How Weapons And Army Capability Developed Through The United States' History

The United States history has come a long way since 1636. Throughout the development of the republic into a country, many lessons were learned. Although some were learned the hard way and took decades to figure out. From the American revolution to World War one, weapons slowly developed allowing for superior fire power. As the weapons became more efficient, the opposing side became more tactful thanks to the military academy that taught officers to lead in combat.

The First Military we read about in week 1 was the Colonial Militia.

They were simply a group of “able body” men that participated once a month. Their training and rescores were no match to their first opponent, the Indians. The militia was equipped with heavy armor and a dangerous to load, inaccurate matchlock rifle. This was no match for the Indians who traveled light with no armor and close combat weapons.

Although the militia learned how to become adaptable with the Indians, they still lagged behind in modern weapons when the American revolutionary war started.

At the start of the war, it was clear that the British was better equipped and trained to fight away. The man power behind the Continental Army were disclaimed enough to engage in war with the British Troop. So Prussian general, Fredrich Wilhelm von Steuben, united the army by teaching structure and discipline.

The Continental army used a mix of outdated rifles and no naval rescores. They were unable to resupply themselves because as a colony, they had no infrastructure, money, or international trades to generate necessary equipment.

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The lesson was learned, and the colonyreached out to other countries and received financial help from the Dutch and weapons from the French. With the help of the British enemies, the colonies received their independence.

Another lesson the US learned was: a privileged background does not make a good officer. Few of the officers that came from a wealthy background was able to lead and command a group of people. In response, the army established the US Academy to properly train the next generations of US Army Officers.

Fast Forward to World War I, all of the countries who are involved utilized the most modern weaponry and tactics. In “WWI – Oversimplified” part one and two it is clear that all of the countries are now learning and developing better and stronger weapons. Things are going well economically so the countries are able to build up their militaries and expand there territories. It seems like a positive thing that mistakes made with previous wars are being acknowledged. Until what was supposed to be a quick war dragged on for many years killing thousands and leaving all of the countries involved in debt. In response the debt and blame were all put onto Germany, but that is a lesson for the allied forces to learn later.

In conclusion, the development of the United states capability has come a long way since the start in 1636. Our tactics have evolved and become flexible to the situation at hand. This continues on with the development of our leaders and our troops discipline and strength. We have also learned to embrace new and modern weaponry in order to be superior to the enemy.