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Wikipedia

Military history

January 29, 2023

For the television channel, see Military History (TV channel).

Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships.

Infantry were the first military forces in history. This warrior statuette demonstrates that military culture was an important part of historical societies, c.480 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen.

Professional historians normally focus on military affairs that had a major impact on the societies involved as well as the aftermath of conflicts, while amateur historians and hobbyists often take a larger interest in the details of battles, equipment and uniforms in use.

The essential subjects of military history study are the causes of war, the social and cultural foundations, military doctrine on each side, the logistics, leadership, technology, strategy, and tactics used, and how these changed over time. On the other hand, just war theory explores the moral dimensions of warfare, and to better limit the destructive reality caused by war, seeks to establish a doctrine of military ethics.

As an applied field, military history has been studied at academies and service schools because the military command seeks to not repeat past mistakes, and improve upon its current performance by instilling an ability in commanders to perceive historical parallels during a battle, so as to capitalize on the lessons learned from the past. When certifying military history instructors[1] the Combat Studies Institute deemphasizes rote detail memorization and focuses on themes and context in relation to current and future conflict, using the motto "Past is Prologue."[2]

The discipline of military history is dynamic, changing with development as much of the subject area as the societies and organisations that make use of it.[3] The dynamic nature of the discipline of military history is largely related to the rapidity of change the military forces, and the art and science of managing them, as well as the frenetic pace of technological development that had taken place during the period known as the Industrial Revolution, and more recently in the nuclear and information ages. An important recent concept is the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) which attempts to explain how warfare has been shaped by emerging technologies, such as gunpowder. It highlights the short outbursts of rapid change followed by periods of relative stability.

Popular versus academic military history

In terms of the history profession in major countries, military history is an orphan, despite its enormous popularity with the general public. William H. McNeill points out:

This branch of our discipline flourishes in an intellectual ghetto. The 144 books in question [published in 1968-78] fall into two distinct classes: works aimed at a popular readership, written by journalists and men of letters outside academic circles, and professional work nearly always produced within the military establishment.... The study of military history in universities remains seriously underdeveloped. Indeed, lack of interest in and disdain for military history probably constitute one of the strangest prejudices of the profession.[4][5]

In recent decades University level courses in military history remain popular; often they use films to humanize the combat experience. For example, Eugene P. A. Scleh, history professor at the University of Maine, has explored the advantages and problems of teaching a course of "Modern War and Its Images" entirely through films. Students said they found the documentaries more valuable than the dramas.[6] However, military historians are frustrated by their marginal status in major history departments.[7][8]

Historiography of military history

Historiography is the study of the history and method of the discipline of history or the study of a specialised topic. In this case, military history with an eye to gaining an accurate assessment of conflicts using all available sources. For this reason military history is periodised, creating overlaying boundaries of study and analysis in which descriptions of battles by leaders may be unreliable due to the inclination to minimize mention of failure and exaggerate success. Military historians use Historiographical analysis in an effort to allow an unbiased, contemporary view of records.[9]

One military historian, Jeremy Black, outlined problems 21st-century military historians face as an inheritance of their predecessors: Eurocentricity, a technological bias, a focus on leading military powers and dominant military systems, the separation of land from sea and recently air conflicts, the focus on state-to-state conflict, a lack of focus on political "tasking" in how forces are used.[10]

If these challenges were not sufficient for the military historians, the limits of method are complicated by the lack of records, either destroyed or never recorded for its value as a military secret that may prevent some salient facts from being reported at all; scholars still do not know the exact nature of Greek fire for instance. Researching Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, for example, have presented unique challenges to historians due to records that were destroyed to protect classified military information, among other reasons. Historians use their knowledge of government regulation and military organization, and employing a targeted and systematic research strategy to piece together war histories.[11] Despite these limits, wars are some of the most studied and detailed periods of human history.

Military historians have often compared organization, tactical and strategic ideas, leadership, and national support of the militaries of different nations.[12]

In the early 1980s, historian Jeffrey Kimball studied the influence of a historian's political position on current events on interpretive disagreement regarding the causes of 20th century wars. He surveyed the ideological preferences of 109 active diplomatic historians in the United States as well as 54 active military historians. He finds that their current political views are moderately correlated with their historiographical interpretations. A clear position on the left-right continuum regarding capitalism was apparent in most cases. All groups agreed with the proposition, "historically, Americans have tended to view questions of their national security in terms of such extremes as good vs. evil." Though the Socialists were split, the other groups agreed that "miscalculation and/or misunderstanding of the situation" had caused U.S. interventionism." Kimball reports that:

Of historians in the field of diplomatic history, 7% are Socialist, 19% are Other, 53% are Liberal, 11% are None and 10% Conservative. Of military historians, 0% are Socialist, 8% are Other, 35% are Liberal, 18% are None and 40% are Conservative.[13]

Online resources

People interested in military history from all periods of time, and all subtopics, are increasingly turning to the Internet for many more resources than are typically available in nearby libraries. Since 1993, one of the most popular sites, with over 4000 members (subscriptions are free) has been H-WAR, sponsored by the H-Net network based at Michigan State University.[14] H-War has six coeditors, and an academic advisory board that sets policy. It sponsors daily moderated discussions of current topics, announcements of new publications and conferences, and reports on developments at conferences. The H-Net family of lists has sponsored and published over 46,000 scholarly book reviews, thousands of which deal with books in military history broadly conceived.[15] Wikipedia itself has a very wide coverage of military history, with over 180,000 articles. Its editors sponsor Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history and encourage readers to join.[16]

Military and war museums

See also: Category:Military and war museums

Military museums specialize in military histories; they are often organized from a national point of view, where a museum in a particular country will have displays organized around conflicts in which that country has taken part. They typically take a broad view of warfare's role in the nation's history.[17] They typically include displays of weapons and other military equipment, uniforms, wartime propaganda, and exhibits on civilian life during wartime, and decorations, among others. A military museum may be dedicated to a particular or area, such as the Imperial War Museum Duxford for military aircraft, Deutsches Panzermuseum for tanks, the Lange Max Museum for the Western Front (World War I), the International Spy Museum for espionage, The National World War I Museum for World War I, the "D-Day Paratroopers Historical Center" (Normandy) for WWII airborne, or more generalist, such as the Canadian War Museum or the Musée de l'Armée. For the Italian alpine wall one can find the most popular museum of bunkers in the small museum n8bunker at Olang / Kronplatz in the heard of the dolomites of South Tyrol. The U.S. Army and the state National Guards operate 98 military history museums across the United States and three abroad.[18]

Curators debate how or whether the goal of providing diverse representations of war, in terms of positive and negative aspects of warfare. War is seldom presented as a good thing, but soldiers are heavily praised. David Lowenthal has observed that in today's museums, "nothing seems too horrendous to commemorate". Yet as Andrew Whitmarsh notes, "museums frequently portray a sanitised version of warfare."[19] The actual bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan became the focus of an angry national controversy with veterans attacking curators and historians when the Smithsonian Institution planned to put its fuselage on public display in 1995. The uproar led to cancellation of the exhibit.[20]

Early historians

The documentation of military history begins with the confrontation between Sumer (current Iraq) and Elam (current Iran) c. 2700 BC near the modern Basra. Other prominent records in military history are the Trojan War in Homer's Iliad (though its historicity has been challenged), The Histories by Herodotus (484 BC – 425 BC) who is often called the "father of history".[21] Next was Thucydides whose impartiality, despite being an Athenian, allowed him to take advantage of his exile to research the war from different perspectives by carefully examining documents and interviewing eyewitnesses.[22] An approach centered on the analysis of a leader was taken by Xenophon (430 BC – 355 BC) in Anabasis, recording the expedition of Cyrus the Younger into Anatolia.

The records of the Roman Julius Caesar (100 BC – 44 BC) enable a comparative approach for campaigns such as Commentarii de Bello Gallico and Commentarii de Bello Civili.

Technological evolution

Main article: History of military technology

The nature of warfare never changes, only its superficial manifestations. Joshua and David, Hector and Achilles would recognize the combat that our soldiers and Marines have waged in the alleys of Somalia and Iraq. The uniforms evolve, bronze gives way to titanium, arrows may be replaced by laser-guided bombs, but the heart of the matter is still killing your enemies until any survivors surrender and do your will.

— Ralph Peters[23]
 
Relief of Ramses II located in Abu Simbel fighting at the Battle of Kadesh on a chariot.

New weapons development can dramatically alter the face of war, the cost of warfare, the preparations, and the training of soldiers and leaders. A rule of thumb is that if your enemy has a potentially war winning weapon, you have to either match it or neutralize it.[24]

Ancient era

Chariots originated around 2000 BC. The chariot was an effective, fast weapon; while one man controlled the maneuvering of the chariot, a second bowman could shoot arrows at enemy soldiers. These became crucial to the maintenance of several governments, including the New Egyptian Kingdom and the Shang dynasty and the nation states of the early to middle Zhou dynasty.[25][26]

Some of the military unit types and technologies which were developed in the ancient world are:[27]

For settled agrarian civilizations, the infantry became the core of military action. The infantry started as opposing armed groups of soldiers underneath commanders. The Greeks and early Romans used rigid, heavily armed phalanxes. The Macedonians and Hellenistic states would adopt phalanx formations with sarissa pikemen. The Romans would later adopt more flexible maniples from their neighbors which made them extremely successful in the field of battle. The kingdoms of the Warring States in East Asia also adopted infantry combat, a transition from chariot warfare from centuries earlier.[28]

Archers were a major component of many ancient armies, notably those of the Persians, Scythians, Egyptians, Nubians, Indians, Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese.

Cavalry became an important tool. In the Sicilian Expedition, led by Athens in an attempt to subdue Syracuse, the well-trained Syracusan cavalry became crucial to the success of the Syracusans. Macedonian Alexander the Great effectively deployed his cavalry forces to secure victories. In battles such as the Battle of Cannae of the Second Punic War, and the Battle of Carrhae of the Roman-Persian Wars, the importance of the cavalry would be repeated.[29]

There were also horse archers, who had the ability to shoot on horseback – the Parthians, Scythians, Mongols, and other various steppe people were especially fearsome with this tactic. By the 3rd–4th century AD, heavily armored cavalry became widely adopted by the Parthians, Sasanians, Byzantines, Eastern Han dynasty and Three Kingdoms, etc.

