A Military Revolution? War, State and Society in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1800
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
SCHOOL OF DIVINITY, HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY ACADEMIC SESSION 2013-2014 HI 355F: A Military Revolution? War, State and Society in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1800 30 Credits : 12 Weeks PLEASE NOTE CAREFULLY: The full set of school regulations and procedures is contained in the Undergraduate Student Handbook which is available online at your MyAberdeen page. Students are expected to familiarise themselves not only with the contents of this leaflet but also with the contents of the Handbook. Therefore, ignorance of the contents of the Handbook will not excuse the breach of any school regulation or procedure. You must familiarise yourself with this important information at the earliest opportunity. COURSE CO-ORDINATOR/COURSE TEAM Professor Robert Frost. Room CA 112 [email protected] Office hours by appointment. Please send an e-mail to the above address. DISCIPLINE ADMINISTRATION: Mrs Barbara McGillivray/Mrs Gillian Brown 50-52 College Bounds Room CBLG01 01224 272199/272454 [email protected] TIMETABLE Please refer to the online timetable on MyAberdeen Students can view the University Calendar at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/students/13027.php 1 COURSE DESCRIPTION This course looks at the development of warfare in early modern Europe in the light of the theory, first proposed by Micheal Roberts, that Europe in this period saw a military revolution that had profound effects not just on the way wars were fought, but on European state formation and social development. It analyses the views of supporters and opponents of the theory, the technological changes seen in warfare in this period, and examines the conduct of war at the tactical and strategic levels, before going on to consider the changing culture of war and its impact on state and society. The course will cover a range of military conflicts across the whole continent of Europe, and will also consider the impact of European warfare outside Europe in the first great age of European imperial expansion. INTENDED AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES Course Aims: • To secure a firm understanding of the nature and significance of war in the development of early modern Europe • To give students detailed and critical insight into the central problems and issues of the Military Revolution theory • To enhance and develop presentational skills through a fornal presentation. Learning Outcomes • To provide an understanding of the main developments in warfare in the early modern period. • To encourage the development of a critical understanding of the major scholarly debates about military change and its impact in early modern Europe, and of the impact of European military change on the wider world. • To equip students with the means to analyse critically the connections between military developments and social, cultural and political change in the period. • To use the example of military history to develop an understanding of the problem of continuity versus change in historical processes. 2 LECTURE/SEMINAR PROGRAMME Week 1: S1: Introduction to the Course; Organisation of Presentations. S2: Michael Roberts and the Military Revolution Week 2: S3: Military Technology: the coming of gunpowder (1) the battlefield S4: Military Technology: the coming of gunpowder (2) siege warfare Week 3: S5: Military Technology: (3) warfare at sea. S6: Military Organisation (1) Raising an army. Week 4: S7: Military Organisation (2) Supplying an army S8: Military Society & Military Institutions. Week 5: S9: The Laws of War: controlling the military (Documents; groupwork). S10: .War and the State (1):Spain Week 6: S11: War and the State (2): France S12: War and the State (3): the military state: Sweden & Denmark Week 7: S13: War and the State (4): the military state: Brandenburg-Prussia S14: Russia and the Military Revolution Week 8: READING WEEK, NO CLASSES Essays to be handed in BY NOON ON THURSDAY 27 MARCH 12 Week 9: S15: War and the State: consensual systems (1) The Dutch Republic S16: War and the State: consensual systems (2) Poland-Lithuania Week 10: S17: The British State and the Military Revolution S18: Celtic Warfare (the Scottish Highlands & Ireland) Week 11: S19: Non-State Military Organisations: Cossacks, Uzkoks, Bandits & Privateers. S20: The Military Revolution and the Wider World Week 12: S21: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars; another Military Revolution? S22 Was there a Military Revolution? (Class Debate). 