HISTORY 386. SECTION A. THE MILITARY AND WAR IN AMERICA.

Lecture 2: Armies and Warfare in Early ModernTimes: 18th Century Europe.

• I. Standing and Mobilized Armies.
  • A) Size. See table below.

Size of Armies 1630's-1780's

YEARS	SPAIN	HOLLAND	FRANCE	ENGLAND	RUSSIA	PRUSSIA
1630's	300,000	50,000	150,000	-------	35,000	-------
1650's	100,000	-------	100,000	70,000	-------	-------
1670's	70,000	110,000	120,000	-------	130,000	20,000
1700's	50,000	100,000	400,000	87,000	170,000	38,000
1740's	-------	80,000	300,000	80,000	150,000	80,000
1780's	-------	-------	224,000	-------	450,000	190,000

• B) Recruitment.
  • 1. Mercenaries. Scots, Irish, Swiss, Germans (Mecklenberg, Hesse), South Slavs, Albanians, Greeks, etc.
    • a) economic motives.
    • b) capitulations.
    • c) differences with mercenary companies of the past.
  • 2. Impressment. Petty criminals, street people. Henfed over by courts. Press gangs especially used for navies.
  • 3. Volunteers.
  • 4. Conscription. Used on a selective basis by certain countries.
    • a) Sweden.
    • b) Russia.
    • c) Prussia.
• C) Officer Corps.
  • 1. Nobility. (Noblesse de la Epee, Junkers, Service nobility).
  • 2. Venal commissions.
  • 3. Military schools and cadet corps (Russia, France, Britain, etc.)
• D) Equipment.
  • 1. Standardization (Musket, Bayonet, etc.)
  • 2. Uniforms regularized. British scarlet, French white, Prussian black, Russian green, etc.
  • 3. Stimulus to economy. Ambelakia story.
• E) Conditions of Service.
  • 1. Harsh discipline/awful hygeine.
  • 2. No ties with society.
  • 3. Drill (line regiments)
  • 4. Long-term or lifteime service.
• II. Navies and Overseas Conflicts.
  • A) Wars in Colonies.
    • 1. Small, irregular armies of joint stock companies. Use of mercenaries and natives, as well as some regulars.
    • 2. Regular and privateer navies. Large.
  • B) Regularization.
    • 1. Ships. Use of Sail alone, development of gunnery. Specific warship.
    • 2. Sailors. varied origins, merchantmen, privateers, pirates, impressed and volunteers.
    • 3. Recruitment/training for pirates. From privateers to regular crews. Impressment, volunteers, privateers.
    • 4. Officers. More technical and egalitarian.
    • 5. Disease. Problems with scurvy and contagious diseases, development of quarantines.
    • 6. Discipline. Brutal and maintained by officers and marines.
  • C) Naval Powers.
    • 1. Britain.
    • 2. France. (Mediterranean, Atlantic).
    • 3. Holland. Decline in late 17th century.
    • 4. Spain.
    • 5. Portugal.
    • 6. Scandinavia. (declined after Great Northern War).
    • 7. Russia (Peter I, Baltic, Black Sea)
• III. The Nature of Warfare.
  • A) Strategy.
    • 1. War Aims:
      • a) Enhancement of the State.
      • b) Territorial expansion.
        • i) On continent (France had Rhine, Prussia Silesia, Russia, Austria).
        • ii) Abroad (France, Britain, Holland, Spain, Portugal).
      • c) Commercial expansion.
        • i) Colonial wars.
        • ii) Naval wars.
    • 2. Rules of War (Like enlightenment laws of nature)
    • 3. Warring Powers did not want to destroy the enemy's economy or society, but to defeat it militarily.
    • 4. Pretexts for War:
      • a) Dynastic crises:
        • i) War of the Spanish succession (1701-1714)
        • ii) War of the Polish succession (173
        • iii) War of the Austrian succession (1740-1748).
        • iv) Seven Years' War (1756-1763).
      • b) Commercial and Colonial crises:
        • i) War of Queen Anne (1701-1714)
        • ii) War of Jenkins' Ear (1740-1748).
        • iii) French and Indian War (1756-1763).
    • 5. Attrition out, maneuver in. Marleborough, Eugene of Savoy, Turrenne, Maurice of Saxe, Frederick of Prussia. Exception in Colonial Wars.
    • 6. Continental War.
      • a) Coalitions and Alliances.
      • b) Set battles.
      • c) Some sieges, but costly. Bypass cities.
      • d) Avoided devastated countryside.
      •  
    • 7. Global War.
      • a) Naval struggle.
      • b) Colonial War.
      •  
    • 8. Diplomacy and War.
      • a) Development of Diplomatic system.
      • b) Permanent corps of consuls and ambassadors.
      • c) Interchange and etiquette..
        • i) French the language of diplomacy.
        • ii) Diplomats took over from warriors.
  • B) Tactics and Organization.
    • 1. Line Infantry.
      • a) Use of muskets and bayonets.
      • b) Rate of fire reduces line from 6 under Gustavus Adolphus, to 4, to 3, to finally 2..
      • c) Drill and cadenced step--the Prussian goosestep.
      • d) volley fire and coordinated movement--line, column, hollow square.
    • 2. Elite and Grenadier Infantry.
      • a) Grenadiers--largest and toughest troops.
      • b) Able to hurl 3+ pound grenades.
      • c) Obsolete--guards regiments..
      • d) Pomeranian Grenadiers of Frederick Wilhelm of Germany.
    • 3. Light Infantry.
      • a) Skirmishers.
      • b) Began as irregulars.
        • i) Grenzers (Austria).
        • ii) Albanians and Greeks (Naples)
