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ashton anderson what role did technology play in the devastation of world war i 10/27/11 technology was important and still is today the more advanced your technology the better your advantage or upper-hand in war you need financing so your able to improve your technology and then the technology produces can also help you conduct war by having the ability to industrialize the economy during wwi also it can keep your army safer from enemy threats at sea on the ground or in the air there were many technological advancement on the battlefield of land air and water the government used new technology to industrialize the mass production of weapons the weapons became smaller so shifting the focus of command from the 100 more man company to the 10 or more man squad had with armored cars the first sub-machine guns and automatic rifles that could be carried and used by one man early tanks were fitted with maxim type guns or lewis guns armor plating and their caterpillar tracks were configured to allow crossing of an 8-foot-wide trench but they were slow the men could run and often walk faster and railway was a big part of the war to move troops and move new technology supply faster and more efficient many of this new technology helped on the battle fields of trench warfare in wwi during the wwi trench warfare was what we mostly see going on in the battles trench warfare s innovations included bolt-action infantry rifles rifled artillery and hydraulic recoil mechanisms zigzag trenches and machine guns and their application had the effect of making it difficult or nearly impossible to cross defended ground trench warfare led to the development of the concrete pill box which is a hardened blockhouse that could be used to deliver machine gun fire they could be placed across a

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p. 2

ashton anderson 10/27/11 battlefield with interlocking fields of fire and attacking an entrenched enemy it was so difficult to push back the enemy because of this one of the major efforts during the war was tunneling underneath enemy lines once enemy positions were undermined huge amounts of explosives would be planted and detonated for the overland charge sensitive listening devices that could detect the sounds of digging was crucial technology to the defense against the underground tunneling these are someways that they conducted war at the time the conduction of war during wwi drastically changed by having smaller squadrons this gives them the ability to attack from different angles and made them more agile on the battle field because technology help lighten things up like there guns and supplies they became closer attacked to the men in the squadron air crafts during wwi were first just used to scout out the surrounding and the battle field but they were soon equipped with machine guns and they redesigned the planes to improve their agility considerable also technology was allowed them to make four-engine heavy bombers shooting planes from the sky was challenging many methods were used to try and destroy planes from the ground some people used rifles but they didn t work very well antiaircraft artillery was the main weapon against planes these heavy guns set atop a pierce-arrow five-ton armored lorry chassis they could fire four rounds a minute at a range of 3,000 yards most of the time they were placed in groups to increase their effectiveness by june 1916 britain had 271 guns and by 1918 they had 349 for the navy the mechanical techniques improved which enable them to produce larger ships with larger guns and heavier armor submarines would surface and run their diesel engines and charge the batteries which powered the submarine underneath the depths.

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p. 3

ashton anderson 10/27/11 technology is the key to our future but could also me how we alimentally end up destroying ourselves in the time of war you don t want top secret technology to get into the wrong hands as long as we keep ahead technology will help carry us by keeping use safe and helping industrialize use so that we may have a healthy economy.

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p. 4

ashton anderson 10/27/11 how does the us government go about paying for the war and why would they do it this way when we talk about how wwi it didn t just cost many lives of united states soldier but it also took financing also we wouldn t have had the financing if it wasn t for loyalty that americans had for our country the government got there financing from liberty bond to help them in conducting war and they also had a total of three drafts which also contributed greatly to our efforts towards wwi also the twea acts restricted trade with enemy countries during the war and other treats to conducting war the moat important was the financing would give the government the ability to conduct war by the different acts passed such as the twea espionage sedition and revenue acts also liberty bonds or also called war bonds contributed greatly towards the war efforts the government needed to raise money for wwi some ways they went upon doing this was liberty bonds liberty bonds also called war bonds were issued by the government in 1917 and 1918 they raised a total of $21.5 billion from the bonds to put towards wwi efforts subscribing to the bonds soon became a symbol of patriotic duty in the united states drafts were a big contribution to the war bring in a total of 24.3 million americans that included all ages 21-30 in a total of three drafts in 1917 and 1918 in all that was about quarter of the u.s population at that time out of the 24.3 million about 4.3 million were mobilized another 350 thousand were casualties of which about 126 thousand were killed after the draft there was not enough men to run the country so we start to see women take over jobs of the men in assembly lines of factories producing tanks trucks and munitions during wwi even african american women were employed as elevator operators and cafeteria waitresses many women also joined the american red cross to help the soldiers they didn t protest against the draft.

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p. 5

ashton anderson 10/27/11 during wwi the u.s exports to europe rose from $1.479 billion dollars in 1913 to a astounding $4.062 billion in 1917 if the united states had stayed out of the war and the result would have been that all trading with europe was cut off the trading with the enemy act also known as twea is a united states federal law enabled in 1917 to restrict trade with hostile countries with the u.s it gives the president the power to oversee or restrict any and all trade between the u.s and its enemies in times of war right after entering wwi the espionage act of 1917 was passed on june 15 1917 it was made to try to prevent any secrets be revealed to the enemy which it was punishable by death the sedition act of 1918 was passed on may 16 1918 this act was an amendment to the espionage act it was made to forbid americans to use disloyal profane scurrilous or abusive language towards the u.s government its flag or armed forces during war it gave the postmaster general the ability to discard mail to the political parties of government policy during wartime the revenue act of 1916 and its companion measures the war revenue acts of 1917 and 1918 differed in detail but not in philosophy they imposed more steeply graduated income taxes thus pursuing a redistributive soak-the-rich policy personal exemptions to individual income taxes were reduced to $1,000 for a single person and $2,000 for a married couple above which a standard tax was imposed 2 percent in 1917 and 12 percent in 1918 to these were added surtaxes ranging from 1 percent for incomes above $5,000 to 65 percent for incomes above $1,000,000 in addition businesses were required to pay excess profits taxes on net income exceeding 7 to 9 percent of invested capital as measured during a three-year prewar period.

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p. 6

ashton anderson 10/27/11 these rates were graduated from 20 to 60 percent in 1917 reaching a theoretical cap of 80 percent in 1918 taxes on excess corporate profits accounted for more than half of all monies collected in 1918 between individual and corporate taxes the wilson administration was successful in obtaining financial support for the war from america s most affluent families the richest 22 percent of u.s taxpayers contributed 96 percent of all individual tax receipts in 1918 such threats to conducting wwi was need for natural resources there was a shortage coal that hit in december of 1917 which forced factories shut down one day a week to save there energy source part of this shortage was that there were horrible traffic jams in the rail yards of the east coast with the 44,000 freight and coal cars also two hundred ships were waiting in new york harbor for cargo that was delayed by the mess by march 1918 the government took control over this crisis all the different acts and liberty bonds contributed greatly these gave us the ability to conduct war and industrialize our economy thanks to our soldiers and the loyal americans helped the u.s finance the war efforts.

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