CG3

The [|Technological advancements] made during World War One greatly changed the way the war played out. Before World War One, most fighting was done in line by line shooting and then reloading and so forth and so on, but World War One used new weapons that changed the way war is fought today. For Example, during the American Civil War, the north and the south would just line up and shoot one another and one was lucky if you weren’t shot. During World War One, New weapons a lot more advanced than the simple rifle used during the civil war were utilized in the battle tactics of Germany, Britain, France, Russia, the U.S., and other countries involved in the war. During World War One, new technology, like the machine gun, gas bombs-like mustard gas and chlorine gas-, and airplanes played a huge part in the length, casualties, and battle tactics in World War One. The Machine gun was a devastating weapon that would mow down enemy lines. The only place to hide from a machine gun was in the trenches. Newton D Baker, Secretary of War during World War One, said, ”Perhaps no invention has more profoundly modified the art of war than the machine gun.”(138) The Machine gun changed how soldiers went about war. Before World War One, Soldiers would run up to each other, load their gun, and fire their gun at the enemy, then reload your gun and hope you don’t get shot. With the machine gun, you would load your gun once and be able to fire 300 to 600 rounds without reloading. Because this weapon could fire so fast and so many rounds, soldiers would have to take cover in the trenches in order to avoid being mowed down by the machine guns of the enemy. If soldiers ever tried to go over the top-which was a term that meant to go over the top of the trench and run across no mans land into the enemy trenches- they were shot to death by the enemies machine guns. The machine gun was an effective weapon that could defend your trench, but there was also a new weapon that could help you attack a trench too. Chemical warfare was a new and effective type of fighting developed during World War one. The Germans were the first to use this type of warfare. Tom Pendergast, author of the World War 1 Almanac, wrote, “German Airplanes often dropped gas onto enemy soldiers.”(142) This was one of the many ways the Germans utilized these chemicals in their battle technique. Germans would drop gas bombs over enemy trenches in order to clear those trenches out, and it was very effective because depending on the gas they used they could have killed enemy soldiers in seconds or in hours. Certain gases, like the chlorine gas, were used on April 22,1915. “German airplanes dropped canisters in no-man’s land. The canisters released yellowish green fumes that wafted slowly toward the French and African troops near Belgian Town of Ypres. As the fumes reached Allied forces, soldiers realized the cloud was poisonous gas.”(Perndergast 142) This shows how the gas was an unexpected new insidious battle weapon used by the Germans. This gas attack at the battle of Ypres created a major gap in the front line of the Allied forces. Unfortunately for the Germans, they were unable to take advantage of this opening because their soldiers were afraid of the gas and walked to slowly through it. This weapon, as great a weapon as it was, was quickly banned from war due to its insidiousness after World War One. This weapon came into the battlefield as fast as it was taken out, but the airplane would be brought up and used for years to come. The airplane was an effective weapon that was used to find enemy positions and drop bombs on enemy trenches. Revision-Notes.com says “These were the new types of weapons use in advanced technological warfare. They had everything from mini scout planes to huge blimp like bombers called Zeppelins. Air warfare was not seen as important as any other type so it did not have its own category.” Although air warfare was not a very important part of battle during World War One, later planes developed to be weapons of great destruction. Back then planes couldn’t do much more than shoot machine guns or drop small bombs, but now planes are able to drop massive bombs that could level an entire city with one bomb. They can shoot missiles from miles away and nail a target. Zeppelins were at first a great idea, but people didn’t think about how easy they would be to shoot down. Blimps were giant air balloons that moved very slowly and although very useful for spotting enemies was very easy to spot and very easy to shoot down since it was so slow. Planes, although played a smaller part in World War One, later became very effective weapon in warfare. The Technology used in World War One greatly differed from the technology we use today. Today most of our guns are automatic or semi-automatic which means you would load the gun and either hold down the trigger and fire non-stop until the magazine was empty, or pull the trigger and fire and fire one bullet at a time with a magazine of 20 bullets. Before World War One you would shoot your rifle once, reload, and then shoot again. This just shows how much technology has advance in the previous century. We went from shooting one bullet at a time to shooting 400 bullets in 10 seconds. A soldier today has the firepower that 100 soldiers had back then all because of our technological advances, and most of the new technology we have to day is based of technology from World War One.

HIPPIE ESSAY Hippies were college educated young people who started the c[|ounterculture]. The definition of a hippie is someone who doesn’t conform to society’s standards and believes that peace is the way to solve all problems in the world. These students all believed this philosophy and way of life and used these beliefs to rebel against certain cultural issues and worldwide issues. Hippies mostly organized to fight against war because that was one of the main enemies of the hippie philosophy. Somethings that hippies did were combat racism. They liberated sexual stereotypes, encouraged change, individual pride, and self-confidence. They questioned robot materialism. In four years they managed to stop the Vietnam War. They got marijuana decriminalized in fourteen states during the Carter Administration. One major war that sprung hippies into action was the [|Vietnam War]. Hippie’s fought the Vietnam War for 4 years and finally succeeded in stopping it. Hippies believed that the world should be covered with peace and that all problems should be solved peacefully. Hippies want freedom and equality for the entire world. Back in the 60’s all hippies believed in what they were fighting for and they did everything they could to succeed, but today a lot of today’s hippies are being held down by the “old hippies” or the hippies from the 60’s. Today, millions remember a lot of the peace movements today. [|Woodstock] is remembered today by almost everyone. Some advantages of living in a [|commune] is that everyone is nice to each other in order to get what they need. Everyone shares everything and this keeps people from getting money hungy. Some disadvantages is that if one person has some expensive rare items, they have to share it with everyone in the community, and not everyone would want to share all of their belongings especially personal ones. Hippies often used massive gatherings with music, pot, and sex in order to fight for a cause. Woodstock is one where Hippies played music, such as rock and roll, folk, and rhythm and blues, in order to express their beliefs and feelings and this could hlp spread the beliefs of hippies across the United States. Lots of signs today represent beliefs of the hippies like the peace sign, the yin and yang sign is another one hippies supported. Some fashions of the hippie movement is tie dye tee-shirts, which represented how hippies would feel when they were on the government issue drug [|LSD], which caused hippies to hallucinate and see things in a weird way.