        • iii) Scots Highlanders (England).
        • iv) Jägers (German states).
        • v) American Colonials (Rogers' Rangers).
      • c) Use of rifled muskets (no bayonet).
      • d) England maintained a company in each foot regiment.
      • e) Other countries maintained larger units.
      • f) later British followed suit.
    • 4. Cavalry.
      • a) Intermingled with Infantry.
        • i) use of arquebus, pistols, carbines, and light muskets.
        • ii) sabres basic shock weapon.
        • iii) French used firearms first.
        • iv) Swedes under Gustavus regularized use of firearms.
      • b) Used for shock and reconaissance.
        • i) mixed use by French.
        • ii) sole use by Prussians.
      • c) Types of Cavalry.
        • i) Hussars, light armed with sabre.
        • ii) lancers and cuirassers, by French and Poles.
        • iii) Poles and cossacks.
        • iv) dragoons and mounted infantry.
    • 5. Field Artillery.
      • a) Swedish army fiorst to develop really mobile field artillery.
      • b) Prussian used field artillery effectively for the first time since Gustavus. Still too heavy and irregular in size for effective movement and use.
      • c) French improved artillery in 1760's under Jean Baptiste de Gribauval.
        • i) Standardized size to 4, 8, 12 pound guns and six inch howitzer.
        • ii) lightened and strengthened caste in bronze and iron.
        • iii) carriages strengthened/ improved harnesses.
        • iv) Swedes under Gustavus regularized use of firearms.
        • v) interchangable part via Austrian Nicholas Le Blanc (1785).
        • vi) improvement in aiming instruments.
        • vii) used effectively by French.
      • d) Schrapnel (bursting shell of bullets invented by Henry Shrapnel in 1784), grape, and cannister shot.
    • 6. Siege Warfare and Engineers.
      • a) Principles of Vauban continued.
      • b) Use of trenchworks, artillerry and sappers.
      • c) Fortifications built all over Europe.
      • d) Cost of sieges bring about battles in the field, concept of open cities.
    • 7. Naval Tactics.
      • a) Age of fighting sail.
        • i) ships of the line.
        • ii) frigates.
      • b) Linear of formal tactics.
        • i) Parallel engagement of opposing navies.
        • ii) Using sail power
        • iii) Broadsides.
        • iv) boarding.
        • v) very complicated.
      • c) Melee tactics.
        • i) Perpendicular engagement of opposing navies.
        • ii) breaking up the oppsing line.
        • iii) Broadsides.
        • iv) boarding.
        • v) very complicated, used by the British.
      • d) Gunnery tactics.
        • i) French gunners aimed for the masts.
        • ii) English gunners aimed for the hulls.
      • e) Most important naval powers France and England in the 18th century.
      • f) Naval services the most technical and difficault because men have to fight on moving vessals, many skills needed. At the cutting edge of technology.
  • C) Affects.
    • 1. Political .
      • a) Armies the toys of kings, the main instrument of state power and majesty. The rationale for the state and its collecting of revenues.
        • i) The rationale for the state and its collecting of revenues.
        • ii) The symbol of authority. Monarchy vs. Oligarchies.
      • b) Political changes caused by wars of the 18th century.
        • i) Decline of France as the major power in Europe.
        • ii) Rise of Prussia as a military power (Fred/Bill, Fred II).
        • iii) Rise of Russia as a European power.
        • iv) Maritime rivalry and the ascendency of Britain as the major overseas and naval power.
    • 2. Social .
      • a) Armies were seperated from civilian society.
        • i) To maintain their loyalty and aloofness.
        • ii) To prevent abuses of time past (brigandage,
        • extortion, etc).
        • iii) Maintained in garrisons, fortress, according to their own military law..
        • iv) None of the destruction civilian property and lives of earlier or later times, except in sieges and colonial wars.
      • b) Armies became a seperate society, this would change.
        • i) with the development of militias and citizen armies.
        • ii) the political revolutions of America and France.
        • iii) Nationalism.
    • 3. Economic .
      • a) State revenues collected for maintainance of armed forces.
      • b) State expenditures debursed for maintainance of armed forces. More important than any other government agency.
      • c) Affect on labor force minimal except in Russia.
      • d) Growth of Crafts and industry need to outfit armies and navies.
      • e) changes with the industrial revolution.
    • 4. Cultural.
      • a) Armies develop own society and subcultural seperate from civilians.
      • b) Own etiquette, customs, music, literaure, song, etc.
      • c) melding with the development of citizen armies, nationalism.
      • d) Ideas of the French and American Revolution.
• IV. Conclusions.