The Military Revolution

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The Military Revolution

Overview

War is a characteristic of virtually every human society and civilization in nearly every era of human history for which some sort of records exist. However, until the fifteenth century most military conflicts were fought using largely the same weapons and tactics as those of Alexander the Great (356-323 b.c.). Several inventions between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries changed this, leading to a revolution in the way wars were fought. This set in motion many trends in warfare that have continued to this day, such as the concept of total war, the almost exclusive use of guns, and tactics better suited for the age of guns.

Background

Mankind is almost unique among animals in consciously waging war. Through all of recorded human history, accounts of warfare are common, and archeological evidence exists confirming the presence of warfare deep in prehistory. For most of human history, in fact, until the fifteenth century, warfare changed very little. Men armed with sharp objects (typically swords, arrows, or pikes) would try to kill each other. Whichever side lost so many men that it could no longer fight cohesively would lose the battle. The major innovations in warfare were the use of chariots by the Romans and the use of cavalry by many powers.

In general, battles were waged by foot soldiers, with mounted soldiers (knights, in medieval Europe) adding mobility, all under the direction of a king, general, or other highly placed leader. In this brand of warfare, the rules were fairly well fixed, tactics were well known, and there was little in the way of strategic planning. That is to say, wars were fought one battle at a time, mostly without coordinating the activities of various armies, industry, transportation, and with no overall plan for arranging the downfall of the enemy beyond destroying its armies on the field of battle. And, necessarily, most fighting was done in hand-to-hand combat because archers were few and their range limited. These general rules began to change in the mid-fifteenth century, and the changes accelerated and became more profound with time.

One of the first innovations was the introduction of firearms on a large scale. Another was the use of large guns (artillery) to bombard cities, fortifications, and armies from a distance. At sea, the change from galleys (which were rowed rather than sailed) to larger and more powerful sailing ships turned naval warfare into a strategic weapon. Another innovation was mounting large guns on ships. This was first done by simply cutting holes in the sides of ships and putting guns behind them. Over time, this evolved into ships with two or three gun decks that might carry 100 guns or more. This, in turn, caused ships to become important weapons for fleet actions, raiding merchant ships, and bombarding shore facilities in support of armies ashore.

As these technological changes became entrenched, the Swedish army developed revolutionary new battlefield tactics, quickly adopted by other European powers, that maximized the utility of guns while rendering the horse-mounted knights obsolete. In fact, the Swedish army of the 1650s was perhaps the first army that used tactics significantly different from those of Alexander the Great. They were also the first army in nearly 2,000 years that could have defeated Alexander in battle.

At the same time, power was becoming more centralized, with national governments (albeit still monarchies) assuming power previously held by many smaller nobles. As this happened, larger armies became the norm, although many nations relied on mercenaries (especially the Swiss) to fight wars for them.

As a side note, Japan's retreat from the use of firearms in battle must be mentioned. The Japanese used firearms enthusiastically for over a century, achieving a proficiency that exceeded that of European powers. However, the ruling Samurai class realized that a common peasant with a gun could kill a highly trained warrior. They understood that this could threaten the Samurai's place in Japanese society and decreed that guns could only be manufactured for the government, then failed to purchase any. As a result, as late as the nineteenth century Japan had no indigenous firearms industry and relied on essentially medieval weaponry.

By the dawn of the eighteenth century, most of the innovations noted above had become incorporated into European military strategy. Although technology continued to improve, the world caught its breath for a century or so before the next round of rapid change again transformed the face of warfare.

Impact

These dramatic innovations had a significant impact on the manner in which wars were fought in Europe and, as they spread, throughout the world. In addition, they helped change the global balance of power in favor of Europe, which helped Europe financially dominate most of the world for several centuries. Finally, changes in weaponry changed the nature of nations and the way they fought wars, as well as helping to usher in the end of the feudal system in Europe.

Perhaps the most obvious impact of the innovations mentioned above involves the manner in which wars were fought. Extensive use of firearms was the final step in driving the knight and chivalry into oblivion. With this, and the advent of standing national armies, the stage was set for introducing standardized tactics, military drills, war games, and the like. This, in turn, started to turn soldiering into a profession, as it remains in many nations. A corollary of this trend was that professional (or at least highly trained conscripts) could fight more effectively and more efficiently than swarming masses of peasants who were given a pike and told to stab at anyone from the other side. Warfare again began to involve military maneuvers and more sophisticated tactics, as had the Roman legions and the army of Alexander the Great. These tactics had fallen into disuse in the intervening centuries because the large masses of untrained soldiers were simply unable to learn the techniques, and the large numbers of smaller fighting forces (consisting of the men each knight or nobleman brought with him) tended to preclude coordinated movements on the battlefield.

In addition, more highly trained armies were expensive. This not only led to somewhat smaller army sizes, but also made each soldier more valuable because of the training that had gone into making him an efficient cog in the war machine. In turn, this made commanders less willing to risk their men's lives because they knew that each casualty would require replacement, which was often a very junior, inexperienced, and poorly trained soldier. Armies did everything they could to avoid high losses.

At sea, warfare also changed dramatically, to the point that sea power became indispensable to the Dutch, Spanish, and British and was very important to the Portuguese and French. As noted above, the chief breakthrough lay in realizing that ships could hold large guns. This dictated a sturdier, stronger vessel to hold the gun and withstand its recoil when discharged. The larger ships became nearly impossible to row, making them dependent on their sails for propulsion. This, in turn, vastly increased their range, although at the cost of speed and maneuverability. Adding larger and more numerous guns required even larger ships, and it quickly became apparent that more guns resulted in a greater chance of victory in battle. With all of these developments, naval tactics changed dramatically as commanders strove to take advantage of the positive characteristics of their new platforms. With all of this, ships became increasingly capable of destroying other warships, raiding enemy merchant vessels, and bombarding enemy shore facilities. These new offensive capabilities served to turn naval war into a legitimate strategic weapon. This, in turn, helped small seagoing nations such as Britain and Holland become major powers, even though their armies were often outnumbered on the field of battle.

Europe's technological and economic advantages, developed during this period, enabled various European nations to dominate much of the rest of the world for several centuries. Superior firepower was combined with advanced tactics and an appreciation for increasingly wide-ranging strategy, a combination that was used to defeat most of the armies Europeans faced for several centuries. This, in turn, gave Europe a decided financial advantage over most of the world, an advantage that largely remains to this day. In fact, of the major economic powers, only Japan is neither European nor a former European colony.

Finally, changes in the nature of warfare ushered in by these technological innovations led to changes in the structure of nations. As noted above, new weapons led to new tactics, which led to increasing emphasis on foot soldiers at the expense of heavy cavalry. In effect, this caused much of the aristocracy to lose prominence in the army. At the same time, forming large standing armies led to the elimination of the smaller armies formerly maintained by the aristocracy. To help remedy feelings of discontent, many nations developed a practice of choosing officers entirely from the ranks of theses aristocrats. This not only provided a corps of leaders who were in positions of social authority, but also helped turn the aristocrats into paid employees of the central government instead of relatively independent leaders with private armies. By so doing, the relatively new central governments helped eliminate a potential threat to their authority.

Most of these new weapons and trends emerged in the fifteenth century and were in full swing by the eighteenth century. Once incorporated into military and political strategy, they tended to remain relatively constant for the next 150 years, until the American Civil War.

P. ANDREW KARAM