The early Indo-Iranians developed the use of chariots in warfare. The scythed chariot was later invented in India and soon adopted by the Persians.[30]

War elephants were sometimes deployed for fighting in ancient warfare. They were first used in India and later adopted by the Persians. War elephants were also used in the Battle of the Hydaspes River, and by Hannibal in the Second Punic War against the Romans.[31] One of the most important military transactions of the ancient world was Chandragupta Maurya's gift of 500 elephants to Seleucus I Nicator.[32]

 
A Greek trireme

Naval warfare was often crucial to military success. Early navies used sailing ships without cannons; often the goal was to ram the enemy ships and cause them to sink. There was human oar power, often using slaves, built up to ramming speed. Galleys were used in the 3rd millennium BC by the Cretans. The Greeks later advanced these ships.[33][34]

In 1210 BC, the first recorded naval battle was fought between Suppiluliuma II, king of the Hittites, and Cyprus, which was defeated. In the Greco-Persian Wars, the navy became of increasing importance.

Triremes were involved in more complicated sea-land operations. Themistocles helped to build up a stronger Greek navy, composed of 310 ships, and defeated the Persians at the Battle of Salamis, ending the Persian invasion of Greece.[35]

In the First Punic War, the war between Carthage and Rome started with an advantage to Carthage because of their naval experience. A Roman fleet was built in 261 BC, with the addition of the corvus that allowed Roman soldiers to board enemy ships. The bridge would prove effective at the Battle of Mylae, resulting in a Roman victory.

The Vikings, in the 8th century AD, invented a ship propelled by oars with a dragon decorating the prow, hence called the Drakkar. The 12th century AD Song Dynasty invented ships with watertight bulkhead compartments while the 2nd century BC Han dynasty invented rudders and sculled oars for their warships.

Fortifications are important in warfare. Early hill-forts were used to protect inhabitants in the Iron Age. They were primitive forts surrounded by ditches filled with water. Forts were then built out of mud bricks, stones, wood, and other available materials. Romans used rectangular fortresses built out of wood and stone. As long as there have been fortifications, there have been contraptions to break in, dating back to the times of Romans and earlier. Siege warfare is often necessary to capture forts.[36]

Middle-ages

 
Japanese samurai boarding Mongol ships in 1281

Some of the military unit types and technologies which were used in the medieval period are:

Bows and arrows were often used by combatants. Egyptians shot arrows from chariots effectively. The crossbow was developed around 500 BC in China, and was used heavily in the Middle Ages.[37] The English/Welsh longbow from the 12th century also became important in the Middle Ages. It helped to give the English a large early advantage in the Hundred Years' War, even though the English were eventually defeated. The Battle of Crécy and the Battle of Agincourt are excellent examples of how to destroy an enemy using a longbow. It dominated battlefields for over a century.

Gunpowder

Main article: History of gunpowder
 
Illustration of an "eruptor," a proto-cannon, capable of firing cast-iron bombs filled with gunpowder, from the 14th century Ming Dynasty book Huolongjing
 
A small English Civil War-era cannon
 
A 155 mm M198 howitzer firing a shell

There is evidence for gunpowder evolving slowly from formulations by Chinese alchemists as early as the 4th century, at first as experiments for life force and metal transmutation, and later experiments as pyrotechnics and incendiaries. By the 10th century, the developments in gunpowder led to many new weapons that were improved over time.[38] The Chinese used incendiary devices based on this in siege warfare against the Mongols starting in the mid 13th century. "Pots with wicks of flax or cotton were used, containing a combination of sulfur, saltpeter (potassium nitrate), aconitine, oil, resin, ground charcoal and wax."[39] Joseph Needham argued the Chinese were able to destroy buildings and walls using such devices. Such experimentation was not present in Western Europe, where the combination of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal were used exclusively for explosives and as a propellant in firearms. What the Chinese often referred to as the "fire drug" arrived in Europe, fully fleshed out, as gunpowder.[40]

Cannons were first used in Europe in the early 14th century, and played a vital role in the Hundred Years' War. The first cannons were simply welded metal bars in the form of a cylinder, and the first cannonballs were made of stone. By 1346, at the Battle of Crécy, the cannon had been used; at the Battle of Agincourt they would be used again.[41][42]

The first infantry firearms, from fire lances to hand cannons, were held in one hand, while the explosive charge was ignited by a lit match or hot coal held in the other hand. In the mid-15th century came the matchlock, allowing the gun to be aimed and fired while held steady with both hands, as used in the arquebus. Starting about 1500, clever but complicated firing mechanisms were invented to generate sparks to ignite the powder instead of a lit match, starting with the wheel lock, snaplock, snaphance, and finally the flintlock mechanism, which was simple and reliable, becoming standard with the musket by the early 17th century.

At the beginning of the 16th century, the first European fire ships were used. Ships were filled with flammable materials, set on fire, and sent to enemy lines. This tactic was successfully used by Francis Drake to scatter the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines,[43] and would later be used by the Chinese, Russians, Greeks, and several other countries in naval battles.

Naval mines were invented in the 17th century, though they were not used in great numbers until the American Civil War. They were used heavily in the First and Second World Wars. Air-deployed naval mines were used to mine the North Vietnamese port of Haiphong during the Vietnam War. The Iraqi Navy of Saddam Hussein used naval mines extensively during the Tanker War, as part of the Iran–Iraq War.

The first navigable submarine was built in 1624 by Cornelius Drebbel, it could cruise at a depth of 15 feet (5 m). However, the first military submarine was constructed in 1885 by Isaac Peral.[44]

The Turtle was developed by David Bushnell during the American Revolution. Robert Fulton then improved the submarine design by creating the Nautilus.[45]

The Howitzer, a type of field artillery, was developed in the 17th century to fire high trajectory explosive shells at targets that could not be reached by flat trajectory projectiles.

Organizational changes resulting in better training and intercommunication, made the concept combined arms possible, allowing the use of infantry, cavalry, and artillery in a coordinated way.[citation needed]

Bayonets also became of wide usage to infantry soldiers. Bayonet is named after Bayonne, France where it was first manufactured in the 16th century. It is used often in infantry charges to fight in hand-to-hand combat. General Jean Martinet introduced the bayonet to the French army. They were used heavily in the American Civil War, and continued to be used in modern wars like the Invasion of Iraq.[46]

Balloons were first used in warfare at the end of the 18th century. It was first introduced in Paris of 1783; the first balloon traveled over 5 miles (8 km). Previously military scouts could only see from high points on the ground, or from the mast of a ship. Now they could be high in the sky, signalling to troops on the ground. This made it much more difficult for troop movements to go unobserved.[47]

At the end of the 18th century, iron-cased artillery rockets were successfully used militarily in India against the British by Tipu Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. Rockets were generally inaccurate at that time, though William Hale, in 1844, was able to develop a better rocket. The new rocket no longer needed the rocket stick, and had a higher accuracy.[48]

In the 1860s there were a series of advancements in rifles. The first repeating rifle was designed in 1860 by a company bought out by Winchester, which made new and improved versions. Springfield rifles arrived in the mid-19th century also. Machine guns arrived in the late 19th century. Automatic rifles and light machine guns first arrived at the beginning of the 20th century.[49]

In the later part of the 19th century, the self-propelled torpedo was developed. The HNoMS Rap was the world's first torpedo boat.[50]

Early guns and artillery

Further information: History of the firearm

The fire lance, the predecessor of the gun, was invented in China between the tenth and eleventh century. The barrel was originally designed out of bamboo shoots, later with metal. Joseph Needham notes "all the long preparations and tentative experiments were made in China, and everything came to Islam and the West fully fledged, whether it was the fire lance or the explosive bomb, the rocket or the metal-barrel handgun and bombard."[40] By the 1320s Europe had guns, but scholars state that the exact time and method of migration from China remains a mystery. Evidence of firearms is found in Iran and Central Asia in the late fourteenth century. It was not until roughly 1442 that guns were referenced in India. Reliable references to guns in Russia begins around 1382.[citation needed]

An illustration of a "pot-shaped gun" found in the Holkham Hall Milemete manuscript dated to 1326 shows earliest advent of firearms in European history. The illustration shows an arrow, set in the pot-shaped gun pointed directly at a structure. Archaeological evidence of such "gun arrows" were discovered in Eltz Castle, "dated by relation to a historical event (a feud with the Archbishop of Trier in 1331-36 leading to a siege), seem to confirm again that this was at least one of the types of guns like the Milemete used in these very early examples."[51]

According to Peter Fraser Purton, the best evidence of the earliest gun in Europe is the Loshult gun, dated to the fourteenth century. Discovered in 1861, the Loshult was made of bronze measured 11.8 inches in length. A replica of the Loshult was created, using similar gunpowder compounds with present-day materials, to determine the effectiveness of the weapon. The Gunpowder Research Group, who designed the recreation, found that at high elevations, the Loshult could fire as far as 1300 meters.[51] Though inaccurate, missing targets further than 200 meters, the Loshult could fire a range of projectiles such as arrows and shot.[40] It was determined that the Loshult could be effectively fired at ranks of soldiers and structures.

Written works from the Cabinet des Titres of the Imperial Library of Paris has found evidence of canons in France in 1338. The works illustrate canons being used on-board ships at the Rouen during that time. "...an iron Fire-arm, which was provided with forty-eight bolts, made of iron and freather; also one pound of saltpetre and half a pound of sulphur to make the powder propel arrows."[52]

Researchers have been unable to determine the sizes of these cannons and others, outside the artifacts recovered. Sir Henry Brackenbury was able to surmise the approximate size of these cannons by comparing receipts for both the firearms and the corresponding amounts of gunpowder purchased. The receipts show a transaction for "25 Livres for 5 canons." Brackenbury was able to deduce, when comparing the costs of the cannons and the gunpowder apportioned, that they each iron cannon weighed approximately 25 lbs, while the brass cannons weighed roughly 22 lbs.[52]

Philip the Bold (1363-1404) is credited[by whom?] with creating the most effective artillery power in Europe in the late fourteenth century, effectively creating the Burgundian estate. Philip's development of a large artillery army made the small country a reputable force against larger empires such as England and France.[53] Philip had achieved this by establishing a large scale artillery manufacturing economy in Burgundy.[40] Philip used his new cache of artillery to help the French capture an English-held fortress of Odruik. The artillery used to take Odruik used cannonballs measuring to about 450 pounds.[40]

Large artillery was a major contributing factor to the fall of Constantinople at the hands of Mehmed the Conqueror (1432-1481). Having resigned his position as ruler due to youth and inexperience in 1446, Mehmed moved to the Ottoman capital of Manisa.[54] After his uncle, Murad II died in 1451, Mehmed once again became Sultan. He turned his attention to claiming the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. Mehmed, like Philip, started mass-producing cannons by enticing craftsmen to his cause with money and freedom. For 55 days, Constantinople was bombarded with artillery fire, throwing cannonballs as large as 800 lbs at its walls. On May 29, 1453, Constantinople fell into Ottoman control.[40]

Early firearm tactics

As guns and artillery became more advanced and prevalent, so to did the tactics by which they were implemented. According to Historian Michael Roberts "...a military revolution began with the broad adoption of firearms and artillery by late sixteenth-century European armies."[55] Infantry with firearms replaced cavalry. Empires adapted their strongholds to withstand artillery fire. Eventually drilling strategies and battlefield tactics were adapted for the evolution in firearms use.

