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Wristwatches, canned food, sunglasses, computers, digital cameras, GPS, drones, microwaves… All of these inventions we use daily were actually developed during wartime. In his lecture “Weapons That Changed History”, Max Boot, who looks at humankind’s technological advancements through the frame of innovations in war, weapons, and armed forces, introduces how technology developed alongside war, changing the hegemonic order.

In Lectures 1~4, Boot shows how European countries became rulers of the world by adopting new weapon systems after the Gunpowder Revolution. In Lectures FIve and Six, he explains how rifles, an individual weapon, were developed after the First Industrial Revolution and the effect this had on warfare, and how the introduction of a modern military system changed militaries around the world and became the basis of contemporary armies.

The Second World War, happening alongside the Second Industrial Revolution, saw the mobilization of more soldiers and the mass production of more destructive weapons through technological advancements. This was when tanks and fighter airplanes were first used in earnest. Lectures 8~13, delve into the Second Industrial Revolution’s impact on warfare through the Battle of France, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the bombing of Japan.

After the two World Wars, Europe cedes its dominance over the world to the US. In Lectures 14~17 , Boot explains how the US, now a global power, developed cutting-edge weapons using information technology, the innovation this brought, and their limitations. In Lecture 18~22, Boot contemplates the present and the future of wars, offering insight into the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and how future war technology should be utilized.