This course will provide a detailed introduction to the history of warfare between c. 1450 and c. 1780 and will examine both land and naval conflict. Developments within Europe will be the central focus of the course, but comparative attention will also be given to Asian and Middle Eastern states and empires, and to the character of warfare in the European colonies in the Americas and Asia. These centuries have been at the centre of often heated historical debate about the extent and significance of military change, and the era was certainly characterized by significant developments in the ways war was practised, organised, financed, and justified. A key aim of the course is to suggest ways in which military history can be embedded within the wider framework of political, social, cultural, and gender history, as well as studied in its own right.
We will begin the course with the lively historiographical debate over the ‘military revolution’, grappling with the role of the changing nature of warfare on land and at sea in the early modern state, and the global implications of military change: had a ‘military revolution’ provided a means to pursue European global hegemony by the end of the period, or had non-European states adopted significant technological/organizational changes themselves? The second and third of the classes will provide an opportunity to examine how states financed, sourced and organized manpower, military hardware, logistical support and maintenance, and the political, social and economic consequences of these. The notion of the ‘fiscal-military state’ will be explored in the context of issues like military entrepreneurship, private contracting, privateering, and irregular warfare. Session four would explore aspects of the experience of early modern warfare from social, religious and gendered perspectives. What was distinctive about the experience of fighting in this period? Were infantry simply drilled automatons, more frightened of their officers than the enemy, or was the calibration of military commitment, cohesion and professionalism a more complex one, in which ordinary soldiers and sailors had considerably more agency and a much more diverse experience? How far did ideals of masculinity and social status determine the behaviour and assumptions of officers and men? What roles did religion play in military life? In fifth week we will look at issues surrounding the laws of war and the relationship between military and civilian populations. In both weeks four and five we shall seek, where possible, to apply non-European comparisons: does the (contested) notion that 18th-century warfare became more ‘civilized’ survive an examination of European colonial warfare, for example; how were civilian rights in warfare understood in the context of Asian warfare? The final session will look at war in wider social and cultural contexts, again being mindful of extra-European contexts and perspectives. How are armies, navies, individual soldiers and sailors, in service or retired veterans, army and naval officers, depicted and perceived in society? What can we learn about military cultures and their pervasiveness in different societies? Are all early modern societies militaristic, or can we calibrate distinctive levels of military culture within European states and between Europe and a global context?
The course, studied though an extensive, wide-ranging and frequently controversial historiography will allow students to gain familiarity with many aspects of early modern warfare, from which they will be able to choose, with assistance and advice from their tutors, a topic for an extended essay.