In Japan, at the same time during the sixteenth-century, this military evolution was also taking hold. These changes included a universal adoption of firearms, tactical developments for effective use, logistical restructuring within the military itself, and "the emergence of centralized and political and institutional relationships indicative of the early modern order."[55]

Tactically, beginning with Oda Nobunaga, the technique known as "volleying" or countermarch drills were implemented.[40] Volley fire is an organized implementation of firearms, where infantry are structured in ranks. The ranks will alternate between loading and firing positions, allowing more consistent rates of fire and preventing enemies from taking over a position while members reload.

Historical evidence shows that Oda Nobunaga implemented his volley technique successfully in 1575, twenty years before evidence of such a technique is shown in Europe. The first indications of the countermarch technique in Europe was by Lord William Louis of Nassau (1538-1574) in the mid-1590s.[55][40]

Korea also seemed to be adapting the volley technique, earlier than even the Japanese. "Koreans seem to have employed some kind of volley principle with guns by 1447, when the Korean King Sejong the Great instructed his gunners to shoot their 'fire barrels' in squads of five, taking turns firing and loading."[40]

This was on display during what Kenneth Swope called the First Great East Asian War, when Japan was trying to take control and subjugate Korea.[56] Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598) made a failed invasion of Korea, which lasted six years, eventually pushed back by the Koreans with the aid of Ming China.[40] Japan, using overwhelming firepower, had many early victories on the Korean peninsula's. Though the Korean's had similar manpower, "the curtain of arrows thrown up by defenders was wiped out by (Japanese) gunfire."[55] After the Japanese were finally pushed back in 1598, sweeping military reforms took place in Korea, largely based on updating and implementing the volley technique with firearms.

It was Qi Jiguang, a Ming Chinese General that provided the original treatise, disseminated to Koreans, that aided in this venture. In these manuals, Qi "...gave detailed instructions in the use of small group tactics, psychological warfare, and other 'modern' techniques."[56] Qi emphasized repetitive drilling, dividing men into smaller groups, separating the strong from weak. Qi's ethos was one of synthesizing smaller groups, trained in various tactical formations, into larger companies, battalions and armies. By doing this they could "operate as eyes, hands, and feet..." aiding to overall unit cohesion.[56]

Modern technologies

At the start of the World Wars, various nations had developed weapons that were a surprise to their adversaries, leading to a need to learn from this, and alter how to combat them. Flame throwers were first used in the First World War. The French were the first to introduce the armored car in 1902. Then in 1918, the British produced the first armored troop carrier. Many early tanks were proof of concept but impractical until further development. In World War I, the British and French held a crucial advantage due to their superiority in tanks; the Germans had only a few dozen A7V tanks, as well as 170 captured tanks. The British and French both had several hundred each. The French tanks included the 13 ton Schneider CA1, with a 75 mm gun, and the British had the Mark IV and Mark V tanks.[57]

On December 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers performed the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight; it went 39 meters (120 ft). In 1907, the first helicopter flew, but it wasn't practical for usage. Aviation became important in World War I, in which several aces gained fame. In 1911 an aircraft took off from a warship for the first time. Landings on a cruiser were another matter. This led to the development of an aircraft carrier with a decent unobstructed flight deck.[58]

Chemical warfare exploded into the public consciousness in World War I but may have been used in earlier wars without as much human attention. The Germans used gas-filled shells at the Battle of Bolimov on January 3, 1915. These were not lethal, however. In April 1915, the Germans developed a chlorine gas that was highly lethal, and used it to moderate effect at the Second Battle of Ypres. Gas masks were invented in matter of weeks, and poison gas proved ineffective at winning battles. It was made illegal by all nations in the 1920s.[59]

World War II gave rise to even more technology. The worth of the aircraft carrier was proved in the battles between the United States and Japan like the Battle of Midway. Radar was independently invented by the Allies and Axis powers. It used radio waves to detect objects. Molotov cocktails were invented by General Franco in the Spanish Civil War, directing the Nationalists to use them against Soviet tanks in the assault on Toledo. The atomic bomb was developed by the Manhattan Project and dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, quickly ending World War II.[60]

During the Cold War, the main powers engaged in a Nuclear arms race.[61] In the space race, both nations attempted to launch human beings into space to the moon. Other technological advances centered on intelligence (like the spy satellite) and missiles (ballistic missiles, cruise missiles). Nuclear submarine, invented in 1955. This meant submarines no longer had to surface as often, and could run more quietly. They evolved into becoming underwater missile platforms.[62]

Periods of military history

Ancient warfare

Further information: Ancient warfare

Much of what we know of ancient history is the history of militaries: their conquests, their movements, and their technological innovations. There are many reasons for this. Kingdoms and empires, the central units of control in the ancient world, could only be maintained through military force. Due to limited agricultural ability, there were relatively few areas that could support large communities, so fighting was common.

Weapons and armor, designed to be sturdy, tended to last longer than other artifacts, and thus a great deal of surviving artifacts recovered tend to fall in this category as they are more likely to survive. Weapons and armor were also mass-produced to a scale that makes them quite plentiful throughout history, and thus more likely to be found in archaeological digs.

Such items were also considered signs of prosperity or virtue, and thus were likely to be placed in tombs and monuments to prominent warriors. And writing, when it existed, was often used for kings to boast of military conquests or victories.

Writing, when used by the common man, also tended to record such events, as major battles and conquests constituted major events that many would have considered worthy of recording either in an epic such as the Homeric writings pertaining to the Trojan War, or even personal writings. Indeed, the earliest stories center on warfare, as war was both a common and dramatic aspect of life; the witnessing of a major battle involving many thousands of soldiers would be quite a spectacle, even today, and thus considered worthy both of being recorded in song and art, but also in realistic histories, as well as being a central element in a fictional work.

Lastly, as nation states evolved and empires grew, the increased need for order and efficiency lead to an increase in the number of records and writings. Officials and armies would have good reason for keeping detailed records and accounts involving any and all things concerning a matter such as warfare that, in the words of Sun Tzu, was "a matter of vital importance to the state". For all these reasons, military history comprises a large part of ancient history.

Notable militaries in the ancient world included the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Ancient Greeks (notably the Spartans and Macedonians), Kushites, Indians (notably the Magadhas, Gangaridais, Gandharas and Cholas), Early Imperial Chinese (notably the Qin and Han Dynasties), Xiongnu Confederation, Ancient Romans, and Carthaginians.

The fertile crescent of Mesopotamia was the center of several prehistoric conquests. Mesopotamia was conquered by the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Persians. Iranians were the first nation to introduce cavalry into their army.[63]

Egypt began growing as an ancient power, but eventually fell to the Libyans, Nubians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Arabs.

The earliest recorded battle in India was the Battle of the Ten Kings. The Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana are centered on conflicts and refer to military formations, theories of warfare and esoteric weaponry. Chanakya's Arthashastra contains a detailed study on ancient warfare, including topics on espionage and war elephants.

Alexander the Great invaded Northwestern India and defeated King Porus in the Battle of the Hydaspes River. The same region was soon re conquered by Chandragupta Maurya after defeating the Macedonians and Seleucids. He also went on to conquer the Nanda Empire and unify Northern India. Most of Southern Asia was unified under his grandson Ashoka the Great after the Kalinga War, though the empire collapsed not long after his reign.

In China, the Shang dynasty and Zhou dynasty had risen and collapsed. This led to a Warring States period, in which several states continued to fight with each other over territory. Philosopher-strategists such as Confucius and Sun Tzu wrote various manuscripts on ancient warfare (as well as international diplomacy).

The Warring States era philosopher Mozi (Micius) and his Mohist followers invented various siege weapons and siegecraft, including the Cloud Ladder (a four-wheeled, extendable ramp) to scale fortified walls during a siege of an enemy city. The warring states were first unified by Qin Shi Huang after a series of military conquests, creating the first empire in China.

His empire was succeeded by the Han dynasty, which expanded into Central Asia, Northern China/Manchuria, Southern China, and present day Korea and Vietnam. The Han came into conflict with settled people such as the Wiman Joseon, and proto-Vietnamese Nanyue. They also came into conflict with the Xiongnu (Huns), Yuezhi, and other steppe civilizations.

The Han defeated and drove the Xiongnus west, securing the city-states along the silk route that continued into the Parthian Empire. After the decline of central imperial authority, the Han Dynasty collapsed into an era of civil war and continuous warfare during the Three Kingdoms period in the 3rd century AD.

The Achaemenid Persian Empire was founded by Cyrus the Great after conquering the Median Empire, Neo-Babylonian Empire, Lydia and Asia Minor. His successor Cambyses went on to conquer the Egyptian Empire, much of Central Asia, and parts of Greece, India and Libya. The empire later fell to Alexander the Great after defeating Darius III. After being ruled by the Seleucid dynasty, the Persian Empire was subsequently ruled by the Parthian and Sassanid dynasties, which were the Roman Empire's greatest rivals during the Roman-Persian Wars.

In Greece, several city-states rose to power, including Athens and Sparta. The Greeks successfully stopped two Persian invasions, the first at the Battle of Marathon, where the Persians were led by Darius the Great, and the second at the Battle of Salamis, a naval battle where the Greek ships were deployed by orders of Themistocles and the Persians were under Xerxes I, and the land engagement of the Battle of Plataea.

The Peloponnesian War then erupted between the two Greek powers Athens and Sparta. Athens built a long wall to protect its inhabitants, but the wall helped to facilitate the spread of a plague that killed about 30,000 Athenians, including Pericles. After a disastrous campaign against Syracuse, the Athenian navy was decisively defeated by Lysander at the Battle of Aegospotami.

The Macedonians, underneath Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great, invaded Persia and won several major victories, establishing Macedonia as a major power. However, following Alexander's death at an early age, the empire quickly fell apart.

 
The 3rd-century Great Ludovisi sarcophagus depicts a battle between Romans and Goths.

