What Single Weapon Has Changed Modern History the Most?

The nuclear bomb, on the other hand, has been around for a shorter length of time, and has not caused a massive change in military tactics.  Instead, it has only been used twice on the fields of human conflict, but has given mankind the power to destroy itself in a matter of hours.  This simple fact has led to changes in political strategy, the fierce competition between the United States and the Soviet Union that would continuously fuel the Cold War, forms of insurgency that would be effective against powers that possessed nuclear weapons, and has made war between two nuclear capable powers virtually unthinkable.  Therefore, nuclear weapons have changed history completely in the last half-century, perhaps more so than the Maxim gun.  However, the Maxim gun has been around longer, inflicted more casualties, and is more specific in the sense that I was looking for.  So I essentially came to a split-decision between the Maxim gun, the first effective machine gun that revolutionized tactical combat of the 20th century and the ancestor of all modern automatic weapons, and the nuclear bomb which has such devastating power that it has only been used twice in history and has since been banned from use across the globe in order to prevent the mass extinction of the human race.  No other two weapons in the past five centuries have changed history in the way that these two did.  And thus, in this manner, I have answered the question of what single weapon has changed modern history the most.   

Sources Cited

Primary Sources

Colonel Farrell, Kevin W.  “RE: A student that would greatly appreciate your respected help.”

E-mail to the author.  15 December 2008.

Vandervort, Bruce.  “Greatest weapon.”  E-mail to the author.  15 December 2008.

Major Werkheiser, Edwin.  “RE: A student that would greatly appreciate your respected help.”

E-mail to the author.  15 December 2008.

Secondary Sources

“The Seven Weapons That Changed the World.”  Newsvine.  27 March 2007.  21 Nov.  2008. 

<http://killfile.newsvine.com/_news/2007/03/27/634460-the-seven-weapons-that-changed-the-world>

“The Seven Weapons That Changed the World.”  NowPublic.  27 March 2007.  21 Nov. 2008.        

            <http://www.nowpublic.com/the_seven_weapons_that_changed_the_world>

Mike.  “The Ten Greatest Weapons?”  Osprey Publishing.  8 October 2008.  8 December 2008.

            <http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/ancient_world/the_ten_greatest_weapons/>

“Top 10 Weapons in History.”  SPACE.com.  18 Nov. 2008.

<http://www.space.com/technology/top10_weapons_history.html>

“Top Ten Weapons That Changed the World.”  Future Weapons.  Discovery Communications.    

            LLC.  10 Oct. 2007.

“Weapons that Changed the World.”  Discovery Channel Online.  10 Oct. 2007.  11 Dec. 2008.

< http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/future-weapons/weapons/weapons-that-changed-the-world/ weapons-that-changed-the-world.html>