The Warfare Strategies and Tactics Used Throughout the History Periods

Warfare between humans has existed since we evolved from monkeys 66 million years ago. Since this time, we have gone from using fallen sticks to atomic bombs, from frontal, single-person attacks to million-strong amphibious landings, from hunter-gathering being disrupted for a few days to whole cities being obliterated in the blink of an eye and wide-spread starvation, from people fighting over a fruit tree to fighting because of ideological or political positions. So yes, war has definitely changed throughout the ages.

Weapons began to advance past one to one fights with stones from the Bronze Age (c. 3000 BC – 1200 BC). Bronze, a mixture of tin and copper, provided the ability to create armour which became even stronger in the Iron Age (1200BC – 800AD) when people combined iron and carbon to make super strong steel. Despite its weight of up to almost 40kg, armour reduced the casualty rate on the battlefield by almost 30%, leading to the need to develop weapons to pierce it. The long bow achieved this and despite being almost 6 feet tall, it could punch through chain mail with a force of between 400-490N from 150-200 meters. Weapons to attack strongholds such as castles or fortified cities also developed, trebuchets and catapults eventually replaced by cannon which fired iron balls (round shot). Soon, giant 16-inch siege mortars explosive shells shattered castle walls and spelled the end of castle warfare. Such developments also applied to guns, and by the 16th century, flint-lock pistols and muskets had become common place. With a superior range to swords, spears and bows and arrows, guns could kill a person more easily, even if they were very temperamental, slow to load and liable to explode in the user’s hands. In the 18th century, bullets and barrel rifling made steel armour useless. The massive amount of people involved in fighting and supporting WW1 saw the need to achieve mass production and blacksmiths were replaced by factories churning out rifles and machine guns. On top of this, another weapon came in: gas. Whether chlorine, phosgene, or mustard gas, all had the same aim of poisoning the enemy. The danger of the wind blowing the poison back onto its launcher, as occurred with the British at Loos in September 1915, was overcome by the Germans in April 1915 who developed pressurised canisters which only released gas when they hit the ground. However, the greatest change in weapons, due to its ability to devastate large areas in one hit, is the development of the atomic bomb in the 1940s. This ushered in the Atomic Era which has lead today to weapons that can be launched remotely from great distances to inflict massive damage. Clearly, weapons of war have changed significantly over time.

In warfare, tactics and weapons go hand-in-hand. As the weapons evolve and develop, the tactics also evolve. Just because a country has superior weapons doesn’t mean they are guaranteed victory if they don’t use them correctly. During the Bronze Age and the Iron Age the common battle tactic was to form your army into a “phalanx”. This formation consisted of people placing their shield in front of them, then levelling spears through the gaps. This tactic worked very well in open terrain battles, such as the Battle of Marathon, when Greek defenders utterly decimated the Persian invaders. The next tactical advancement was made in the Middle Ages when castles became more common. The attackers would use siege warfare, where they would surround the castle and cut off any external sources of food or water. If a soldier died, the attackers would launch the bodies over the castle walls, spreading disease and making life very hard for the defenders. A siege could last up to 6 months. With the advent of guns, tactics changed again, and went back to the open field combat of the Iron Age. This was due to guns being relatively inaccurate, and hard to aim. The next major tactical advancement took place in WWI, when the Allies and the Axis powers dug trenches to protect their troops. Trenches offered great protection as your enemy couldn’t shoot you as you are below the ground. A line of trenches also offered a secure way of transporting supplies to your troops. Trench warfare had its drawbacks, as attacks from trench to trench usually ended in disaster for the attacking force. Thirty years later at the start of WWII, the next tactical advancement was made, with the invention of blitzkrieg by the Germans. This tactic used a rapid armoured thrust backed up by aircraft, followed by an infantry charge to surprise the enemy and throw their forces into disarray. The most notable use of this tactic was in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Blitzkrieg works so well because you gain the element of surprise, and because you are advancing so fast, you can take control of a country before their military can fully mobilise. The disadvantage to this is that the rapid advance makes it very hard to maintain supplies to your military and can make the blitzkrieg stall, making your army vulnerable to counter-attack. The next advancement came about in the Cold War with the US and Russia both trying to intimidate the other with the power of their nukes. Intimidation works by evoking a sense of fear and a “hey, if we hit him he will hit us back harder” feeling. The tactic after this was an innovation of intimidation, called by the acronym MAD, meaning Mutually Assured Destruction. This tactic uses an agreement between all countries that if one of them nukes another, that country will nuke them back. This is the ultimate deterrent, because as humans we want to live on as a species. MAD will basically end the world if it is activated.