Meanwhile, Rome was gaining power, following a rebellion against the Etruscans. During the three Punic Wars, the Romans defeated the neighboring power of Carthage. The First Punic War centered on naval warfare. The Second Punic War started with Hannibal's invasion of Italy by crossing the Alps. He famously won the encirclement at the Battle of Cannae. However, after Scipio invaded Carthage, Hannibal was forced to follow and was defeated at the Battle of Zama, ending the role of Carthage as a power.

After defeating Carthage the Romans went on to become the Mediterranean's dominant power, successfully campaigning in Greece, (Aemilius Paulus decisive victory over Macedonia at the Battle of Pydna), in the Middle East (Lucius Licinius Lucullus, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus), in Gaul (Gaius Julius Caesar) and defeating several Germanic tribes (Gaius Marius, Germanicus). While Roman armies suffered several major losses, their large population and ability (and will) to replace battlefield casualties, their training, organization, tactical and technical superiority enabled Rome to stay a predominant military force for several centuries, utilizing well trained and maneuverable armies to routinely overcome the much larger "tribal" armies of their foes (see Battles of Aquae Sextiae, Vercellae, Tigranocerta, Alesia).

In 54 BC the Roman triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus took the offensive against the Parthian Empire in the east. In a decisive battle at Carrhae Romans were defeated and the golden Aquilae (legionary battle standards) were taken as trophies to Ctesiphon. The battle was one of the worst defeats suffered by the Roman Republic in its entire history.

While successfully dealing with foreign opponents, Rome experienced numerous civil wars, notably the power struggles of Roman generals such as Marius and Sulla during the end of the Republic. Caesar was also notable for his role in the civil war against the other member of the Triumvirate (Pompey) and against the Roman Senate.

The successors of Caesar – Octavian and Mark Anthony, also fought a civil war with Caesar's assassins (Senators Brutus, Cassius, etc.). Octavian and Mark Anthony eventually fought another civil war between themselves to determine the sole ruler of Rome. Octavian emerged victorious and Rome was turned into an empire with a huge standing army of professional soldiers.

By the time of Marcus Aurelius, the Romans had expanded to the Atlantic Ocean in the west and to Mesopotamia in the east and controlled Northern Africa and Central Europe up to the Black Sea. However, Aurelius marked the end of the Five Good Emperors, and Rome quickly fell into decline.

The Huns, Goths, and other barbaric groups invaded Rome, which continued to suffer from inflation and other internal strifes. Despite the attempts of Diocletian, Constantine I, and Theodosius I, western Rome collapsed and was eventually conquered in 476. The Byzantine empire continued to prosper, however.

Medieval warfare

Further information: Medieval warfare
 
Battle of Crécy (1346) between the English and French in the Hundred Years' War.

When stirrups came into use some time during the Dark Ages militaries were forever changed. This invention coupled with technological, cultural, and social developments had forced a dramatic transformation in the character of warfare from antiquity, changing military tactics and the role of cavalry and artillery.

Similar patterns of warfare existed in other parts of the world. In China around the 5th century armies moved from massed infantry to cavalry based forces, copying the steppe nomads. The Middle East and North Africa used similar, if often more advanced, technologies than Europe.

In Japan the Medieval warfare period is considered by many to have stretched into the 19th century. In Africa along the Sahel and Sudan states like the Kingdom of Sennar and Fulani Empire employed Medieval tactics and weapons well after they had been supplanted in Europe.

In the Medieval period, feudalism was firmly implanted, and there existed many landlords in Europe. Landlords often owned castles to protect their territory.

The Islamic Arab Empire began rapidly expanding throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, initially led by Rashidun Caliphate, and later under the Umayyads. While their attempts to invade Europe by way of the Balkans were defeated by Byzantium and Bulgaria,[64] the Arabs expanded to the Iberian Peninsula in the west and the Indus Valley in the east. The Abassids then took over the Arab Empire, though the Umayyads remained in control of Islamic Spain.

At the Battle of Tours, the Franks under Charles Martel stopped short a Muslim invasion. The Abassids defeated the Tang Chinese army at the Battle of Talas, but were later defeated by the Seljuk Turks and the Mongols centuries later, until the Arab Empire eventually came to an end after the Battle of Baghdad in 1258.

In China, the Sui dynasty had risen and conquered the Chen Dynasty of the south. They invaded Vietnam (northern Vietnam had been in Chinese control since the Han dynasty), fighting the troops of Champa, who had cavalry mounted on elephants. After decades of economic turmoil and a failed invasion of Korea, the Sui collapsed and was followed by the Tang dynasty, who fought with various Turkic groups, the Tibetans of Lhasa, the Tanguts, the Khitans, and collapsed due to political fragmentation of powerful regional military governors (jiedushi). The innovative Song dynasty followed next, inventing new weapons of war that employed the use of Greek Fire and gunpowder (see section below) against enemies such as the Jurchens.

 
The victory of the Polish-Lithuanian forces over the Muscovites at the Battle of Orsha in 1514

The Mongols under Genghis Khan, Ögedei Khan, Möngke Khan, and Kublai Khan conquered most of Eurasia. They took over China, Persia, Turkestan, and Russia. After Kublai Khan took power and created the Yuan dynasty, the divisions of the empire ceased to cooperate with each other, and the Mongol Empire was only nominally united.

In New Zealand, prior to European discovery, oral histories, legends and whakapapa include many stories of battles and wars. Māori warriors were held in high esteem. One group of Polynesians migrated to the Chatham Islands, where they developed the largely pacifist Moriori culture. Their pacifism left the Moriori unable to defend themselves when the islands were invaded by mainland Māori in the 1830s.

They proceeded to massacre the Moriori and enslave the survivors.[65][66] Warrior culture also developed in the isolated Hawaiian Islands. During the 1780s and 1790s the chiefs and alii were constantly fighting for power. After a series of battles the Hawaiian Islands were united for the first time under a single ruler who would become known as Kamehameha I.

Gunpowder warfare

Further information: Gunpowder warfare
 
Eighty Years' War, or Dutch Revolt against Spain, painting by Sebastiaen Vrancx

After gunpowder weapons were first developed in Song dynasty China (see also Technology of Song Dynasty), the technology later spread west to the Ottoman Empire, from where it spread to the Safavid Empire of Persia and the Mughal Empire of India. The arquebus was later adopted by European armies during the Italian Wars of the early 16th century.

This all brought an end to the dominance of armored cavalry on the battlefield. The simultaneous decline of the feudal system – and the absorption of the medieval city-states into larger states – allowed the creation of professional standing armies to replace the feudal levies and mercenaries that had been the standard military component of the Middle Ages.

In Africa, Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi, was the first African commander to use gunpowder on the continent in the Ethiopian–Adal War, that lasted for fourteen years (1529–1543).

The period spanning between the 1648 Peace of Westphalia and the 1789 French Revolution is also known as Kabinettskriege (Princes' warfare) as wars were mainly carried out by imperial or monarchics states, decided by cabinets and limited in scope and in their aims. They also involved quickly shifting alliances, and mainly used mercenaries.

Over the course of the 18th-19th centuries all military arms and services underwent significant developments that included a more mobile field artillery, the transition from use of battalion infantry drill in close order to open order formations and the transfer of emphasis from the use of bayonets to the rifle that replaced the musket, and virtual replacement of all types of cavalry with the universal dragoons, or mounted infantry.

Military Revolution

Main article: Military Revolution

The Military Revolution is a conceptual schema for explaining the transformation of European military strategy, tactics and technology in the early modern period.[67] The argument is that dramatic advances in technology, government finance, and public administration transformed and modernized European armies, tactics, and logistics. Since warfare was so central to the European state, the transformation had a major impact on modernizing government bureaucracies, taxation, and the national economy. The concept was introduced by Michael Roberts in the 1950s as he focused on Sweden 1560–1660. Roberts emphasized the introduction of muskets that could not be aimed at small targets, but could be very effective when fired in volleys by three ranks of infantry soldiers, with one firing while the other two ranks reloaded. All three ranks march forward to demolish the enemy. The infantry now had the firepower that had been reserved to the artillery, and had mobility that could rapidly advance in the battlefield, which the artillery lacked. The infantry thereby surpassed the artillery in tactical maneuvering on the battlefield. Roberts linked these advances with larger historical consequences, arguing that innovations in tactics, drill and doctrine by the Dutch and Swedes 1560–1660 led to a need for more and better trained troops and thus for permanent forces (standing armies). Armies grew much larger and more expensive. These changes in turn had major political consequences in the level of administrative support and the supply of money, men and provisions, producing new financial demands and the creation of new governmental institutions. "Thus, argued Roberts, the modern art of war made possible—and necessary—the creation of the modern state".[68] In the 1990s the concept was modified and extended by Geoffrey Parker, who argued that developments in fortification and siege warfare caused the revolution. The concept of a military revolution based upon technology has given way to models based more on a slow evolution in which technology plays a minor role to organization, command and control, logistics and in general non-material improvements. The revolutionary nature of these changes was only visible after a long evolution that handed Europe a predominant place in warfare, a place that the industrial revolution would confirm.[69][70]

The concept of a military revolution in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has received a mixed reception among historians. Noted military historians Michael Duffy and Jeremy Black have strongly criticised it as misleading, exaggerated and simplistic.[71]

Industrial warfare

Further information: Industrial warfare

As weapons—particularly small arms—became easier to use, countries began to abandon a complete reliance on professional soldiers in favor of conscription. Technological advances became increasingly important; while the armies of the previous period had usually had similar weapons, the industrial age saw encounters such as the Battle of Sadowa, in which possession of a more advanced technology played a decisive role in the outcome.[72] Conscription was employed in industrial warfare to increase the number of military personnel that were available for combat. Conscription was notably used by Napoleon Bonaparte and the major parties during the two World Wars.

Total war was used in industrial warfare, the objective being to prevent the opposing nation to engage in war. Napoleon was the innovator.[73] William Tecumseh Sherman's "March to the Sea" and Philip Sheridan's burning of the Shenandoah Valley during the American Civil War were examples.[74][75] On the largest scale the strategic bombing of enemy cities and industrial factories during World War II was total warfare.

