Armed conflicts have plagued human societies since ancient times Early warfare included crude weapons and hand-to-hand conflict These battles resulted in injuries for nearly everyone involved This situation began to change as dif ferent types of projectile weapons were invented beginning with stones then spears arrows and poison-tipped darts As civilizations became more advanced weap ons could be constructed of metal using the latest in technology metal blades and suits of armor More sophisticated battle strategies came into use Then the introduction of gunpowder into Europe from China around the year 1300 CE changed warfare dramat ically It became possible to propel a projectile from a significant distance At first the targeting was not very accurate but it was improved with the advent of rifling in the mid-nineteenth century Armies and navies could face one another from farther away and battles could be won and lost more rapidly than in the past By World War I and World War II weapons had grown even more sophisticated Meanwhile trans portation and communication capabilities had also undergone a revolution Troops could call in and 4 INTRODUCTION
Guns were used in 1645 at the Battle of Naseby during the first English Civil War report conditions from the field and commanders could issue instructions from a great distance Codes were devised so that messages even if intercepted would be meaningless to the enemy Bomb-dropping 5
The Evolution of Military Technology planes made it possible to destroy targets without committing troops to the site Today computer-assisted warfare is a reality Unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs also known as drones can be piloted from the other side of the world while carrying an array of bombs missiles and cam eras It is possible to find a target and deploy weap ons without anyone ever being committed to the ground Satellites keep watch from high above with closer inspection being simply a matter of increas ing the magnification on their cameras Hackers can slow down military communications by overloading computer servers but dedicated networks and serv ers are being built with countermeasures in mind As technology advances so too will the military capa bilities available to nations around the globe 6
Chapter 1 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY IN THE PREHISTORIC WORLD The original weapons used in ancient war fare evolved from hunting and cultivating tools developed over two million years ago Stone-tool technologies were used around the world as were tools and weapons made from wood antler and bone But owing to the lack of travel and communi cation between societies people in isolated areas sometimes developed the same or similar tools weapons and military strategies at different times It can be difficult to determine the precise dates of these developments since they occurred before the invention of writing Information is largely deduced from cave drawings and from the scientific dating of tools and bones that archaeologists have uncovered 7
