Keywords

Military art and science -- Technological innovations -- United States, Technology and state -- United States -- History -- 20th century, United States -- Army -- Air Corps -- History -- 20th century, United States -- Army -- History -- 20th century, United States -- Navy -- History -- 20th century

Abstract

This thesis investigates the progress of technological development during the interwar period of 1919 to 1939. The interwar period was a time of slashed military budgets and isolationist policies. However, despite political, financial, and organizational handicaps, each branch of the military made significant progress in the development of military technology, and the air corps and navy achieved significantly better results. The reason these two branches were able succeed was through a combination of organizational policy and the development of an overarching goal for their respective branch. Within this thesis, I investigated each of the major military branches during the interwar period, specifically the United States Army, Army Air Corps, and Navy. The air corps is considered a separate branch despite being a segment of the army due to its different strategic goal and its growing independence during the interwar period. In my research I found that the army made by far the least technological progress, but did make significant strides in terms of the development of individual components for larger projects. For example, the army developed the M1 rifle and state-of-the-art shock absorbers for tanks. The air corps succeeded in transforming from a small army auxiliary made up of woodand-fabric biplanes into a largely independent branch of the military made up of all-metal monoplane bombers. The navy developed the aircraft carrier and aircraft to accompany the new ships, in addition to making substantial upgrades to existing ships. These upgrades included strengthening ships against torpedo attacks, making engines more efficient, and adding antiaircraft guns to the ships‟ arsenals

Notes

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Graduation Date

2011

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Foster, Amy

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

History

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0004036

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0004036

Language

English

Release Date

July 2016

Length of Campus-only Access

5 years

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Arts and Humanities -- Dissertations, Academic, Dissertations, Academic -- Arts and Humanities

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