What technologies or ideas rewrote the book of war?

much money on the military in a true communist system
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A true communist system has neither money nor a military, as any Marxist would quickly point out. Communism was thir ideology, but socialism was thier system.

And only the Eastern Romans knew how to make Greek fire, and it was used largely in a defensive manner around Constantanople on ships and the walls... nobody elee knew how to make it, so I fail to see how big the impact was.
 
Airborne said:
And only the Eastern Romans knew how to make Greek fire, and it was used largely in a defensive manner around Constantanople on ships and the walls... nobody elee knew how to make it, so I fail to see how big the impact was.
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Why do you think they call it Greek fire? The Greeks made it, they used it extensively on land but most notably on the sea, water only spurred the flames to grow larger and spread, ships would be destroyed in minutes, that was huge for the Greeks. But when the Library of Alexandria burned down the instructions to make Greek fire were lost.
 
The Empire was more than Greeks at that time, that's why I used the word Eastern Romans, that is what they were.
 
Yes, I know that Greek Fire died with the taking of Constantinople in the 1400's. At that point, Greek Fire was their state secret, yet it had been a lot more widely used during the height of Roman power. Interesting thing is, it never really was made obsolete until it was a lost science. Pretty impressive, no?
 
No, its use was documented throughout the reign of even the last Emperor Constantine XI (I believe it was). During the era of the Byzantines being besieged by the Ottomans, the secret of Greek Fire was only still known to the Byzantines and they closely guarded the secret of its making. None survived to pass on the knowledge, so it is at the fall of Constantinople that it's making was lost.

Other less effective flamable liquid concoctions existed most certainly, but Greek Fire was significantly more potent than other contemporary creations.
 
Telegraph

Bit disappointed doddsy2978 did nt say it up front.

The telegraph and the Railroad. It's all about comms..... :D

ANZAC
 
Metal armoring of ships, initially done on the Moniter and Merimack in the the American Civil War, is an obvious one. In almost no time, unarmored combat ships were obsolete.

The tank itself did not radically alter the course of warfare until it was used properly - aka Blitzkrieg. After its proper use was introduced, the whole concept of infantry had to be completely rethought.

The trebeche was a vast improvement over the catapult, and made city/castle walls a lot less secure of a defense.

The invention of the sail was undoubtedly significant, but too long ago to have a whole lot of documentation on.
 
godofthunder9010 said:
Metal armoring of ships, initially done on the Moniter and Merimack in the the American Civil War, is an obvious one. In almost no time, unarmored combat ships were obsolete.
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this statement is not technically correct. The british had already used iron armored vessals, notably as floating gun batteries, during the crimerian war. Both the french ship Glorie, and the British Warship Warrior, (Which is still afloat and preserved, btw) were provided metal armour plate for use as an armoured warship well before the engagement of the USS Monitor (North) and the CSS Virgina, made from the hulk of the USS Merrimac.

Now their claim to fame as the first armoured ships to fight one another is safe. :D
 
The battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack/Virginia proved that wooden hulled ships were obsolete, several nations already had one or two iron clads but nobody wanted to spend the money to build a fleet or untested ships that could just turn out to be as weak as the wooden hulled ships but more expensive.


And the Monitor and Merrimack, qhile both being Iron Clads, were two completely different ships, the Monitory was designed more for use on the many key rivers running through the USA and CSA, where as the Virginia was built for use on the seas and even had a mast still because the Admirals of the south were untrusting of the new steam engines.
 
No particular order.
1.The Phalanx.
2.First using steel instead of iron to make swords (eg. didn't blunten during battle)
3.The nuclear weapon (man's most destructive, and possibly most feared weapon)
4.The tactic of seige warfare.
 
The big ones were the Phalanx, Cavalry, Airpower, Gunpowder, the Machine Gun, the Longbow, the Crossbow, the Tank/Blitzkrieg, Nuclear weapons, Ironclads, the Self-Loading Rifle. There's more I'm sure but those are the ones off the top of my head.
 
Perhaps stealth isn't mentioned because its always existed ... or at least its invention is far too old to be remembered. Hunters and warriors have always relied on stealth to some degree.
 
ok, so i guess stealth isn't a technology per se, i guess more of a means of achieving an advantage tactically and strategically.

so i'll try again, helicopters? submarine? satellites?
 
During the Civil War - as many as 40% of some of the armies in the field suffered from VD. Think about how that not affected the battles at the time, but also the civilian populace.

Bill in Texas
 
The introduction of mobility in the offence relative to the defence resulted in profound changes and effectiveness of military formations and armies. eg.

Mongol armies utilising cavalry, Germans using Mobile armoured divisions supported by airpower, American's using helicopter in non-frontal warfare, Adolphus using mobile artillery on the battlefield,
but instead over a course of experimentation settled on smaller, more manoeuvrable weapons, in effect fielding the first light field artillery in history in any significant ratios.
These were grouped in batteries supporting his more linearly deployed formations, replacing the cumbersome and unmaneuverable traditional deep squares
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavus_Adolphus_of_Sweden

and when the mobility of the defence became greater than the offence in the 1st world war due to the railways this resulted in a largely static front.
 
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CSS Virginia was not a great leap in technology. As stated before steam & iron cladding was already in use, & the casemate layout isn't much different than ships of the Age of fighting sail. The USS Monitor on the other hand intro'd the revolving gun turret. All the following designs up through Yamato would be traceable back to the Monitor.
 
Each era has gone through changes which have made vast changes on the battlefield.
The saddle for a horse gave the rider a chance to use a lance.
Various improvement in the Bow made a lot of changes
Gunpowder and the development of fire arms and cannons, and artillery
The Tank
Aircraft and their improvements over the years
Then there is sea warfare and how that has changed over the years, all have had an impact on the Battlefield
 
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