But technology is becoming more expensive all the time, both absolutely and in comparison with manpower this, indeed, is one reason why the number of the most powerful weapon systems in particular has been going down from 1945 on. Of course we have far more, and better, technology than our ancestors did. The same is true of horses, chariots, mechanical artillery, and gunpowder. Technology also helped determine which kind of formations were most suitable for fighting which enemies in what kind of terrain, under what kind of circumstances, and so on. Other technologies determined how far different units comprising a single force could get away from each other without losing touch thus playing a critical role in strategy.

They determined, for example, whether formations would be close or open, deep or shallow, rigid or lose. Flint-made daggers and spears, and leather or wickerwork shields, did quite as much to shape the tactics adopted by ancient societies as horses did during the middle ages and as tanks, aircraft, and various combat ships do today. However, almost certainly there would have been no real war.įrom the first day that technology was introduced to war, it has helped shape the latter. Some fights might even have been motivated by the sheer fun of taking on an enemy and overcoming him.

There would no doubt have been fights over living space, access to resources such as food water, females, and precedence. Under such circumstances early human warfare might perhaps have resembled the kind of strife we witness among chimpanzees. He can hit-a purpose for which his arms are much better suited than those of any other animal-and bite, but he can hardly kill he can choke, but doing so takes time, and few people are so strong that they could not be overpowered by a few others. After all, without technology, if only in the form of sticks and stones, man’s ability to kill his own kind is extremely limited. Indeed, without technology, there would probably have been no war.

For the conference report, videotapes, and other papers, see War and technology have always been linked very closely. Core support for the History Institute is provided by The Annenberg Foundation support for this weekend conference was provided by W. This essay is based on his address at FPRI’s History Institute for Teachers, “Teaching Military History: Why and How,” held at the First Division Museum in Wheaton, IL and co-sponsored by the Cantigny First Division Foundation. [Martin van Creveld is Professor, Institute of Arts and Letters, Hebrew University and author of Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton (Cambridge, 2004).

Martin van creveld fighting power