Nature of Warfare & Armies
✠ Wars occurred more
often, lasted longer, &
affected more people.
✠ This era in European
history is the most
lethal period before
1914
✠ New weapons and swift
movements resulted in
tactical sluggishness
Nature of Warfare & Armies
✠ Rise of infantry
✠ Decline of cavalry
✠ Armies deployed in
massive square
formations
✠ Field battles replaced by
protracted sieges of
attritional warfare
✠ Rise of the trace
itallienne
Nature of Warfare & Armies
✠ Non-existant standing
peacetime army
✠ Nobility, mercenaries, and
impromptu recruits
comprise wartime military
might
✠ Economic issues result
in plunder and
destruction of personal
property
✠ Technical And tactical
innovations that
fundamentally affect the
strategy, structure, and
sociopolitical aspects of
the art of war, and
produce a new method of
warfare.
✠ Wide-ranging
consequences also
occur in all facets of
society as a byproduct of a
revolution in military
affairs.
✠ British Professor of
History at Queen’s
University of Belfast
✠ Inaugural lecture in
January 1955
✠ Argues that RMA took
place between 1560
and 1660 and
Gustavus Adolphus
led the revolution
✠ British historian
currently teaching at
THE Ohio State
✠ Modifies and extends
the conclusion made
by Roberts
✠ Argues that the RMA
occurred from 1500 to
1800 and led to the
rise of the West
✠Influences on the
reforms of Maurice
of Nassau
✠Dutch Revolt & the
Duke of Alba
✠Countered Alba’s
innovations to make
command & control
more effective
1590s Military Reforms of
Maurice of Nassau
✠ Reduction in numbers
✠ Reintroduction of
drill
✠ Discipline
✠ Contribution to siege
warfare
✠ Problems:
✠ Still Attritional
Warfare
✠ Rigid formations only
suitable for defensive
purposes
Gustavus Adolphus & Rise of
Modern Army
✠Tactical––
combined arms &
weapon
integration
✠Strategic––Broad
dual strategy
focused on
Annihilation of
opposing army
Gustavus Adolphus and the Rise of
the Modern Army
✠Size & Composition–
–Increase in
frequency &
size/professionalizat
ion
✠Sociopolitical––
Increase in
Government’s
role/conscription/tra
ining/drill
Importance & Influence of
RMA Importance
Subsequent Revolutions
✠ Medicine
✠ Science
✠ Education
✠ Rise of Western World
✠ Imperialism
✠ Modern Army
Bibliography & Further Reading