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War of the Worlds. Pre-Reading. Scientific Influences. 1610-Galileo observes Mars’ phases. 1666-Giovanni Cassini identifies polar ice caps on Mars.
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War of the Worlds Pre-Reading
Scientific Influences • 1610-Galileo observes Mars’ phases. • 1666-Giovanni Cassini identifies polar ice caps on Mars. • 1878—Giovanni Schiaparelli observes geological features he calls “canali” (Italian for channels), which was mistranslated at canals into English, which leads many people to hypothesize life on the planet. • 1895—Percival Lowell speculates about a dying landscape on Mars, where inhabitants are forced to irrigate water from the polar ice caps.
Scientific Influences • Invasive species—a non-native species which, when introduced, out-competes native species and causes catastrophic destruction • Rabbits and prickly pear in Australia • Kudzu plant in the United States • Japanese knotweed in the United Kingdom • Invasive species could be a weapon.
Total War • Complete mobilization of resources and population • Almost no distinction between combatants and civilians • First theorized by Carl Von Clausewitz • General Curtis LeMay updates the concept in 1949, proposing that total war would involve deploying the entire nuclear arsenal in one, overwhelming blow, effectively “killing a nation.”
Total War • “War is an act of force, and there is no logical limit to the application of that force. Each side, therefore, compels its opponent to follow suit; a reciprocal is started which much lead, in theory, to extremes.” • “To introduce the principle of moderation into the theory of war itself would always lead to logical absurdity.” • "The fact that slaughter is a horrifying spectacle must make us take war more seriously, but not provide an excuse for gradually blunting our swords in the name of humanity. Sooner or later someone will come along with a sharp sword and hack off our arms."
Total War-Example • During the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, the new republic was so threatened that it poured all its resources. • Levee en masse- one of the largest drafts in history; French forces grow above a million for the first time in world history
Total War-Example • Convention of 1793— • “From this moment until such time as its enemies shall have been driven from the soil of the Republic all Frenchmen are in permanent requisition for the services of the armies. The young men shall fight; the married men shall forge arms and the women shall make tents and clothes and shall serve in the hospitals; the children shall turn linen into lint; the old men shall betake themselves to the public squares in order to arouse the courage of the warriors and preach hatred of kings and the unity of the Republic.”
Total War-Example • Over five million people die over the next two decades. • At least half of the dead are civilians.
Darwinism • Natural selection – the process by which genetic traits become more or less common in a population • Genetic variation causes some organisms to succeed more than others. • They become more likely to survive and pass on their traits to others • Survival of the fittest • Wells was a student of Thomas Henry Huxley, who was known as “Darwin’s bulldog” because he so vigorously defended Darwinism. • Wells hypothesized that human brains might evolve more quickly than their bodies, necessitating the invention of machines for tools.
Colonialism • Colonialism - the conquering and controlling of foreign lands • At the time the novel was published, British colonialism is at the height of its aggression.
Colonialism • Much of Britain’s success is due to technological superiority. • Wells was interested in making British readers see colonialism from the other side of things.
Colonialism • From the novel: “And before we judge them [the Martians] too harshly, we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished the bison and the dodo, but on its inferior races? Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?”
