Is the Notion of an Early Modern Military Revolution Tenable?
The notion of an early modern military revolution is one which is a much debated subject among historians. Two historians who are very dominant in this field are Geoffrey Parker and Michael Roberts. Although they both agree that a military revolution occurred, they disagree on the timing of a revolution in war. Roberts argues that a military revolution started in 1560 and "by 1660, the modern art of war had come to birth." Parker, on the other hand, sees the military revolution as a "firmly sixteenth century phenomenon with antecedents in the fifteenth."
Prior to the early modern period, warfare was based around castles and fortified towns and attempts to capture
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Prior to this era, the maximum size of an army was approximately forty thousand (1555) but this increased immensely. Parker argued that the demands of new siege style warfare required men to provision siege lines while attacking and to garrison towns and citadels while defending rose the
number of soldiers required to sustain a war. Gustavus Adolphus used an army of one hundred and seventy five thousand men to obliterate Habsburg influence in the Holy Roman Empire and Spain mobilised three hundred thousand men in the 1630's, which is far greater than the amount of troops used before. Armies were also becoming permanent rather than seasonal as they were prior to the revolution. Mercenary armies, which were widely used in the sixteenth and fifteenth centuries, were on the decline and conscription was on the rise. The Swedes used conscription in the Thirty Years War, which provided cheap and reliable regiments, as they "were motivated by religion and national sentiment" . This was very effective as conscription soldiers who believed they were fighting for something, be it their country or religion, were less likely to desert than mercenaries, who would desert if they were offered a higher wage. In countries where conscription was not being introduced, great emphasis was being placed on recruitment. However, mercenary armies were still widely being used in the seventeenth century. Gustavus Adolphus' army was defeated in 1632 by Wallenstein's mercenary army.
In fact when President Lincoln announced he was raising a federal army of 75,000 men he quickly outnumbered it due to patriotic responses to the attack on Fort Sumter. When he asked Indiana for six regiments the governor promised Lincoln twelve, and the governor of Ohio, tasked to raise 13 regiments, stopped at 20 upsetting those who didn’t get to join. With the surge of volunteers on both sides of the war came shortages of many things, such as weapons and officers. This is because there were no European type “military families” where offspring are bound to join the army as officers and also because WestPoint the only military academy in the country had such a low amount of people in its graduating classes. These were some examples of how the
1. Historians of the American Revolution have disagreed on whether to characterize the revolution as radical or Conservative. Compare and contrast the arguments of Bernard Bailyn and Gordon Wood and make and build an argument for which interpretation is most convincing.
Where once citizens were soldiers defending their lands, the army became filled with
During the Middle Ages, or also known as the Medieval Ages, change was a major part of that period. Europe was watching war become much different. In the older times, a few thousands of troops were considered a large army. Nowadays, nobody has ever seen such size of an army with such variety in weapons including guns, munitions, and artillery that were all developed during that period. Besides, it was obvious that the face of warfare was changing by the end of the fifteenth century. Two of the most significant developments were the maintaining of a fair amount of troops on a permanent basis at the ready, and the rising need of gunpowder weapons and munitions. In essence The Middle
Historians have often debated the true definition of American Revolution, whether the Revolution was a conservative movement led to maintain the power of those at the top of the hierarchy or a radical movement that set a process of transformation of society and brought a new type of democracy to the colonies. Professors Wood and Nash clarify the true purpose of the movement and its outcome in their writing’s. Professor Wood explains to readers that the American Revolution was a radical movement that transformed society and state in the colonies, while Nash sees the revolution as a conservative movement of alarmed white male leaders whom sought to contain the revolution. The American Revolution was a radical movement that brought a transformation
The Revolutionary War was considered to be the war that laid the stepping stones for modern day warfare. In the earliest times of human civilization the rules of war were to always remain honorable and ethical. Due to the newfound use of guns and with the the high stakes that the Revolutionary War entailed, it forced these set rules of warfare to be broken to achieve a desired outcome of success and leaving others to wonder if there any longer remained “true” rules of warfare.
We saw an awe inspiring river, wide and rapid that created a natural border for Conquest Point’s city state. In the middle of the unwalled town was a fortified stone bridge that enforced the border’s sovereignty. Any ambiguous invader would certainly turn back from the fort, unable to pillage the town or general area. Hastily fashioned rafts would be of little use in getting across the raging river, and few row boats were in view. The fort’s walls were thick and tall, if you managed to fight your way through the fortified gate house on the middle of the bridge you still had to deal with the fort. Given the importance of the location of the town, I believed well trained troops were assigned to the garrison. In fact, the town looked prosperous enough to have more than a
In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the main characters is Arthur Dimmesdale, a Puritan minister living in Boston during the seventeenth century. Another main character, Hester Prynne, is the young wife of the aging Roger Chillingworth, a doctor who has recently gone missing. Dimmesdale and Hester commit adultery together and Hester becomes pregnant. Because her husband has been missing, however, the community discoverers her sin and they severely punish Hester. Dimmesdale does not confess to have taken a part in the adultery, and even with the ill treatment she receives, Hester refuses to reveal her partner in crime.
Thesis: I believe the American Revolution was actually revolutionary. The Revolutionary War did not cause an immediate change in America, but led to a long chain of actions, leading to America’s modern freedom.
Along with material resources, the North’s population was much greater than that of the South’s. 2.1 million people fought for the North, which represented nearly half of the eligible population, whereas only 900,000 people fought for the South, which made up 90 percent of its eligible population. The North also had an inflow of Irish and German immigrants who enlisted to fight in place of some native Northerners. Many ex-slaves from the South also fought for the Union, again increasing the North’s numbers.
Planned Parenthood wants Disney to create a princess who had had an abortion and is pro-choice, according to the Daily Wire.
Medieval tactics were essential for an attack or siege of a castle. Many tactics and strategies helped develop much-improved version of an attacking artifact, like weapons and sieging machinery. The knights of Medieval England which were the cavalry, improved as the years went by, but never actually had any tactics or strategies. The usual knight would just go out there and fight. The knights were the counter offensive against a small siege, but they were ineffective against a large siege of a castle. A siege was very essential for medieval warfare. Siege was like the most important part of an attack; that is if you’re attacking a castle.
Immigrants were a big part of United States history. Even though the proof and facts that workers brought lots of discrimination around the United States, they changed history completely and created a different nation. Created the nation that United States is today. People were being influenced from immigrants in many different ways. They helped change culture, religion and even in educational reasons.
Another part of why WWI was an industrial war, not just because of the new technological advancements, but because of the numbers in man power. Like mass production in industry, soldiers were mass made.
Another change occurred, in that armies changed from being mercenary based to kingdoms establishing their own standing armies. As a result, professional soldiers emerged which only continued to elevate the common soldier’s status in society. This occurred for a few reasons. Before arquebuses, a state maintaining a standing army was incredibly dangerous and expensive to handle. A standing army under a commander was mechanically difficult to manage while standing bowmen, as stated before, required constant training to be effective. Granted, it was possible that a standing army could be stronger than a mercenary based army, but most countries did not want to take the continual drain on their resources. The French had developed a standing army merely out of necessity for themselves due to the Hundred Years War.