Modern warfare

Further information: Modern warfare

Since the 1940s, preparation for a major war has been based on technological arms races involving all sorts of new weapons systems, such as nuclear and biological, as well as computerized control systems, and the opening of new venues, such as seen in the Space race involving the United States, the Soviet Union, and more recently, China.[76]

Modern war also saw the improvement of armored tank technology. While tanks were present in the First World War, and the Second World War, armored warfare technology came to a head with the start of the Cold War. Many of the technologies commonly seen on main battle tanks today, such as composite armor, high caliber cannons, and advanced targeting systems, would be developed during this time.[citation needed]

A distinctive feature since 1945 is the absence of wars between major powers—indeed the near absence of any traditional wars between established countries. The major exceptions were the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the Iran–Iraq War 1980–1988, and the Gulf War of 1990–91. Instead actual fighting has largely been a matter of civil wars and insurgencies.[77] The most recent example of a war between two nation states would be the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

See also

Notes and references

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  8. ^ Ronald H. Spector, "Teetering on the Brink of Respectability." Journal of American History (2007) 93(4): 1158–60. online
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  10. ^ Black (2004), p. ix
  11. ^ Bergen, Hilary, Documenting Shock and Awe: Researching Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom History Associations, 2015. http://www.historyassociates.com/blog/historical-research-blog/researching-iraq-and-afghanistan-wars/ 2015-08-03 at the Wayback Machine
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  13. ^ Jeffrey Kimball, "The Influence of Ideology on Interpretive Disagreement: A Report on a Survey of Diplomatic, Military and Peace Historians on the Causes of 20th Century U. S. Wars," The History Teacher (May, 1984) 17#3 pp. 355–84 in JSTOR
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  15. ^ See H-War book reviews
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Further reading

  • Archer, I. John R. Ferris, Holger H. Herwig, and Timothy H. E. Travers. World History of Warfare (2nd ed. 2008) 638 pp
  • Black, Jeremy. Warfare in the Western World, 1775–1882 (2001) 240 pp.
    • Black, Jeremy. Warfare in the Western World, 1882–1975 (2002), 256 pp.
  • Brownstone, David, and Irene M. Franck. Timelines of War: A Chronology of Warfare from 100,000 BC to the Present (1994)
  • Chambers, John Whiteclay, ed. The Oxford Companion to American Military History (2000) online
  • Cowley, Robert, and Geoffrey Parker, eds. The Reader's Companion to Military History (2001) excellent coverage by scholars.
  • Dear, I. C. B., and M. R. D. Foot, eds. Oxford Companion to World War II (2005; 2nd ed. 2010) online
  • Doughty, Robert, Ira D. Gruber, Roy K. Flint, and Mark Grimsley. Warfare In The Western World (2 vol 1996), comprehensive textbook; online vol 1 to 1871
  • Dupuy, R. Ernest and Trevor N. Dupuy. The Encyclopedia of Military History: From 3500 B.C. to the Present (1977), 1465 pp; comprehensive summary focused on wars and battles; online
  • Dyer, Gwynne. The Shortest History of War: From Hunter-Gatherers to Nuclear Superpowers—A Retelling for Our Times (2022).
  • Grossman, Mark. World military leaders: a biographical dictionary (Infobase Publishing, 2007).
  • Holmes, Richard, ed. The Oxford Companion to Military History (2001) 1071 pp; online at OUP
  • Jones, Archer, The Art of War in the Western World (2001)
  • Kohn, George C. Dictionary of Wars (3rd ed. 2006) 704 pp; very useful summary across world history
  • Karsten, Peter. ed., Encyclopedia of War and American Society (3 vols., 2005).
  • Keegan, John. The Face of Battle (1976) excerpt
  • Keegan, John. The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare (1989)
  • Lamphear, John, ed. African Military History (Routledge, 2007).
  • Lee, Wayne E. Waging War: Conflict, Culture, and Innovation in World History (2015) excerpt
  • Lynn, John A. Battle: A Cultural History of Combat and Culture (2003).
  • Muehlbauer, Matthew S., and David J. Ulbrich, eds. The Routledge History of Global War and Society (Routledge, 2018).
  • Nolan, Cathal J. The Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost (2017)
  • Nolan, Cathal J. The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization (2 vol 2006)
  • Parkinson, Roger. Encyclopedia of modern war (Routledge, 2021); since 1793.
  • Roy, Kaushik. A Global History of Pre-Modern Warfare: Before the Rise of the West, 10,000 BCE–1500 CE. (Routledge, 2021).
  • Townshend, Charles, ed. The Oxford History of Modern War (2nd ed. 2005)
  • Trevor, N et al. Encyclopedia of military biography (Bloomsbury 2020).
  • Tucker, Spencer C., ed.Weapons and Warfare: From Ancient and Medieval Times to the 21st Century (2 vol, ABC-CLIO, 2020).
  • Tucker, Spencer C., ed. Middle East Conflicts from Ancient Egypt to the 21st Century: An Encyclopedia and Document Collection (4 vol, ABC-CLIO, 2019).
  • Tucker, Spencer. Encyclopedia of American Military History (2019).

Historiography and memory

  • Barnett, Correlli, Shelford Bidwell, Brian Bond, and John Terraine. Old Battles and New Defences: Can We Learn from Military History? (1986). online edition
  • Black, Jeremy. "Determinisms and Other Issues", Journal of Military History, 68 (Oct. 2004), 1217–32. in Project MUSE
  • Black, Jeremy. Rethinking Military History (2004) online edition
  • Bucholz, Arden. "Hans Delbruck and Modern Military History." The Historian vol 55#3 (1993) pp. 517+.
  • Chambers II, John Whiteclay. "The New Military History: Myth and Reality", Journal of Military History, 55 (July 1991), 395–406
  • Chambers, John Whiteclay. "‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (1930): the antiwar film and the image of the First World War." Historical journal of film, radio and television 14.4 (1994): 377-411.
  • Charters, David A., Marc Milner, and J. Brent Wilson. eds. Military History and the Military Profession, (1992)
  • Citino, Robert M. "Military Histories Old and New: A Reintroduction", The American Historical Review Vol. 112, no. 4 (October 2007), pp. 1070–90 online version
  • Grimsley, Mark. "Why Military History Sucks", Nov. 1996, War Historian.org, online at
  • Higham, John, ed. A Guide to the Sources of British Military History (2015) 654 pages excerpt
  • Hughes, Matthew, and W. Philpott, eds. Palgrave Advances in Modern Military History (2006) excerpt
  • Karsten, Peter. "The 'New' American Military History: A Map of the Territory, Explored and Unexplored", American Quarterly, 36 #3, (1984), 389–418 in JSTOR
  • Kimball, Jeffrey. "The Influence of Ideology on Interpretive Disagreement: A Report on a Survey of Diplomatic, Military and Peace Historians on the Causes of 20th Century U. S. Wars," History Teacher 17#3 (1984) pp. 355–384 DOI: 10.2307/493146 online
  • Kohn, Richard H. "The Social History of the American Soldier: A Review and Prospectus for Research", American Historical Review, 86 (June 1981), 553–67. in JSTOR
  • Lee, Wayne E. "Mind and Matter – Cultural Analysis in American Military History: A Look at the State of the Field", Journal of American History, 93 (March 2007), 1116–42. Fulltext: History Cooperative and Ebsco
  • Lynn, John A. "Rally Once Again: The Embattled Future of Academic Military History", Journal of Military History, 61 (Oct. 1997), 777–89.
  • Mearsheimer, John J. Liddell Hart and the Weight of History. (1988). 234 pp.
  • Messenger, Charles, ed. Reader's Guide to Military History (Routledge, 2001), 948 pp; detailed guide to the historiography of 500 topics excerpt and text search
  • Morillo, Stephen. What is Military History (2006)
  • Moyar, Mark. "The Current State of Military History", The Historical Journal (2007), 50: 225–40 online at CJO
  • Muehlbauer, Matthew S., and David J. Ulbrich, eds. The Routledge History of Global War and Society (2018) [2]
  • Muehlbauer, Matthew S., and David J. Ulbrich. Ways of War: American Military History from the Colonial Era to the Twenty-First Century (2018) [3]
  • Murray, Williamson and Richard Hart Sinnreich, eds. The Past as Prologue: The Importance of History to the Military Profession (2006).
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External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Military history.
  • International Bibliography of Military History of the International Commission of Military History – from Brill.nl
  • H-WAR, daily discussion group for military historians – from Michigan State University Department of History, H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences Online
  • Web Sources for Military History – from AmericanHistoryProjects.com

