Colonialism and European Military Planning

Question:

The colonial wars impacted the military thinking and planning/strategics of the European powers prior to World War 1. The biggest target of the powers during the time was that of Africa. Because of their rich resources, strategic locations, and lucrative trade routes abundant with prosperous materials, many parts of Africa were taken and colonized by The Europeans. Although countries such as Great Britain and Germany had rich economies, the greed for more land and more power caused them to experiment with the means of expansion. Asia and the Caribbean were also targets of the Europeans due to the large amount of territory which was potentially obtainable. The race for land and power caused wars and "military conflicts" between the competing countries and the indigenous peoples of the native land. The Europeans easily had an advantage over the colonies in which they were overcoming, including many advancements in both weaponry and tactics. Inventions such as rifled guns and artillery allowed the Europeans to easily manipulate the outcome of various situations. Although the Europeans were not well adapted to the land, they knew better than to go on suicidal rampages and tried to maintain a balance of both strong offensive and defensive forces. The overcoming of a nation was two-fold. First any given European nation would invade the chosen territory, and then they followed up with a securing of the territory and the proclaiming of it as their own. This of course, without any say from the native peoples. Upon learning that said tactics and weaponry were more proficient they were able to use them in the entering of World War 1. Helpful military inventions allowed many strategies to be altered in attempts to comply with the advanced weaponry. For instance, before these inventions, wars were fought anywhere between 10 and 30 feet away from each other. Guerrilla tactics came into play quite rapidly and allowed for the great metamorphosis of tactics. The advantage of having aerial views of your opponent changed the way that war was looked at from both sides. While it was said that the European nations had a large advantage, the opponents were also extremely helpless when a plane or artillery from a large distance fired projectiles in their direction. However, on some unique accounts of war, the European armies occasionally faced defeat in the hands of the native forces. This was due to arrogance of the European nations and the underestimating of the indigenous forces of Africa, as they did not treat the battles with the same sense of caution as in previous wars. As a whole, the Colonial wars of the Europeans greatly altered the outlook upon military thinking and planning due to various reasons including the advancement of weapons and the difference of opponent; thus in turn changing the way the European powers went about fighting in World War 1.