Technology, ’Machine Age’ Warfare, and the Military Use of Dogs, 1880–1918

Many military historians have emphasised technological innovation as the defining characteristic of modern “machine age” warfare. This paradigm ignores the central roles that animals have played in twentieth-century wars and fails to recognise that the scale of their exploitation has actually escalated in modernity, largely in response to technological innovation. In short, the military employment of animals on a massive scale is as much a defining characteristic of modern warfare as is mechanisation. Here, the example of the establishment of permanent, regular military dog units, for use in “civilised” warfare, from the 1880s onwards is used to illustrate this point.