The Great Technological War

    War is constantly evolving, from the ancient times with swords and chariots, to the Colonial era with cannons and muskets, it seems that people will constantly try to find new ways to kill each other. It is a sad truth, but just as much as technology helps with our lives it can equal destroy it too. When World War One started it was called the Great War, for it is considered the first globally involved war, with many different countries fighting amongst each other. With more countries involved that meant more technology was being invented for the war, which led to the direct result of the massive causalities and serious cases of Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder (PTSD). The new deadly invention that was created for this war would forever alter the world’s perspective.

The idea of chemical warfare seems monstrous and truly evil, but during World War One it was considered an effected weapons to use overtake the enemy’s position. According to an online article 12 Technological Advancements of World War One, by Eric Sass, the Germans were the first to successfully use it. Sass writes, “The first successful use of chemical weapons occurred on April 22, 1915, near Ypres, when the Germans sprayed chlorine gas from large cylinders towards trenches held by French colonial troops” (Sass). The end results would leave the Germans unsatisfied, for it was not the outcome they had hoped for. Sass states, “The defenders fled, but typically for the First World War, this didn’t yield a decisive result: the Germans were slow to follow up with infantry attacks, the gas dissipated, and the Allied defenses were restored” (Sass). For ineffective weapons, that didn’t fully serve its true purpose, it caused horrific deaths, ending with disastrous results. In the poem Dulce et Decorum Est, the author, Wilfred Owen describes it as a green sea that drowned its victims. He writes “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning/ In all my dreams, before my helpless sight/ He plunged at me, guttering, choking, drowning” (Owen 13-14).  The gases usually had a green hue and the imagery that Wilfred presents, really represents the physiological effects the poisonous gases had on the soldiers involved. It is clear when they saw the “green sea” they scared of being caught in the deadly cloud. At this point the world realized just how atrocious the effects were on chemical warfare and decided to outlaw it after The Great War.

To think that technology used in war has any beneficial factors is a serious misconception. At the end of the day the country who may have created it the invention may feel safer, but opposing country will see the deadly results. World War One was one of the first wars that created a technological race to create more effective and deadly weapons. The outcome would be a complete catastrophe, with millions of lives being lost and millions of others being effective with PTSD. If there is any positive side to the increase of new weapons, it would be that the world can finally see how destructive we are to one another.