#18 "War leads to.....?

War leads to ........? Destruction? Poverty? Extinction? But if I say war leads to development, then I think you would disagree with me until you read the my article.


“All war is murder, robbery, trickery, and no nation ever escaped losses of men, prosperity and virility. War knows no victor” - David Starr Jordan

‘War’ - Hardly anyone would disagree that the word itself gives off a gross negative feeling, for it reminds us of brutality of humanity, massive casualties,destruction and the gruesome consequences that follow. If we try to think about what would have started humans to take lives of other human beings, the credit would go the instinct of survival; that is to say that if a human perceives other human as a threat to him, be it for food, shelter, land, offspring, mate, etc., the survival mode would program him to fight off the other. But in modern world where there is no more scarcity of means of survival, why can’t we live in peace? Till around 18th century too, the reasons to fight were simpler and were mainly to establish supremacy over the other. The ideological and political differences made them use of forceful intervention in others life. But in 21st century, the reasons for war have diversified even more- ranging from strategic reasons to national security, increasing economical capabilities and to become super power. The more the country will be strategically strong, more they will be dominating and will have a better say in the global affairs. The aim to be supreme among all is still the same. But as the saying goes, every coin has two sides; that is every negative thing also has something positive coming out of it. How the events of war changed the world, how it made human life more conformable and safe... How war and military events lead the world from path of total destruction towards development...

Artificial satellites play a very important role to shape the today's world. Weather satellites help scientists study weather patterns and forecast the weather. Navigation satellites enable operators of aircraft, ships, and land vehicles anywhere on Earth to determine their locations. Satellites enable smooth Internet access, better television and radio signals and what not. There are hardly any fields which are not getting help from advanced space technologies. But all these are the result of a competition that was started between USA and USSR to reach space during cold war which is popularly termed as Space race. When Nazi Germany built ballistic missiles to attack allied forces in World war 2, USA and USSR both acquired this pioneer technology and started building deadly weapons. This space race benefited mankind with the first artificial satellite in the orbit of the Earth and the science which was used to kill people during war was later used in Apollo program which sent a man on the Moon. The GPS service which we use today was originally created for the United States Air Force for helping in navigation.

Stainless steel with which we are very familiar, is used for utensils in our kitchens; is a building material for buildings, bridges; finds its role in built of vehicles, air crafts; even medical instruments are built from steel due to its multiple qualities. The evolution of stainless steel dates back to the time of World War I, when military wanted a better metal to be used in guns, as other metals that were available that time, were not durable enough and were distorted after little use. Harry Brearley invented stainless steel for military purpose, which later became a useful metal to be employed in many ways.

Friend moving to U.S.? No problem, get in touch through Skype on weekends. Moving to a new city? Get information about people, food, exotic places just by ‘facebooking’ any person residing in that city. Need any information? Just ‘Google it’ and obtain answer in just few seconds. Sounds so simple! But it has all become possible with computer networking and the Internet; and the phrases themselves show that how Internet has become an integral part of our world. The Internet has evolved in stages but it’s foundation was laid when US army used it as a tool of war. Initially the network connected only four computers and was used by scientists and experts to share military and secret data. The aim of developing such a system was to establish a communication system which could be an alternative to telephone system and could be used in case of hostile attack. This network was called ARPAnet was created by Advanced Research Projects Agency (a branch of US military).

In war, if the surprise element is on your side; the situation becomes better for you. And thus, if there is some means by which you can protect the sensitive information and still can communicate information to the soldiers in spite of the enemy eavesdropping on you, nothing can’t be better. This technique is termed as Cryptography. In earliest form, the military sent information in letters in such a way that only their soldiers understood and not the enemy. Cryptography plays an extensive role in today's commutation system to protect our data on Internet like passwords, bank and credit card information, etc.

Microwave which can cook food for us has an interesting history of evolution for civilian purpose. The RADAR transmitter used by the USA army during 1940s used to release so much heat in the form of microwaves. Scientists realized that this heat is enough to cook food. And within next 2 years first microwave oven developed.

Well, cargo pants are quite a hit among the public but it also has past related to military purpose. British soldiers began sporting cargo pants in the 1930s. Because it could be used to carry many instruments and other important things in battlefield. Other military too adopted it later on.

The life expectancy has increased now a days because of tremendous development in the field of health care and medicine. Penicillin is the best example of it. It was developed earlier but its usefulness was not considered until the beginning of the Second World War. After the war, the antibiotics became a common part of medicine; which earlier used to cure wounded soldiers, to prevent and curb the infections, which until then was a common cause for the death of soldiers. The technique to store blood and preserved for later use, called Blood banking was rapidly developed during the World War I. Military related events can clearly be seen as triggers to the development of these medical inventions.

During World War I, Fritz Haber and Karl Bosch invented a large scale process to cause the direct combination of Hydrogen and Nitrogen gases to chemically synthesize ammonia, thus providing a replacement of sodium nitrate in the manufacture of explosives. The ammonia was later used for making of fertilizers.

Science has proved itself to be an evil genius during the time of war; but there is no denying that eventually the scientific inventions have proved to be a boon to the humanity. In addition to the above mentioned inventions, jeep, duct tape, drones, air traffic control, parachutes, Aviator sunglasses, ambulance services, safety razors, packed food and super glue are few more examples that were invented as a result of the advancement of military capabilities. All these discoveries are useful for non military purposes as well and are making lives of humans easy and comforting. It is very interesting that although unintentionally, but war and battles benefits people in the long run. The world has changed a lot. The warfare techniques, strategies changed but the counties are continuously preparing for future wars and are continually working for the up-gradations in military. Directly there is no relation between war and development but indirectly the wars, the fear of destruction and preparation of war act as a striving force that force man to keep inventing things. In this way, "war and it’s preparation leads to betterment and development of modern world."

- By Prateek and Rusheel