Adolf
Hitler may not have been the worst tyrant in history, but he was
able to do the most damage. Military technology allowed global warfare
in this century. Technology had made our lives better in many ways,
but when evil people control technology, the results can be terrible.
The Axis and Allied warriors
to used twentieth century technology to increase the terror of war
in the following ways:
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Poison
Gas. Used primarily in the first World War, chemical
weapons can kill millions of people. An accidental gas leak
by America's Union Carbide Company in
Bhopal,
India killed 3,500 people and injured more than 200,000 in 1984.
Intentional use of chemical weapons could kill millions.
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Tanks.
First developed by the British in the First World War, the "armored
landships" have been used in all wars since then.
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Submarines. Although they were first
used in the American Civil War, submarines were used to patrol
the oceans by both sides during the World Wars.
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Aircraft.
Orville and Wilbur Wright were Americans who flew the first
airplane in 1903. Armies attacked by air in
World
War One, but the German Blitzkrieg (or "lightening war")
made the Second World War more brutal than anything before it.
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Communications. News of battles would
take weeks or even months before this century, but the invention
of radio made communications instant. Radar was
developed in World War Two. Radio waves were used to detect
aircraft before they could been seen or heard. Sonar
("Sound Navigation and Ranging") was used in both World Wars
to detect icebergs, submarines and underwater mines.
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Atomic weapons. In August 1945,
America dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
Japan. The bombs ended the war, but demonstrated the destructiveness
of modern technology. Scientists say many nations now have enough
nuclear weapons to destroy the entire planet.
There have been no major
wars since World War Two. The two largest military powers, America
and the Soviet Union (now Russia) began to dismantle the nuclear
weapons in the 1980s. The world has come to understand that we have
the technology to destroy ourselves.
Fifty years ago, an evil
man used technology to remake the world. He almost succeeded. Today
we have technology that wasn't available to Hitler, but we are also
aware of the danger. In September, 1945, most of the nations of
the world sent representatives to San Francisco to create the United
Nations.
Tomorrow's adults have the
ability to use technology to make a better world, but they must
also have the responsibility to ensure that the technology is not
used to destroy the world.
