superweapon-ideology

This chapter examines early American naval innovations during the Revolutionary War, focusing on David Bushnell's Turtle submarine as the first combat submarine and Robert Fulton's pioneering role in developing superweapons. Fulton articulated a technological-utopian ideology linking industrial capitalism, free trade, education, and mechanical innovation to the abolition of war and the promotion of republican peace and prosperity. Despite the limited military success of his submarine Nautilus, Fulton continued to innovate with advanced weapons, believing that such technologies could dismantle traditional military powers and foster universal harmony.

The chapter traces Robert Fulton's naval innovations, including his submarine torpedoes and the steam-powered warship Demologos, which he envisioned as defensive superweapons capable of securing perpetual peace. However, these inventions paradoxically laid the groundwork for modern offensive warfare, illustrating the unintended consequences of technological progress within industrial capitalism. The chapter further explores how American future-war fiction from 1880 to 1917 reflected and shaped an apocalyptic ideology intertwined with technological optimism, imperialist ambitions, and racialized violence, revealing early ideological roots of total war and the nuclear arms race.