History of Chemical Warfare 

In addition to the historical information included in the essays on individual CW agents, two essays provide some historical perspective on the broader development of chemical warfare:

1. A short history of chemical warfare during World War I summarizes some noteworthy facts about the development and use of chemical warfare agents during and before World War I.
2. A short history of the development of nerve gases provides a description of the discovery of organophosphate nerve agents in Germany, their development and production during World War II, and the development of additional organophosphate agents in the 1950s.

A number of other web sites have interesting information on the history of chemical warfare:

• The U.S. Army Chemical Corps dates back to the World War I. Their history is located on the Chemical Corps Regimental Association web site.
• Rocky Mountain Arsenal (RMA) was a complete chemical manufacturing complex used by the U.S. Army for the production of chemical weapons and conventional munitions between 1942 and 1982; their web site has an extensive and interesting history. Some RMA facilities were leased to Julius Hyman and Company in 1952, and subsequently to Shell Chemical Company for production of agricultural pesticides, continuing until 1982. Most of RMA was placed on the National Priorities List (Superfund) in 1987 and 1989; it is currently undergoing environmental cleanup. In 1992, Congress passed legislation designating RMA as a National Wildlife Refuge upon completion of the environmental cleanup.
• The history of Chemical warfare and Porton Down, currently home the U.K. Defence Science and Technology Laboratory for chemical and biological defense is available on the Ministry of Defence web site.
  
  If you have a subject on the history of chemical warfare that you would like to see added to this list, please let us know.