3 READING LIST General Texts These three books provide introductions to the themes to be explored in the course, and should acquaint themselves with their main arguments. Copies can be bought at Waterstones. Parker, Geoffrey, The Military Revolution, Military Innovation and the Rise of the West 1500-1800 (2nd edition, Cambridge, 1996) Rogers, Clifford, ed., The Military Revolution Debate. Readings in the Transformation of Early Modern Europe (1995) Frost, Robert I. The Northern Wars. War, State and Society in Northeastern Europe 1558-1721 (2000). All students should prepare for the week’s class by reading texts designated as essential. Some suggestions for further reading are also provided as an introduction to each theme for those writing essays and giving presentations. A fuller bibliography is posted on MyAberdeen. Week One: Essential Roberts, M.: ‘The Military Revolution, 1550-1660’ in: Rogers, , ed., The Military Revolution Debate. (also in Roberts’s Essays in Swedish History). Read also the essays by Parrott & Parker. Additional Reading Read also the essays by Parker and Parrott in Rogers, The Military Revolution Debate. Knox, M. & Williamson, M. (eds): The Dynamics of Military Revolution (2001) Introduction Eltis, D.: The Military Revolution of the Sixteenth Century (1995). Downing, B.M.: The Military Revolution and political change in early modern Europe. Origins of Democracy and Autocracy in Early Modern Europe (1990) Introduction and conclusion. Arnold, T.F.: ‘War in sixteenth-century Europe: revolution and renaissance’ in Black, J. (ed.): European Warfare 1453-1815 (1999) Week Two: Read at least ONE of the following Hall, B. & De Vries, K.: ‘The “Military Revolution” revisited’ Technology and Culture (1990) Parker, G.: The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567-1659.(1972) Introduction Showalter, D.E.: ‘Caste, skill and training. The evolution of cohesion in European armies from the Middle Ages to the sixteenth century’ The Journal of Military History 57 (1993) Lynn, J.A.: ‘The trace italienne and the growth of armies: the French case’ in Rogers, C. (ed.) The Military Revolution Debate Arnold, T.F.: ‘Fortifications and the Military Revolution: the Gonzaga experience 1530-1630’ in Rogers, C. (ed.) The Military Revolution Debate 4 Parrott, D.: ‘The utility of fortifications in early modern Europe: Italian princes and the citadels, 1540-1640’ War in History 7 (2000) Week Three S5: Warfare at Sea Essential Reading Parker, Military Revolution, chapter three. Additional Reading Rogers, N. Essays in Naval History, from Medieval to Modern (2009) Harding, R.: ‘Naval warfare 1453-1815’ in Black, J. (ed.): European Warfare 1453-1815 (1999) Glete, J.: Warfare at Sea, 1500-1650: Maritime Conflicts and the Transformation of Europe (2001) Glete, J.: Navies and Nations. Warships, Navies and State Building in Europe and America, 1500-1860 2 vols (1993) S6: Military Organisation: Raising an Army Essential Reading Wilson, P.H., ‘The German “soldier trade” of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: a reassessment’ International History Review 18 (1996) Additional Reading Kiernan, V.G.: ‘Foreign mercenaries and absolute monarchy’ in Aston, T. (ed) Crisis in Europe (1965) Redlich, F.: The German Military Enterpriser and his Workforce, 13th to 17th Centuries 2 vols.(1964-5) Dow, J.: Ruthven’s Army in Sweden and Esthonia (1965) Worthington, D.: Scots in Habsburg Service, 1618-1648 (2004) Ingrao, C.W.: The Hessian Mercenary State Ideas, Instiutions and Reform under Frederick II, 1760-1785 (1987) Wilson, P.H.: ‘Social militarization in eighteenth-century Germany’ German History 18 (2000) Wilson, P.H.: War, State and Society in Württemberg, 1677-1793 (1995) Week Four S7: Supplying an Army & S8: Military Institutions Essential Readng Lynn, J.A.: ‘How war fed war: the tax of violence and Contributions during the Grand Siècle’ Journal of Modern History 65 (1993) Additional Reading Parrott, David, The Business of War. Military Enterprise and Military Revolution in Early Modern Europe (2012). Christianson, P.: ‘Arguments on billeting and Martial Law in the Parliament of 1628’ Historical Journal 37 (1994) Redlich, F.: ‘Contributions in the Thirty Years War’ Economic History Review 12 (1959-60) Stradling, R.A.: ‘Spain’s military failure and the supply of horses 1600-1660’ History 69 (1984) 5 Lynn, J.A. (ed.): Tools of War. Ideas and Institutions of Warfare (1990) Lynn, J.A. (ed.): Feeding Mars: Logistics in western warfare from the Middle Ages to the present (1993) Week 5 S9: The Laws of War: controlling the military (Document work) I will place documents for this session on myAberdeen. Essential Reading Parker, G. ‘The etiquette of atrocity: the laws of war in early modern Europe’, in Parker, Empire, War and Faith in Early Modern Europe, (2002), chapter 6. Additional Reading Tuck, R.: The Rights of War and Peace. Political Thought and the International Order from Grotius to Kant (1999) Piirmäe, P.: ‘Just war in theory and practice: the legitimation of Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years War’ Historical Journal 45 (2002) Parker, G., ‘The etiquette of atrocity: the laws of war in early modern Europe’ in Parker, G. Empire, War and Faith in Early Modern Europe (2002) Asch, R.: ‘ ‘Wo der soldat hinkömbt, da ist alles sein’: military violence and atrocities in the Thirty Years War re-examined’ German History 18 (2000) Donagan, B.: ‘Codes and conduct in the English Civil War’ Past and Present 118 (1988) Mortimer, G., ‘A ‘Myth’ of the All-destructive Fury’?’ in Mortimer, G. Eyewitness Accounts of the Thirty Years War 1618-48 (2002) Bussman and Schilling (eds.) 1648: War and Peace in Europe (1998), vol. I, sect. iv; catalogue sect.