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Main Punk Punk Discussion
Of the machine gun and the railroad, which was the first important technology to impact strategy?
Short answer: railroads helped Prussia win the Austro-Prussian War in 1866[1]
, 18 years before the first true machine gun suitable for field use was invented (the earlier Gatling gun was too expensive and not easily portable).
Long answer: machine guns make a lot of noise on the battlefield and even more noise in the works of early 20th-century war historians, which usually leads to more significant strategic factors being overlooked. They had an enormous impact on battlefield tactics but until WWII they were never a strategic asset, i.e. they prevented the opposite side from achieving victory using traditional strategies but did not help the own side achieve it either.
In contrast, railroads were essential to the strategic implementation of von Moltke the Elder's Theory of War in the late 19th century and the Schlieffen Plan in the early 20th, and together with terrain-moving transport (and fighting) vehicles to the Blitzkrieg strategy of the mid-20th century. The telegraph, and later wireless radio, was equally important for early warning and response systems and for ensuring short report and command cycles between headquarters and front.
(In colonial warfare, machine guns were decisive on their own, but strategy was seldom very important there.)
So, I believe the technology description should mention railroads and the telegraph before the machine gun.
, 18 years before the first true machine gun suitable for field use was invented (the earlier Gatling gun was too expensive and not easily portable).
Long answer: machine guns make a lot of noise on the battlefield and even more noise in the works of early 20th-century war historians, which usually leads to more significant strategic factors being overlooked. They had an enormous impact on battlefield tactics but until WWII they were never a strategic asset, i.e. they prevented the opposite side from achieving victory using traditional strategies but did not help the own side achieve it either.
In contrast, railroads were essential to the strategic implementation of von Moltke the Elder's Theory of War in the late 19th century and the Schlieffen Plan in the early 20th, and together with terrain-moving transport (and fighting) vehicles to the Blitzkrieg strategy of the mid-20th century. The telegraph, and later wireless radio, was equally important for early warning and response systems and for ensuring short report and command cycles between headquarters and front.
(In colonial warfare, machine guns were decisive on their own, but strategy was seldom very important there.)
So, I believe the technology description should mention railroads and the telegraph before the machine gun.
Maybe there should be a Just Bugs Me page for stuff like this, but...seriously, do we really need to parse the genre into this many examples? You can count the number of "examples" of a few of these supposed sub-genres on one hand. Cyber Punk and Steam Punk are all well and good, there's precedent, but..."Sandal Punk?" "Stone Punk?" Does Maeve Binchy write Cottage Punk? Can we add Cottage Punk, please?