Why does it seem that during big wars technology advances at a really fast rate. I mean during WWI they barely had what you could call a battleship and boom, 20 years later you have these huge aircraft carriers?

The biggest thing to change the way naval battles were fought was the airplane! It made battleships obsolete as soon as they began to to build carriers. Airpower was the new way to project power !

Hōshō: The first purpose-built aircraft carrier commissioned[edit] The first purpose-designed aircraft carrier to be laid down was HMS Hermes(1924) in 1918. Japan began work on Hōshō the following year. In December 1922, Hōshō became the first to be commissioned, while Hermes was commissioned in February 1924.