This volume explores French partisan warfare in the Spanish Netherlands during the Dutch War (1672-78). It considers such practices as contributions, fire-raids, and blockades before sieges. The author relies extensively on archival sources, and in many cases explores events that have been passed over by similar studies. Louis XIV and his generals used partisan warfare to fit a strategy of exhaustion to ensure territorial conquest. The French army's reliance on partisan warfare reveals the limitations of the war-making potential of Louis XIV's state; at the same time it leads to the emergence of a more modern practice of military operations to pursue theater-strategic objectives.
"Vauban under Siege" is the first systematic comparison of the theory of Vaubanian siegecraft with its reality, contrasting military engineering's pursuit of the efficient siege with generals' contradictory search for rapid conquest, purchased at the cost of additional lives.
Showcasing French participation in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution, this book shows the French army at the heart of revolutionary, social, and cultural change. Osman argues that efforts to transform the French army into a citizen army before 1789 prompted and helped shape the French Revolution.
This edited volume analyses siege warfare as a discrete type of military engagement, in the face of which civilians are particularly vulnerable. Siege warfare is a form of combat that has usually had devastating effects on civilian populations. From the near-contemporary Siege of Sarajevo to the real and mythical sieges of the ancient Mediterranean, this has been a recurring type of military engagement which, through bombardment, starvation, disease and massacre, places non-combatants at the heart of battle. To date, however, there has been little recognition of the effects of siege warfare on civilians. This edited volume addresses this gap. Using a distinctive regressive method, it begins with the present and works backwards, avoiding teleological interpretations that suggest the targeting of civilians in war is a modern phenomenon. Its contributors interrogate civilians’ roles during sieges, both as victims and active participants; the laws and customs of siege warfare; its place in historical memory, and the ways civilian survivors have dealt with trauma. Its scope and content ensure that the collection is essential reading for all those interested in the place of civilians in war. Chapter 2 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com
Johann Ewald began as a commoner in one of the states of the Holy Roman Empire who rose above the constraints of his time. As a soldier he fought in all of the great conflict of the latter eighteenth century, the Seven Years’ War, the American War of Independence and the Napoleonic Wars. He keenly recorded his observations of both the people he met and places he encountered throughout these adventures. Through all of his experiences, he remained a soldiers’ soldier. Due to his observations on the conduct of irregular warfare in his time, he has become on the most important authorities on eighteenth century small-unit tactics. His writings provide a unique insight on the major events of the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Johann von Ewald stood as one of the most accomplished practitioners of irregular warfare in the eighteenth century. Beginning his military career in the Seven Years’ War, and continuing through the American War of Independence, he amassed a vast wealth of experience leading troops in the art of irregular warfare or petite guerre. He later wrote several works based on his experiences, and at least one of these received the favorable comment of Frederick the Great, the warrior King of Prussia. In addition, Ewald composed for the members of his family a diary of his experiences in the American War of Independence. Later on, he served in the Danish Army during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Among all but a small group of dedicated scholars of the American War of Independence, however, Johann von Ewald has vanished into obscurity. There are no other English language biographies of Ewald, and only a few articles in German that date to the nineteenth century. It is the purpose of this work to rescue him from oblivion. Telling Ewald’s story, therefore, tells much of the story of warfare in the second half of the eighteenth century. Instead of focusing on the great battles, however, Ewald’s biography focuses on the conduct of irregular operations: raids, ambushes and the like. Ewald allows readers a view into this often neglected dimension of eighteenth century warfare, and the proposed biography will thoroughly explore the topic through his writings, both his military treatises and his diary of the American War of Independence.
The Peace of Westphalia (1648), ending the Thirty Years' War, resulted in the rise of the modern European states system. However, dynasticism, power politics, commerce, and religion continued to be the main issues driving International politics and warfare. Dr. William Young examines war and diplomacy during the Age of Louis XIV and Peter the Great. His study focuses on the later part of the Franco-Spanish War, the Wars of Louis XIV, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the West. In addition, the author explores the wars of the Baltic Region and East Europe, including the Thirteen Years' War, Second Northern War, War of the Holy League, and the Great Northern War. The study includes a guide to the historical literature concerning war and diplomacy during this period. It includes bibliographical essays and a valuable annotated bibliography of over six hundred books, monographs, dissertations, theses, journal articles, and essays published in the English language. International Politics and Warfare in the Age of Louis XIV and Peter the Great is a valuable resource for individuals interested in the history of diplomacy, warfare, and Early Modern Europe.
The period 1350–1750 saw major developments in European warfare, which not only had a huge impact on the way wars were fought, but also are critical to long-standing controversies about state development, the global ascendancy of the West, and the nature of 'military revolutions' past and present. However, the military history of this period is usually written from either medieval or early-modern, and either Western or Eastern European, perspectives. These chronological and geographical limits have produced substantial confusion about how the conduct of war changed. The essays in this book provide a comprehensive overview of land and sea warfare across Europe throughout this period of momentous political, religious, technological, intellectual and military change. Written by leading experts in their fields, they not only summarise existing scholarship, but also present new findings and new ideas, casting new light on the art of war, the rise of the state, and European expansion.
Small power diplomacy in seventeenth century Europe War, State and Society in Liège is a fascinating case study of the consequences of war in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and touches upon wider issues in early modern history, such as small power diplomacy in the seventeenth century and during the Nine Years’ War. For centuries, the small semi-independent Holy Roman Principality of Liège succeeded in preserving a non-belligerent role in European conflicts. During the Nine Years’ War (1688–1697), however, Liège’s leaders had to abolish the practice of neutrality. For the first time in its early modern history, the Prince-Bishopric had to raise a regular army, reconstruct ruined defence structures, and supply army contributions in both money and material. The issues under discussion in War, State and Society in Liège offer the reader insight into how Liège politically protected its powerful institutions and how the local elite tried to influence the interplay between domestic and external diplomatic relationships.
The Dutch army is central to all discussions about the tactical, strategic and organisational military revolution of the early modern period, but this is the first substantial work on the subject in English. This book addresses the changes that were effected in the tactics and organisation of the Dutch armed forces between 1588 and 1688. It shows how in the first decades of this period the Dutch army was transformed from an unreliable band of mercenaries into a disciplined force that could hold its own against the might of Spain. Under the leadership of Maurits of Nassau and his cousin Willem Lodewijk a tactical revolution was achieved that had a profound impact on battle. However, the Dutch army's organisational structure remained unchanged and the Dutch Republic continued to rely on mercenaries and military entrepreneurs. It was not until the latter half of the seventeenth century that the Dutch, under William III of Orange, Captain-General of the Union, introduced revolutionary changes in military organisation and established an efficient standing army. This army withstood attacks by Louis XIV and the Dutch reforms were copied by the English. OLAF VAN NIMWEGEN has held a number of research posts in the Netherlands. He has an extensive publication record in Dutch and has published several articles on the Dutch army in English. In 2004 he was awarded the Schouwenburg Prize for an outstanding publication on Dutch military history for De Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden als grote mogendheid The Republic of the United Netherlands as a great power], about the role and position of the Dutch Republic in the European system of states in the period 1713 to 1756.
