armaments on land Modern Europe has faced on at least four occasions a
with regard to the introduction of powder and canons. complete destruction of large parts of its territory: during
Napoleon was probably not so much halted at Waterloo the Thirty Years War, during the wars of the French Rev-
(1815) but at Trafalgar when he lost the naval capability olution and the Napoleonic Wars, and during both world
to defeat Britain (1805). During the second half of the wars. The human loss of those conflicts was exorbitant;
nineteenth century, metal replaced wood as the basic con- to give only the most impressive and depressing figures
struction material for warships.Although the first serious of World War II: over 20 million dead in the Soviet
submarines were built in the nineteenth century, it took Union alone (more than a third of that number being
World War I and the German U-boats to give the sub- civilians) and well over 50 million dead worldwide. (The
marine a decisive role in warfare.And what is sometimes Holocaust as the industrialized mass killing of civilians
underestimated is the impor-
tance of the development of
naval tactics in both world
wars against assaults by sub-
marines. The intervention of
the United States in both
world wars was due in part to
the Allied capabilities to
control—mostly by superiority
in production against loss in
combat—the sea against Ger-
man submarine attacks. It was
essential to keep the logistic

A pre-World War I
German howitzer
and shield.