January 29, 2023
military, history, television, channel, military, history, channel, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, . For the television channel see Military History TV channel This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Military history news newspapers books scholar JSTOR October 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity and its impact on the societies cultures and economies thereof as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships Infantry were the first military forces in history This warrior statuette demonstrates that military culture was an important part of historical societies c 480 BC Staatliche Antikensammlungen Professional historians normally focus on military affairs that had a major impact on the societies involved as well as the aftermath of conflicts while amateur historians and hobbyists often take a larger interest in the details of battles equipment and uniforms in use The essential subjects of military history study are the causes of war the social and cultural foundations military doctrine on each side the logistics leadership technology strategy and tactics used and how these changed over time On the other hand just war theory explores the moral dimensions of warfare and to better limit the destructive reality caused by war seeks to establish a doctrine of military ethics As an applied field military history has been studied at academies and service schools because the military command seeks to not repeat past mistakes and improve upon its current performance by instilling an ability in commanders to perceive historical parallels during a battle so as to capitalize on the lessons learned from the past When certifying military history instructors 1 the Combat Studies Institute deemphasizes rote detail memorization and focuses on themes and context in relation to current and future conflict using the motto Past is Prologue 2 The discipline of military history is dynamic changing with development as much of the subject area as the societies and organisations that make use of it 3 The dynamic nature of the discipline of military history is largely related to the rapidity of change the military forces and the art and science of managing them as well as the frenetic pace of technological development that had taken place during the period known as the Industrial Revolution and more recently in the nuclear and information ages An important recent concept is the Revolution in Military Affairs RMA which attempts to explain how warfare has been shaped by emerging technologies such as gunpowder It highlights the short outbursts of rapid change followed by periods of relative stability Contents 1 Popular versus academic military history 2 Historiography of military history 2 1 Online resources 2 2 Military and war museums 3 Early historians 4 Technological evolution 4 1 Ancient era 4 2 Middle ages 4 3 Gunpowder 4 4 Early guns and artillery 4 5 Early firearm tactics 4 6 Modern technologies 5 Periods of military history 5 1 Ancient warfare 5 2 Medieval warfare 5 3 Gunpowder warfare 5 4 Military Revolution 5 5 Industrial warfare 5 6 Modern warfare 6 See also 7 Notes and references 8 Further reading 8 1 Historiography and memory 9 External linksPopular versus academic military history EditIn terms of the history profession in major countries military history is an orphan despite its enormous popularity with the general public William H McNeill points out This branch of our discipline flourishes in an intellectual ghetto The 144 books in question published in 1968 78 fall into two distinct classes works aimed at a popular readership written by journalists and men of letters outside academic circles and professional work nearly always produced within the military establishment The study of military history in universities remains seriously underdeveloped Indeed lack of interest in and disdain for military history probably constitute one of the strangest prejudices of the profession 4 5 In recent decades University level courses in military history remain popular often they use films to humanize the combat experience For example Eugene P A Scleh history professor at the University of Maine has explored the advantages and problems of teaching a course of Modern War and Its Images entirely through films Students said they found the documentaries more valuable than the dramas 6 However military historians are frustrated by their marginal status in major history departments 7 8 Historiography of military history EditHistoriography is the study of the history and method of the discipline of history or the study of a specialised topic In this case military history with an eye to gaining an accurate assessment of conflicts using all available sources For this reason military history is periodised creating overlaying boundaries of study and analysis in which descriptions of battles by leaders may be unreliable due to the inclination to minimize mention of failure and exaggerate success Military historians use Historiographical analysis in an effort to allow an unbiased contemporary view of records 9 One military historian Jeremy Black outlined problems 21st century military historians face as an inheritance of their predecessors Eurocentricity a technological bias a focus on leading military powers and dominant military systems the separation of land from sea and recently air conflicts the focus on state to state conflict a lack of focus on political tasking in how forces are used 10 If these challenges were not sufficient for the military historians the limits of method are complicated by the lack of records either destroyed or never recorded for its value as a military secret that may prevent some salient facts from being reported at all scholars still do not know the exact nature of Greek fire for instance Researching Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom for example have presented unique challenges to historians due to records that were destroyed to protect classified military information among other reasons Historians use their knowledge of government regulation and military organization and employing a targeted and systematic research strategy to piece together war histories 11 Despite these limits wars are some of the most studied and detailed periods of human history Military historians have often compared organization tactical and strategic ideas leadership and national support of the militaries of different nations 12 In the early 1980s historian Jeffrey Kimball studied the influence of a historian s political position on current events on interpretive disagreement regarding the causes of 20th century wars He surveyed the ideological preferences of 109 active diplomatic historians in the United States as well as 54 active military historians He finds that their current political views are moderately correlated with their historiographical interpretations A clear position on the left right continuum regarding capitalism was apparent in most cases All groups agreed with the proposition historically Americans have tended to view questions of their national security in terms of such extremes as good vs evil Though the Socialists were split the other groups agreed that miscalculation and or misunderstanding of the situation had caused U S interventionism Kimball reports that Of historians in the field of diplomatic history 7 are Socialist 19 are Other 53 are Liberal 11 are None and 10 Conservative Of military historians 0 are Socialist 8 are Other 35 are Liberal 18 are None and 40 are Conservative 13 Online resources Edit People interested in military history from all periods of time and all subtopics are increasingly turning to the Internet for many more resources than are typically available in nearby libraries Since 1993 one of the most popular sites with over 4000 members subscriptions are free has been H WAR sponsored by the H Net network based at Michigan State University 14 H War has six coeditors and an academic advisory board that sets policy It sponsors daily moderated discussions of current topics announcements of new publications and conferences and reports on developments at conferences The H Net family of lists has sponsored and published over 46 000 scholarly book reviews thousands of which deal with books in military history broadly conceived 15 Wikipedia itself has a very wide coverage of military history with over 180 000 articles Its editors sponsor Wikipedia WikiProject Military history and encourage readers to join 16 Military and war museums Edit The Canadian War Museum See also Category Military and war museums Military museums specialize in military histories they are often organized from a national point of view where a museum in a particular country will have displays organized around conflicts in which that country has taken part They typically take a broad view of warfare s role in the nation s history 17 They typically include displays of weapons and other military equipment uniforms wartime propaganda and exhibits on civilian life during wartime and decorations among others A military museum may be dedicated to a particular or area such as the Imperial War Museum Duxford for military aircraft Deutsches Panzermuseum for tanks the Lange Max Museum for the Western Front World War I the International Spy Museum for espionage The National World War I Museum for World War I the D Day Paratroopers Historical Center Normandy for WWII airborne or more generalist such as the Canadian War Museum or the Musee de l Armee For the Italian alpine wall one can find the most popular museum of bunkers in the small museum n8bunker at Olang Kronplatz in the heard of the dolomites of South Tyrol The U S Army and the state National Guards operate 98 military history museums across the United States and three abroad 18 Curators debate how or whether the goal of providing diverse representations of war in terms of positive and negative aspects of warfare War is seldom presented as a good thing but soldiers are heavily praised David Lowenthal has observed that in today s museums nothing seems too horrendous to commemorate Yet as Andrew Whitmarsh notes museums frequently portray a sanitised version of warfare 19 The actual bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan became the focus of an angry national controversy with veterans attacking curators and historians when the Smithsonian Institution planned to put its fuselage on public display in 1995 The uproar led to cancellation of the exhibit 20 Early historians EditThe documentation of military history begins with the confrontation between Sumer current Iraq and Elam current Iran c 2700 BC near the modern Basra Other prominent records in military history are the Trojan War in Homer s Iliad though its historicity has been challenged The Histories by Herodotus 484 BC 425 BC who is often called the father of history 21 Next was Thucydides whose impartiality despite being an Athenian allowed him to take advantage of his exile to research the war from different perspectives by carefully examining documents and interviewing eyewitnesses 22 An approach centered on the analysis of a leader was taken by Xenophon 430 BC 355 BC in Anabasis recording the expedition of Cyrus the Younger into Anatolia The records of the Roman Julius Caesar 100 BC 44 BC enable a comparative approach for campaigns such as Commentarii de Bello Gallico and Commentarii de Bello Civili Technological evolution EditMain article History of military technology The nature of warfare never changes only its superficial manifestations Joshua and David Hector and Achilles would recognize the combat that our soldiers and Marines have waged in the alleys of Somalia and Iraq The uniforms evolve bronze gives way to titanium arrows may be replaced by laser guided bombs but the heart of the matter is still killing your enemies until any survivors surrender and do your will Ralph Peters 23 Relief of Ramses II located in Abu Simbel fighting at the Battle of Kadesh on a chariot New weapons development can dramatically alter the face of war the cost of warfare the preparations and the training of soldiers and leaders A rule of thumb is that if your enemy has a potentially war winning weapon you have to either match it or neutralize it 24 Ancient era Edit Chariots originated around 2000 BC The chariot was an effective fast weapon while one man controlled the maneuvering of the chariot a second bowman could shoot arrows at enemy soldiers These became crucial to the maintenance of several governments including the New Egyptian Kingdom and the Shang dynasty and the nation states of the early to middle Zhou dynasty 25 26 Some of the military unit types and technologies which were developed in the ancient world are 27 Slinger Hoplite Auxiliaries Infantry Archery Chariots CavalryFor settled agrarian civilizations the infantry became the core of military action The infantry started as opposing armed groups of soldiers underneath commanders The Greeks and early Romans used rigid heavily armed phalanxes The Macedonians and Hellenistic states would adopt phalanx formations with sarissa pikemen The Romans would later adopt more flexible maniples from their neighbors which made them extremely successful in the field of battle The kingdoms of the Warring States in East Asia also adopted infantry combat a transition from chariot warfare from centuries earlier 28 Archers were a major component of many ancient armies notably those of the Persians Scythians Egyptians Nubians Indians Koreans Chinese and Japanese Cavalry became an important tool In the Sicilian Expedition led by Athens in an attempt to subdue Syracuse the well trained Syracusan cavalry became crucial to the success of the Syracusans Macedonian Alexander the Great effectively deployed his cavalry forces to secure victories In battles such as the Battle of Cannae of the Second Punic War and the Battle of Carrhae of the Roman Persian Wars the importance of the cavalry would be repeated 29 There were also horse archers who had the ability to shoot on horseback the Parthians Scythians Mongols and other various steppe people were especially fearsome with this tactic By the 3rd 4th century AD heavily armored cavalry became widely adopted by the Parthians Sasanians Byzantines Eastern Han dynasty and Three Kingdoms etc The early Indo Iranians developed the use of chariots in warfare The scythed chariot was later invented in India and soon adopted by the Persians 30 War elephants were sometimes deployed for fighting in ancient warfare They were first used in India and later adopted by the Persians War elephants were also used in the Battle of the Hydaspes River and by Hannibal in the Second Punic War against the Romans 31 One of the most important military transactions of the