Space, Time, War

In the last section of his book, The Culture of Time & Space 1880-1918, Kern talks of war. Not just any war, but the Great War. It was called the Great War, because it was thought to have been the war to end all wars. The technology jump into this war was gigantic and changed how we looked at war since. Kern specifically goes into how war’s sense of time and space was altered.

Time was affected by a few main technologies, the advent of standard time, the rapidity of communication, and the displacement of leadership from the battlefield. Standard time allowed coordinated attacks to occur, and increased coordination in troop deployment. Thanks to trains and the associated technologies, troops could be rapidly deployed to the front lines. Rapid communication also helped the coordination along long battle fronts. Fortunately or unfortunately this allowed the high ranking officials to make plans far away from the front lines. This distanced them from the horrors of war and perhaps led to orders that were not optimal. Since main command was further away there was also an increase in smaller units who had to make decisions for themselves in real time. This was especially important when the line was breached or heavy fire was raining down.

While the changes in time were great, the changes in space were arguably even greater. Weapons had improved dramatically since the Napoleon era. Guns were not limited to a couple hundred yards, but rather a couple thousand. This lead to wide zones between the trenches called “No Man’s Land,” where there was not a living soul. Artillery could now fire beyond their sight. The artillery men felt detached from combat as they neither knew those they who they were firing upon nor those who were firing upon them. Airplanes also changed the landscaped of war, as neither trenches nor walls nor any sort of barrier could stop their attack. The range of attack of these bombings blurred the lines of home and front, soldier and citizen. When war could reach home, the effects of war seemed that more personal.

War has continued to change since then. It was thought that there would be no more wars after that one considering how much more devastating they had become. Obviously this is not the case as it was merely World War I, with at least another to follow. Now we can have combatants fighting from half-way around the world thanks to combat drone technology. Warfare has progressed beyond just the physical and has moved on to the digital, information, and economic. War has become less about broad motions and more about precise tactical use of force. Hopefully this change in tactics will lead to less civilian involvement.

It is both exciting and terrifying to try and imagine the war of the future. Will it be fought with killer androids, or deadly diseases? Just how quickly could the world end in a nuclear holocaust? These are questions that I hope I will never know the answers to.