Evaluate the role of technology in changing military tactics and outcomes in major conflicts of the 20th century.

• A. New technologies had little effect.
• B. New tech (tanks, aircraft, nuclear weapons) altered strategies, casualties, and war aims.
• C. Technology only improved supply lines but not tactics.
• D. Only naval tech mattered.

Answer: (B)

Technology reshaped how wars were fought and what victory looked like in the 20th century. Innovations like tanks gave armies mobile, armored bite through defenses and enabled rapid breakthrough offensives that shattered static trench lines. Aircraft stretched the battlefield beyond the horizon, offering crucial reconnaissance, achieving air superiority, and carrying out bombing campaigns that could cripple economies, logistics, and command structures. Nuclear weapons added a level of strategic risk and deterrence that changed not just tactics but the very logic of war, often steering states toward avoiding full-scale invasion and seeking political rather than existential military outcomes. Combined, these technologies transformed tactics, altered casualty patterns, and compelled new doctrines, alliances, and aims. That's why this answer best captures how technology changed military strategies and outcomes across major conflicts, rather than focusing on limited aspects like supply lines or a single domain such as naval tech.