H102: Rise of the State and the Dawn of Modern War

1. H102: Rise of the State and the Dawn of Modern War

2. Medieval Society • Hierarchical • Limited social mobility – military/church • Agriculturally based economy • Limited education, though universities are founded

3. Medieval Warfare • Highly individualized • Extreme training or none • Private armies • Mercenaries • Focused on shock cavalry

4. Reemergence of Infantry • Armored Pikeman • Begins where there is no feudal nobility • - Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland

5. Gunpowder “Revolution”? 200 Yards Range # Shots Per Minute Archer Crossbowman Arquebusier 100 Yards

6. MUSKETS MUSKETS Spanish Tercio PIKES Strength 1,000-3,000 men MUSKETS MUSKETS

7. Limitations of Generals “… they try to do everything and, as a result, do nothing. They appear to me like men with their heads turned, who no longer see anything and who only are able to do what they have done all their lives, which is to conduct troops methodically under the orders of a commander. How does this happen? It is because very few men occupy themselves with the higher problems of war … in default of knowing what should be done, they do what they know.” Maurice de Saxe, Marshall of France

8. Trouble with Mercenaries • Expense • Mutiny • Desertion • Defect • Expense Lack of Reliability Can not plan and Execute Operations Problem of how to achieve reliable military effectiveness?

9. Maurice of Nassau • Drill and Discipline - unconditional battlefield obedience • Illustrated Drill Manuals • Linear formations • 50 ranks to 10 ranks • Volley fire (alternate fire and load) • Continuous rate of fire • Larger battlefield • Increased mobility - smaller units, manageable Dutch Battalions 3 Platoons of Musketeers (4 x 10) Pikemen (5 x 50)

10. Gustavus Adolphus • National standing army (conscript / mercenary) • Linear Tactics – reduced from 10 to 6 ranks • Higher rate of fire - premade cartridges • 1, 2, or 3 lines of fire • Countermarch on the attack • Standard artillery calibers: 24, 12, 3 pounders • Cavalry as shock - swords vs. pistols

11. Ugly Face of Early-Modern War • 20-30% of German population died as a direct or indirect result of the 30 Years War • Bohemia had 3,000 less villages in 1648 than it did in 1617 • Mecklenburg went from 3,000 farms in 1620 to only 360 by 1640 • Württemberg had 450,000 citizens in 1620 but dropped to 100,000 by 1639

12. Revolution Assessed “In a way that few could have foreseen, the sustained preoccupation of the European states with fighting each other by land and sea had at length paid handsome dividends. Thanks above all to their military superiority, founded upon the military revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Western nations had managed to create the first global hegemony in history.” Geoffrey Parker, Military Revolution