Antoine Jomini’s theory of interior lines has been disproven by advances in the technology of moving armies, changes in economic-military relationships and through its use in several wars. Though popular during the 19th and 20th centuries the changing character of warfare and globalization in the 21st century has negated the possession of interior lines as a viable military strategy.
The Industrial Revolution created the railroad, internal combustion engine and the airplane. These new implements of war allowed greater maneuverability on the battlefield and shortened the time required to mobilize a fighting force. Revolutions in employment of these new machines would put the advantages of interior lines at risk. Revolutions such as the employment of strategic bombing of lines of communications, armored attacks against rear echelons and massed mobilizations of unprecedented scale. Jomini based his idea of interior lines upon his observations of Napoleonic combat. In the
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In multiple conflicts several belligerents possessed interior lines and were defeated. Entities such as Napoleon’s Grand Army, the Confederacy in the US Civil War, Germany in World War I and Germany in World War II. Each possessed interior lines and all were subject to their opponents overall increased maneuverability or their own lack of mobility. Railroads and naval blockades served as barriers to Confederate success against the Union Army. Railroads facilitated the execution of the Schliffen Plan during World War I but success was prevented by the unexpected rate of Russian mobilization and resulted in a stalemate. Germany attempted to gain territory and resources during World War II and after gaining terrain such as it had in World War I, Germany soon ran into the increased maneuverability of the US and Great Britain as well as its overextension on the Russian