The impact warfare has on people, specifically civilians, has changed in the sense of the long-term consequences, but the short term consequences have stayed relatively the same. In the Bronze Age and most of the Iron Age during a time of warfare, the people not fighting were tending the farms and out looking for food to feed the soldiers. Unless a force was fighting for control offer a city/village, then this held true. If a force was fighting over a village/city then all of the occupants would be involved in keeping the attackers out. The next main change came about with the use of catapults and siege tactics, occurring in the medieval period. A castle was not just a military instillation, but it was also a self-contained city of sorts. When a force lay siege to a castle, everyone starved, unless there was enough food stockpiled to last a defender the extent of the siege. Starvation crushed the morale of the defenders, leaving them unwilling to fight after being besieged for over 6 months. The next major change to the impact on the civilian population happened with WWI starting. WWI was an industrialised war, and with all the men out fighting, it was up to the remaining civilians to work inside the factories. Food was rationed during this time, and quite a notable example of this was the “bread order”, when, due to diminishing flour imports, it became illegal to sell bread that was cooked less than 12 hours beforehand. This lead to a 5% drop in bread consumption. Industrialised warfare was carried on into WWII when the impacts of industrialised warfare were felt once again. Food was rationed again, and women once more went to work in the factories. The difference this time was that Germany used submarines to cut the British sea-born supply lines, and deprived it of much-needed resources like food and water. During this time, “stamp books” (or “ration books”) became a thing as a way of keeping track of how much food you were allowed. Another thing that happened was the Blitz, when German bombers would strike at London almost every night. Amazingly, this form of siege warfare did not break the morale of the British, but instead made them more determined to win. Another thing linked to this was the fire bombing campaign the allies implemented. This utterly devastated most of Germany’s cities, and caused widespread death and starvation as a result. The most well-known example of this campaign was the destruction of Dresden, where the allies utterly obliterated the city, and killed 25,000 people. It is known today as “the raid too far”. Another example from WWII was the bombing of Hiroshima, where the first atomic bomb was used. This bomb killed nearly 120,000 people and rendered the area uninhabitable for the next 20 years. The next war that had a profound impact on people was the Vietnam war where the US used Agent Orange and napalm. Agent orange is a defoliant, stripping the leaves off trees and plants. Over 49 million litres of this was dropped during the war, and it is a potent carcinogen, causing birth defects, and has had a major impact on the health of Vietnamese babies. Napalm is a thermal weapon. A jelly-like substance, formed by combining Peterson with gelatine, it can burn at almost 1200 degrees C, and can easily devastate a forest/ village. This latter substance was used once more in the Gulf War of the 1990s along with depleted uranium bullets, also responsible for babies being born with birth defects today. So yes, the impacts that warfare has on people has definitely changed and evolves with the development of new weapons and tactics.

Some of the reasons for war have changed over time, while some haven’t. The most basic reason for war is resources. Humans will fight over resources like oil and iron, but we would also fight over ideologies like capitalism or communism. Reasons like these are entirely exclusive to humans. Two wars that were focused on resources were the Battle of Plassey (June 1757), and the Finnish-Soviet war (November 1930 – March 1940). In the Battle of Plassey, the British secured British-controlled India’s trade exports and commodities (opium, indigo, sugar and raw cotton) by defeating Nawab of Bengal, and the Finnish-Soviet War was over nickel, an essential element used in the building of many different alloys like stainless steel. These wars were all about who-owns-what, whereas the most notable example of ideological conflict was the Cold War. This was was between the US and Russia because the US believes in capitalism and the USSR believed in communism. This war sparked many different proxy wars (wars where two sides don’t engage each-other directly, but instead back opposing sides of another countries’ war) like the Korean War, where the USSR backed North Korea, and the US backed South Korea. Another proxy war the US and the USSR engaged in was the Vietnam War, with the US, again, backed the democratic south, while the USSR backed the communist north. So I would say that this shows that the reasons for warfare have developed as time went on.

In conclusion, it is clear the 4 main factors of warfare have changed over time. As weapons evolved becoming more sophisticated and more powerful, the tactics used in battles also changed. Fighting went from 1-on-1 to armies on battlefields to whole areas and cities being laid to waste. As a result of that, the impact on the civilian population grew with the advancements, where the damage inflicted went from being very local to very widespread, and in addition to that, the affects could be felt for generations. A driver for these types of conflicts is resources, however, in modern times, it is clear that ideology has become an additional aspect. Clearly, this shows warfare has changed over time.