Military Evolution

From Mbscientific_wiki

Human history is landmarked by events of conquest and colonization, where the vanquished is absorbed by the victor, and the victor inevitably always writes the history. As species go, us humans are poorly equipped when it comes to natural defenses. Human evolution could not have happened without harnessing weapons. Fortunately we were equipped with a brain that was wired to figure things out. The first harnessed weapons were fire and stone. We have evidence of homonid stone tools as early as 2-3 million years ago (perhaps more), way before the age of homo sapiens. By the time our species came out of Africa some 300000 years ago they were equipped with weaponized stone tools. That gave them the ability to hunt, thereby expanding their range to eventually cover the globe. By the time of agriculture and animal husbandry some 10000 years ago, humans could amass the number of individuals to form defensive and offensive capabilities and dominate one another in large geographical scales. Through working bronze (~8000 years ago) and iron (~3000 years ago) the weapons of choice: swords and spears had become quite lethal. Through the combination of all of the above by some 5000 years ago we have civilizations with major military capability and geographic range in Middle East, North East Africa and China. Lets pause for a moment and look at our legacy of warfare in Mesopotamia, since it is at war yet again (did it ever stop?). By the Time Alexander reached Mesopotamia some 2300 years ago, the land had seen 3000 years of both measures of war and peace. Lets count them off: Sumerian, Akkdians, Chaldeans, Babylonians, Hittites, Assyrians and Persians. And that is just when Alexander got there. Thereafter the story of war and peace continues with the Greeks, Persians, Romans, Caliphates, Mongols, Ottomans, British, Saddam, and for now the Americans.

The next military quantum leap was the advent of large scale cavalries probably by Scythians and other related Arian horse cultures of what is now the present day Russian Stepps (~ 3000 years ago, perhaps earlier). Iron clad cavalries were the spear heads of armies right up to the advent of the cannon. Fire arms then became the weapons of choice from the 15th century on. Modern explosives came on the scene by late 18th centry and by 19th century the fire power of European armies and navies gave full rise to colonial empires. By early 20th century we had the introduction of mechanized armor on the battle field (WW 1). And by mid twentieth century ( WW 2) we had the advent of todays conventional military components of army, navy and air force. Up until this point arms races always involved using the arms to gain ground on the adversary. Nuclear weapons blew that calculus out of water. They gave rise to the Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) doctrine. Here was a weapon that was so destructive that its use ensured that both sides would be annihilated. Most likely this is the only reason that the cold war was not a lot hotter.