Gunpowder enters the system
Artillery, arquebuses and bastioned fortifications reshape the defence of strongholds and make sieges more technical without eliminating close combat.
Military history
Transformations of the period
Between the end of the Middle Ages and the early nineteenth century, firearms do not win on their own. Their effect depends on states able to make powder, pay soldiers, maintain fortresses and move convoys. European, Ottoman, Russian, Mughal and colonial empires combine firepower, cavalry, naval power and administration in very different balances.
More permanent armies
Taxation, magazines and administration allow states to maintain troops and conduct campaigns longer than seasonal levies.
Linear battle and its limits
Disciplined fire, line infantry and mobile artillery reward order, while coalitions seek to prevent an opponent from concentrating resources.
Mobilization becomes strategic
Political revolution, conscription, army corps and speed of concentration project war onto a continental scale.
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Chronological dossier
Napoleonic WarsArmy corps, speed of concentration and mobile artillery project mass war onto a continental scale.Great Northern WarSweden faces a Russian-dominated coalition for control of the Baltic and the northern states.British Conquest of BengalThe English East India Company turns its military successes in Bengal into political and fiscal control.Ottoman–Hungarian WarsThe Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary contest the Danubian frontier after the fall of Belgrade.War of the Spanish SuccessionEuropean powers confront France to prevent the union of the French and Spanish crowns.American War of IndependenceThe insurgent colonies confront Great Britain and seek external support after retaining a field army.WaterlooA battle of coordination, attrition and time before the Prussians arrive.PoltavaPeter the Great lets the Swedish army exhaust itself before Poltava, then crushes it with prepared defences and a large reserve.AusterlitzNapoleon lets the right wing appear vulnerable, then strikes the Pratzen Heights once the Allies have committed there.Jena–AuerstedtNapoleon defeats a Prussian force at Jena while Davout, badly outnumbered, repels the main army at Auerstedt.
Military history
Sources
Historical overviewGeoffrey Parker, The Military Revolution
Debate on fortifications, taxation, standing armies and the transformation of European warfare.
Specialist studyJeremy Black, European Warfare, 1494–1660
The relationship between states, operations, technology and the limits of military-revolution models.
Military historyJohn A. Lynn, The Wars of Louis XIV
Administration, logistics, coalitions and campaign conduct in the age of standing armies.