Assess the importance of the technology for the course and outcome of the First World War World War I was the first military conflict in the history of the world in which the technology played the role of such importance. Since the industrial revolution the technology had been constantly developing with a spectacular rate. In that time many ground-breaking tools and devices were invented such as steam engine, telegraph, usage of electricity or telephone. Besides these inventions that were used to improve the every-day life, there were also many others that were used in the World War I. To this group belong machine guns, barbed wire, tanks, dreadnoughts, submarines or mines. The usage of the technology had a big impact on the proceedings and the result of the World War I, because they virtually represented the power of each side participating in the conflict, influenced the morals of both soldiers and civilians and, what is vital, played a big role in the most important events of the War such as the creation and the breach of the stalemate on the West, the naval warfare, or Gallipoli campaign. Machine guns and barbed wire were very important for the course of the War due to the fact that they were part and parcel of the trenches, which were the direct cause of the failure of the Schlieffen Plan. The trenches formed a line from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France. That closed the door on free proceedings on the Western front, because barbed wire and machine guns enabled very effective defense, whilst the capturing of the trench was virtually impossible. The attackers had serious troubles with passing both the no-man’s land and the barbed wire. The defenders could easily kill all of them with machine guns. The best example of the trench warfare and the usage of barbed wire and machine guns is the battle of Somme in 1916. Even though general Haig used the