THE OXFORD HISTORY OF MODERN WAR CHARLES TOWNSHEND Editor OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS THE OXFORD HISTORY OF MODERN WAR the editor CHARLES TOWNSHEND is Professor of International History, Keele University. THE OXFORD HISTORY OF MODERN WAR edited by CHARLES TOWNSHEND 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Oxford University Press 2000 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (makers) The text of this volume first published 1997 in The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern War First issued as The Oxford History of Modern War 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquiror British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0–19–285373–2 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by Cambrian Typesetters, Frimley, Surrey Printed in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman Ltd. Reading, Berkshire PREFACE The aim of this book is to provide a history not merely of modern warfare but of modern war as a whole. It is an attempt to go beyond military history. Violent conflict is as old as humanity, but modern war is different. Somewhere between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries an historic change took place in the military power of European states. The first result was to end for ever the vulnerability of Europe to invasion and conquest from Asia. The symbolic turning-point was the defeat of the Ottoman besiegers of Vienna in 1683. Thereafter the military balance shifted further until, in the nineteenth century, the West came to dominate the world. This shift cannot be understood in purely military terms. It was part of a complex process of social and economic moderniza- tion. War is more than military operations. Modern war, above all, came to enlist every aspect of life. This enlargement has altered the way historians write about war. Traditional military history has evolved into a broader and deeper approach to the relationship be- tween war and society. The contributors to this book have aimed to draw together recent interpretative studies to provide as clear a view as possible of this complex relationship. The book is divided into two parts, the first offering an account of the historical development of war since the time of the Renaissance in Europe, the second pro- viding overviews of a number of vital dimensions which have com- bined to create the characteristic modern structure of war. The final chapter addresses the question whether this distinctively modern form of war will survive into the twenty-first century. CONTENTS list of plates ix list of contributors xi Part I: The Evolution of Modern War 1. Introduction: The Shape of Modern War 3 charles townshend 2. The Military Revolution I: The Transition to Modern Warfare 20 john childs 3. The Military Revolution II: Eighteenth- Century War 40 jeremy black 4. The Nation in Arms I: The French Wars 55 alan forrest 5. The Nation in Arms II: The Nineteenth Century 74 david french 6. Imperial Wars: From the Seven Years War to the First World War 94 douglas porch 7. Total War I: The Great War 117 john bourne 8. Total War II: The Second World War 138 richard overy viii Contents 9. Cold War 158 philip towle 10. People’s War 177 charles townshend Part II: Elements of Modern War 11. Technology and War I: to 1945 201 martin van creveld 12. Battle: The Experience of Modern Combat 224 richard holmes 13. Sea Warfare john b. hattendorf 245 14. Air Warfare richard overy 262 15. War and the People: The Social Impact of Total War mark roseman 280 16. Women and War jean bethke elshtain 303 17. Against War adam roberts 317 18. Technology and War II: Postmodern War? martin van creveld 341 further reading 361 chronology 373 index 381 LIST OF PLATES 1. Napoleon at the Battle of Wagram, Vernet © ND-Viollet 2. Penetrating power of guns K. Macksey, Technology in War, 1986, Grub Street, Syndics of Cambridge University Library 3. The Great Siege of Namur, 1695 The Royal Collection © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 4. Casualties of the American Civil War National Archives W&C # 253 165-SB36 5. French mounted infantry in Morocco, 1912 6. War 1918 style IWM Q10711 7. Soviet infantry operating with T-34 tank 8. A Balloon Site, Coventry, Dame Laura Knight Imperial War Museum, London 9. Boer fighters caught crossing a railway British Library 10. The machine-gun National Archives 127-N-A187837 11. Troops, Saipan landing, 1944 Bara-King/National Archives 127 GW1303 83261 12. Still from 1930s film Things to Come London Films/United Artists (courtesy Kobal) x List of Plates 13. Soviet pilot Alexander Pokryshkin Pictorial Press 14. Civilians leaving burning city of Königsberg, 1945 Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz 15. American women campaigning, 1922 FPG International/Robert Harding Picture Library 16. Atomic explosion over Bikini, 1946 Bara-King/National Archives 80G402822 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. His 33 books include Why Wars Happen (1998); War and the World 1450–2000 (1998); Warfare in the Eighteenth Century (1999); and Britain as a Military Power 1688–1815 (1999). War—Past, Present and Future will appear later this year. John Bourne is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of Patronage and Society in Nineteenth Century England (1986); Britain and the Great War 1914–1918 (1989). John Childs is Professor of Military History at the University of Leeds. He is the author of The Army of Charles II (1976); The Army, James II, and the Glorious Revolution (1980); Armies and Warfare in Europe 1648–1789 (1982); The British Army of William III, 1689–1702 (1987); The Nine Years War and the British Army 1688–1697: The Operations in the Low Countries (1991). Jean Bethke Elshtain is Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Public Man, Private Woman (1981); Women and War (1987); Just War Theory (1992). Alan Forrest is Professor of Modern History at the University of York. He is the author of The French Revolution and the Poor (1981); Conscripts and Deserters: The Army and French Society during the Revolution and Empire (1989); Soldiers of the French Revolution (1990); The Revolution in Provincial France (1996); and editor of Reshaping France: Town, Country and Region during the French Revolution (1991). David French is Professor of History at University College London. He is the author of British Economic and Strategic Planning, 1905–1915 (1982); British Strategy and War Aims, 1914– 1916 (1986); The British Way in Warfare 1688–2000 (1990). John B. Hattendorf is Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History at the Naval War College, Rhode Island. He is the author of England in the War of the Spanish Succession: A Study of the English View and Conduct of Grand Strategy, 1702–1712 (1987); and editor of Maritime Strategy and xii List of Contributors the Nuclear Age (1982); Maritime Strategy and the Balance of Power (1989); The Limitations of Military Power (1990). Richard Holmes is Professor of Military and Security Studies at Cranfield University and Brigadier TA at Headquarters Land Command. He is author of The Little Field-Marshal: Sir John French (1981), The Road to Sedan: The French Army, 1866–70 (1984); Firing Line (1985); [with John Keegan] Soldiers: A History of Men in Battle (1985); Riding the Retreat (1995); The First World War (1999). In 1996 he presented War Walks on BBC TV. He is currently editing The Oxford Companion to Military History. Richard Overy is Professor of History at King’s College, London. He is the author of The Nazi Economic Recovery 1932–38 (1982); Goering: The Iron Man (1984); The Air War 1939–1945 (1980); The Road to War (1989); Why the Allies Won (1996). Douglas Porch is Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He is the author of Army and Revolution: France 1815–1848 (1974); The March to the Marne: The French Army, 1871–1914 (1981); The Conquest of Morocco (1983); The Conquest of the Sahara (1984); The French Foreign Legion (1991). Adam Roberts is Montague Burton Professor of International Relations, Oxford University; author of Nations in Arms: The Theory and Practice of Territorial Defence (2nd edn., 1986); editor of The Strategy of Civilian Defence (1967); Documents on the Laws of War (3rd edn., 2000); Hugo Grotius and International Relations (1990); and United Nations, Divided World (2nd edn., 1993).