ancient world was Chandragupta Maurya s gift of 500 elephants to Seleucus I Nicator 32 A Greek trireme Naval warfare was often crucial to military success Early navies used sailing ships without cannons often the goal was to ram the enemy ships and cause them to sink There was human oar power often using slaves built up to ramming speed Galleys were used in the 3rd millennium BC by the Cretans The Greeks later advanced these ships 33 34 In 1210 BC the first recorded naval battle was fought between Suppiluliuma II king of the Hittites and Cyprus which was defeated In the Greco Persian Wars the navy became of increasing importance Triremes were involved in more complicated sea land operations Themistocles helped to build up a stronger Greek navy composed of 310 ships and defeated the Persians at the Battle of Salamis ending the Persian invasion of Greece 35 In the First Punic War the war between Carthage and Rome started with an advantage to Carthage because of their naval experience A Roman fleet was built in 261 BC with the addition of the corvus that allowed Roman soldiers to board enemy ships The bridge would prove effective at the Battle of Mylae resulting in a Roman victory The Vikings in the 8th century AD invented a ship propelled by oars with a dragon decorating the prow hence called the Drakkar The 12th century AD Song Dynasty invented ships with watertight bulkhead compartments while the 2nd century BC Han dynasty invented rudders and sculled oars for their warships Fortifications are important in warfare Early hill forts were used to protect inhabitants in the Iron Age They were primitive forts surrounded by ditches filled with water Forts were then built out of mud bricks stones wood and other available materials Romans used rectangular fortresses built out of wood and stone As long as there have been fortifications there have been contraptions to break in dating back to the times of Romans and earlier Siege warfare is often necessary to capture forts 36 Middle ages Edit Japanese samurai boarding Mongol ships in 1281 Some of the military unit types and technologies which were used in the medieval period are Artillery Cataphract Condottieri Fyrd Rashidun Mobile guard Mamluk Janissary Knight see also Chivalry Crossbow Pikeman Samurai Sipahi TrebuchetBows and arrows were often used by combatants Egyptians shot arrows from chariots effectively The crossbow was developed around 500 BC in China and was used heavily in the Middle Ages 37 The English Welsh longbow from the 12th century also became important in the Middle Ages It helped to give the English a large early advantage in the Hundred Years War even though the English were eventually defeated The Battle of Crecy and the Battle of Agincourt are excellent examples of how to destroy an enemy using a longbow It dominated battlefields for over a century Gunpowder Edit Main article History of gunpowder Illustration of an eruptor a proto cannon capable of firing cast iron bombs filled with gunpowder from the 14th century Ming Dynasty book Huolongjing A small English Civil War era cannon A 155 mm M198 howitzer firing a shell There is evidence for gunpowder evolving slowly from formulations by Chinese alchemists as early as the 4th century at first as experiments for life force and metal transmutation and later experiments as pyrotechnics and incendiaries By the 10th century the developments in gunpowder led to many new weapons that were improved over time 38 The Chinese used incendiary devices based on this in siege warfare against the Mongols starting in the mid 13th century Pots with wicks of flax or cotton were used containing a combination of sulfur saltpeter potassium nitrate aconitine oil resin ground charcoal and wax 39 Joseph Needham argued the Chinese were able to destroy buildings and walls using such devices Such experimentation was not present in Western Europe where the combination of saltpeter sulfur and charcoal were used exclusively for explosives and as a propellant in firearms What the Chinese often referred to as the fire drug arrived in Europe fully fleshed out as gunpowder 40 Cannons were first used in Europe in the early 14th century and played a vital role in the Hundred Years War The first cannons were simply welded metal bars in the form of a cylinder and the first cannonballs were made of stone By 1346 at the Battle of Crecy the cannon had been used at the Battle of Agincourt they would be used again 41 42 The first infantry firearms from fire lances to hand cannons were held in one hand while the explosive charge was ignited by a lit match or hot coal held in the other hand In the mid 15th century came the matchlock allowing the gun to be aimed and fired while held steady with both hands as used in the arquebus Starting about 1500 clever but complicated firing mechanisms were invented to generate sparks to ignite the powder instead of a lit match starting with the wheel lock snaplock snaphance and finally the flintlock mechanism which was simple and reliable becoming standard with the musket by the early 17th century At the beginning of the 16th century the first European fire ships were used Ships were filled with flammable materials set on fire and sent to enemy lines This tactic was successfully used by Francis Drake to scatter the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines 43 and would later be used by the Chinese Russians Greeks and several other countries in naval battles Naval mines were invented in the 17th century though they were not used in great numbers until the American Civil War They were used heavily in the First and Second World Wars Air deployed naval mines were used to mine the North Vietnamese port of Haiphong during the Vietnam War The Iraqi Navy of Saddam Hussein used naval mines extensively during the Tanker War as part of the Iran Iraq War The first navigable submarine was built in 1624 by Cornelius Drebbel it could cruise at a depth of 15 feet 5 m However the first military submarine was constructed in 1885 by Isaac Peral 44 The Turtle was developed by David Bushnell during the American Revolution Robert Fulton then improved the submarine design by creating the Nautilus 45 The Howitzer a type of field artillery was developed in the 17th century to fire high trajectory explosive shells at targets that could not be reached by flat trajectory projectiles Organizational changes resulting in better training and intercommunication made the concept combined arms possible allowing the use of infantry cavalry and artillery in a coordinated way citation needed Bayonets also became of wide usage to infantry soldiers Bayonet is named after Bayonne France where it was first manufactured in the 16th century It is used often in infantry charges to fight in hand to hand combat General Jean Martinet introduced the bayonet to the French army They were used heavily in the American Civil War and continued to be used in modern wars like the Invasion of Iraq 46 Balloons were first used in warfare at the end of the 18th century It was first introduced in Paris of 1783 the first balloon traveled over 5 miles 8 km Previously military scouts could only see from high points on the ground or from the mast of a ship Now they could be high in the sky signalling to troops on the ground This made it much more difficult for troop movements to go unobserved 47 At the end of the 18th century iron cased artillery rockets were successfully used militarily in India against the British by Tipu Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore during the Anglo Mysore Wars Rockets were generally inaccurate at that time though William Hale in 1844 was able to develop a better rocket The new rocket no longer needed the rocket stick and had a higher accuracy 48 In the 1860s there were a series of advancements in rifles The first repeating rifle was designed in 1860 by a company bought out by Winchester which made new and improved versions Springfield rifles arrived in the mid 19th century also Machine guns arrived in the late 19th century Automatic rifles and light machine guns first arrived at the beginning of the 20th century 49 In the later part of the 19th century the self propelled torpedo was developed The HNoMS Rap was the world s first torpedo boat 50 Early guns and artillery Edit Further information History of the firearm The fire lance the predecessor of the gun was invented in China between the tenth and eleventh century The barrel was originally designed out of bamboo shoots later with metal Joseph Needham notes all the long preparations and tentative experiments were made in China and everything came to Islam and the West fully fledged whether it was the fire lance or the explosive bomb the rocket or the metal barrel handgun and bombard 40 By the 1320s Europe had guns but scholars state that the exact time and method of migration from China remains a mystery Evidence of firearms is found in Iran and Central Asia in the late fourteenth century It was not until roughly 1442 that guns were referenced in India Reliable references to guns in Russia begins around 1382 citation needed An illustration of a pot shaped gun found in the Holkham Hall Milemete manuscript dated to 1326 shows earliest advent of firearms in European history The illustration shows an arrow set in the pot shaped gun pointed directly at a structure Archaeological evidence of such gun arrows were discovered in Eltz Castle dated by relation to a historical event a feud with the Archbishop of Trier in 1331 36 leading to a siege seem to confirm again that this was at least one of the types of guns like the Milemete used in these very early examples 51 According to Peter Fraser Purton the best evidence of the earliest gun in Europe is the Loshult gun dated to the fourteenth century Discovered in 1861 the Loshult was made of bronze measured 11 8 inches in length A replica of the Loshult was created using similar gunpowder compounds with present day materials to determine the effectiveness of the weapon The Gunpowder Research Group who designed the recreation found that at high elevations the Loshult could fire as far as 1300 meters 51 Though inaccurate missing targets further than 200 meters the Loshult could fire a range of projectiles such as arrows and shot 40 It was determined that the Loshult could be effectively fired at ranks of soldiers and structures Written works from the Cabinet des Titres of the Imperial Library of Paris has found evidence of canons in France in 1338 The works illustrate canons being used on board ships at the Rouen during that time an iron Fire arm which was provided with forty eight bolts made of iron and freather also one pound of saltpetre and half a pound of sulphur to make the powder propel arrows 52 Researchers have been unable to determine the sizes of these cannons and others outside the artifacts recovered Sir Henry Brackenbury was able to surmise the approximate size of these cannons by comparing receipts for both the firearms and the corresponding amounts of gunpowder purchased The receipts show a transaction for 25 Livres for 5 canons Brackenbury was able to deduce when comparing the costs of the cannons and the gunpowder apportioned that they each iron cannon weighed approximately 25 lbs while the brass cannons weighed roughly 22 lbs 52 Philip the Bold 1363 1404 is credited by whom with creating the most effective artillery power in Europe in the late fourteenth century effectively creating the Burgundian estate Philip s development of a large artillery army made the small country a reputable force against larger empires such as England and France 53 Philip had achieved this by establishing a large scale artillery manufacturing economy in Burgundy 40 Philip used his new cache of artillery to help the French capture an English held fortress of Odruik The artillery used to take Odruik used cannonballs measuring to about 450 pounds 40 Large artillery was a major contributing factor to the fall of Constantinople at the hands of Mehmed the Conqueror 1432 1481 Having resigned his position as ruler due to youth and inexperience in 1446 Mehmed moved to the Ottoman capital of Manisa 54 After his uncle Murad II died in 1451 Mehmed once again became Sultan He turned his attention to claiming the Byzantine capital Constantinople Mehmed like Philip started mass producing cannons by enticing craftsmen to his cause with money and freedom For 55 days Constantinople was bombarded with artillery fire throwing cannonballs as large as 800 lbs at its walls On May 29 1453 Constantinople fell into Ottoman control 40 Early firearm tactics Edit As guns and artillery became more advanced and prevalent so to did the tactics by which they were implemented According to Historian Michael Roberts a military revolution began with the broad adoption of firearms and artillery by late sixteenth century European armies 55 Infantry with firearms replaced cavalry Empires adapted their strongholds to withstand artillery fire Eventually drilling strategies and battlefield tactics were adapted for the evolution in firearms use In Japan at the same time during the sixteenth century this military evolution was also taking hold These changes included a universal adoption of firearms tactical developments for effective use logistical restructuring within the military itself and the emergence of centralized and political and institutional relationships indicative of the early modern order 55 Tactically beginning with Oda Nobunaga the technique known as volleying or countermarch drills were implemented 40 Volley fire is an organized implementation of firearms where infantry are structured in ranks The ranks will alternate between loading and firing positions allowing more consistent rates of fire and preventing enemies from taking over a position while members reload Historical evidence shows that Oda Nobunaga implemented his volley technique successfully in 1575 twenty years before evidence of such a technique is shown in Europe The first indications of the countermarch technique in Europe was by Lord William Louis of Nassau 1538 1574 in the mid 1590s 55 40 Korea also seemed to be adapting the volley technique earlier than even the Japanese Koreans seem to have employed some kind of volley principle with guns by 1447 when the Korean King Sejong the Great instructed his gunners to shoot their fire barrels in squads of five taking turns firing and loading 40 This was on display during what Kenneth Swope called the First Great East Asian War when Japan was trying to take control and subjugate Korea 56 Toyotomi Hideyoshi 1537 1598 made a failed invasion of Korea which lasted six years eventually pushed back by the Koreans with the aid of Ming China 40 Japan using overwhelming firepower had many early victories on the Korean peninsula s Though the Korean s had similar manpower the curtain of arrows thrown up by defenders was wiped out by Japanese gunfire 55 After the Japanese were finally pushed back in 1598 sweeping military reforms took place in Korea largely based on updating and implementing the volley technique with firearms It was Qi Jiguang a Ming Chinese General that provided the original treatise disseminated to Koreans that aided in this venture In these manuals Qi gave detailed instructions in the use of small group tactics psychological warfare and other modern techniques 56 Qi emphasized repetitive drilling dividing men into smaller groups separating the strong from weak Qi s ethos was one of synthesizing smaller groups trained in various tactical formations into larger companies battalions and armies By doing this they could operate as eyes hands and feet aiding to overall unit cohesion 56 Modern technologies Edit At the start of the World Wars various nations had developed weapons that were a surprise to their adversaries leading to a need to learn from this and alter how to combat them Flame throwers were first used in the First World War The French were the first to introduce the armored car in 1902 Then in 1918 the British produced the first armored troop carrier Many early tanks were proof of concept but impractical until further development In World War I the British and French held a crucial advantage due to their superiority in tanks the Germans had only a few dozen A7V tanks as well as 170 captured tanks The British and French both had several hundred each The French tanks included the 13 ton Schneider CA1 with a 75 mm gun and the British had the Mark IV and Mark V tanks 57 On December 17 1903 the Wright Brothers performed the first controlled powered heavier than air flight it went 39 meters 120 ft In 1907 the first helicopter flew but it wasn t practical for usage Aviation became important in World War I in which several aces gained fame In 1911 an aircraft took off from a warship for the first time Landings on a cruiser were another matter This led to the development of an aircraft carrier with a decent unobstructed flight deck 58 Chemical warfare exploded into the public consciousness in World War I but may have been used in earlier wars without as much human attention The Germans used gas filled shells at the Battle of Bolimov on January 3 1915 These were not lethal however In April 1915 the Germans developed a chlorine gas that was highly lethal and used it to moderate effect at the Second Battle of Ypres Gas masks were invented in matter of weeks and poison gas proved ineffective at winning battles It was made illegal by all nations in the 1920s 59 World War II gave rise to even more technology The worth of the aircraft carrier was proved in the battles between the United States and Japan like the Battle of Midway Radar was independently invented by the Allies and Axis powers It used radio waves to detect objects Molotov cocktails were invented by General Franco in the Spanish Civil War directing the Nationalists to use them against Soviet tanks in the assault on Toledo The atomic bomb was developed by the Manhattan Project and dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 quickly ending World War II 60 During the Cold War the main powers engaged in a Nuclear arms race 61 In the space race both nations attempted to launch human beings into space to the moon Other technological advances centered on intelligence like the spy satellite and missiles ballistic missiles cruise missiles Nuclear submarine invented in 1955 This meant submarines no longer had to surface as often and could run more quietly They evolved into becoming underwater missile platforms 62 Periods of military history EditAncient warfare Edit Further information Ancient warfare Much of what we know of ancient history is the history of militaries their conquests their movements and their technological innovations There are many reasons for this Kingdoms and empires the central units of control in the ancient world could only be maintained through military force Due to limited agricultural ability there were relatively few areas that could support large communities so fighting was common Weapons and armor designed to be sturdy tended to last longer than other artifacts and thus a great deal of surviving artifacts recovered tend to fall in this category as they are more likely to survive Weapons and armor were also mass produced to a scale that makes them quite plentiful throughout history and thus more likely to be found in archaeological digs Such items were also considered signs of prosperity or virtue and thus were likely to be placed in tombs and monuments to prominent warriors And writing when it existed was often used for kings to boast of military conquests or victories Writing when used by the common man also tended to record such events as major battles and conquests constituted major events that many would have considered worthy of recording either in an epic such as the Homeric writings pertaining to the Trojan War or even personal writings Indeed the earliest stories center on warfare as war was both a common and dramatic aspect of life the witnessing of a major battle involving many thousands of soldiers would be quite a spectacle even today and thus considered worthy both of being recorded in song and art but also in realistic histories as well as being a central element in a fictional work Lastly as nation states evolved and empires grew the increased need for order and efficiency lead to an increase in the number of records and writings Officials and armies would have good reason for keeping detailed records and accounts involving any and all things concerning a matter such as warfare that in the words of Sun Tzu was a matter of vital importance to the state For all these reasons military history comprises a large part of ancient history Notable militaries in the ancient world included the Egyptians Assyrians Babylonians Persians Ancient Greeks notably the Spartans and Macedonians Kushites Indians notably the Magadhas Gangaridais Gandharas and Cholas Early Imperial Chinese notably the Qin and Han Dynasties Xiongnu Confederation Ancient Romans and Carthaginians The fertile crescent of Mesopotamia was the center of several prehistoric conquests Mesopotamia was conquered by the Sumerians Akkadians Babylonians Assyrians and Persians Iranians were the first nation to introduce cavalry into their army 63 Egypt began growing as an ancient power but eventually fell to the Libyans Nubians Assyrians Persians Greeks Romans Byzantines and Arabs The earliest recorded battle in India was the Battle of the Ten Kings The Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana are centered on conflicts and refer to military formations theories of warfare and esoteric weaponry Chanakya s Arthashastra contains a detailed study on ancient warfare including topics on espionage and war elephants Alexander the Great invaded Northwestern India and defeated King Porus in the Battle of the Hydaspes River The same region was soon re conquered by Chandragupta Maurya after defeating the Macedonians and Seleucids He also went on to conquer the Nanda Empire and unify Northern India Most of Southern Asia was unified under his grandson Ashoka the Great after the Kalinga War though the empire collapsed not long after his reign In China the Shang dynasty and Zhou dynasty had risen and collapsed This led to a Warring States period in which several states continued to fight with each other over territory Philosopher strategists such as Confucius and Sun Tzu wrote various manuscripts on ancient warfare as well as international diplomacy The Warring States era philosopher Mozi Micius and his Mohist followers invented various siege weapons and siegecraft including the Cloud Ladder a four wheeled extendable ramp to scale fortified walls during a siege of an enemy city The warring states were first unified by Qin Shi Huang after a series of military conquests creating the first empire in China His empire was succeeded by the Han dynasty which expanded into Central Asia Northern China Manchuria Southern China and present day Korea and Vietnam The Han came into conflict with settled people such as the Wiman Joseon and proto Vietnamese Nanyue They also came into conflict with the Xiongnu Huns Yuezhi and other steppe civilizations The Han defeated and drove the Xiongnus west securing the city states along the silk route that continued into the Parthian Empire After the decline of central imperial authority the Han Dynasty collapsed into an era of civil war and continuous warfare during the Three Kingdoms period in the 3rd century AD The Achaemenid Persian Empire was founded by Cyrus the Great after conquering the Median Empire Neo Babylonian Empire Lydia and Asia Minor His successor Cambyses went on to conquer the Egyptian Empire much of Central Asia and parts of Greece India and Libya The empire later fell to Alexander the Great after defeating Darius III After being ruled by the Seleucid dynasty the Persian Empire was subsequently ruled by the Parthian and Sassanid dynasties which were the Roman Empire s greatest rivals during the Roman Persian Wars In Greece several city states rose to power including Athens and Sparta The Greeks successfully stopped two Persian invasions the first at the Battle of Marathon where the Persians were led by Darius the Great and the second at the Battle of Salamis a naval battle where the Greek ships were deployed by orders of Themistocles and the Persians were under Xerxes I and the land engagement of the Battle of Plataea The Peloponnesian War then erupted between the two Greek powers Athens and Sparta Athens built a long wall to protect its inhabitants but the wall helped to facilitate the spread of a plague that killed about 30 000 Athenians including Pericles After a disastrous campaign against Syracuse the Athenian navy was decisively defeated by Lysander at the Battle of Aegospotami The Macedonians underneath Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great invaded Persia and won several major victories establishing Macedonia as a major power However following Alexander s death at an early age the empire quickly fell apart The 3rd century Great Ludovisi sarcophagus depicts a battle between Romans and Goths Meanwhile Rome was gaining power following a rebellion against the Etruscans During the three Punic Wars the Romans defeated the neighboring power of Carthage The First Punic War centered on naval warfare The Second Punic War started with Hannibal s invasion of Italy by crossing the Alps He famously won the encirclement at the Battle of Cannae However after Scipio invaded Carthage Hannibal was forced to follow and was defeated at the Battle of Zama ending the role of Carthage as a power After defeating Carthage the Romans went on to become the Mediterranean s dominant power successfully campaigning in Greece Aemilius Paulus decisive victory over Macedonia at the Battle of Pydna in the Middle East Lucius Licinius Lucullus Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in Gaul Gaius Julius Caesar and defeating several Germanic tribes Gaius Marius Germanicus While Roman armies suffered several major losses their large population and ability and will to replace battlefield casualties their training organization tactical and technical superiority enabled Rome to stay a predominant military force for several centuries utilizing well trained and maneuverable armies to routinely overcome the much larger tribal armies of their foes see Battles of Aquae Sextiae Vercellae Tigranocerta Alesia In 54 BC the Roman triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus took the offensive against the Parthian Empire in the east In a decisive battle at Carrhae Romans were defeated and the golden Aquilae legionary battle standards were taken as trophies to Ctesiphon The battle was one of the worst defeats suffered by the Roman Republic in its entire history While successfully dealing with foreign opponents Rome experienced numerous civil wars notably the power struggles of Roman generals such as Marius and Sulla during the end of the Republic Caesar was also notable for his role in the civil war against the other member of the Triumvirate Pompey and against the Roman Senate The successors of Caesar Octavian and Mark Anthony also fought a civil war with Caesar s assassins Senators Brutus Cassius etc Octavian and Mark Anthony eventually fought another civil war between themselves to determine the sole ruler of Rome Octavian emerged victorious and Rome was turned into an empire with a huge standing army of professional soldiers By the time of Marcus Aurelius the Romans had expanded to the Atlantic Ocean in the west and to Mesopotamia in the east and controlled Northern Africa and Central Europe up to the Black Sea However Aurelius marked the end of the Five Good Emperors and Rome quickly fell into decline The Huns Goths and other barbaric groups invaded Rome which continued to suffer from inflation and other internal strifes Despite the attempts of Diocletian Constantine I and Theodosius I western Rome collapsed and was eventually conquered in 476 The Byzantine empire continued to prosper however Medieval warfare Edit Further information Medieval warfare Battle of Crecy 1346 between the English and French in the Hundred Years War When stirrups came into use some time during the Dark Ages militaries were forever changed This invention coupled with technological cultural and social developments had forced a dramatic transformation in the character of warfare from antiquity changing military tactics and the role of cavalry and artillery Similar patterns of warfare existed in other parts of the world In China around the 5th century armies moved from massed infantry to cavalry based forces copying the steppe nomads The Middle East and North Africa used similar if often more advanced technologies than Europe In Japan the Medieval warfare period is considered by many to have stretched into the 19th century In Africa along the Sahel and Sudan states like the Kingdom of Sennar and Fulani Empire employed Medieval tactics and weapons well after they had been supplanted in Europe In the Medieval period feudalism was firmly implanted and there existed many landlords in Europe Landlords often owned castles to protect their territory The Islamic Arab Empire began rapidly expanding throughout the Middle East North Africa and Central Asia initially led by Rashidun Caliphate and later under the Umayyads While their attempts to invade Europe by way of the Balkans were defeated by Byzantium and Bulgaria 64 the Arabs expanded to the Iberian Peninsula in the west and the Indus Valley in the east The Abassids then took over the Arab Empire though the Umayyads remained in control of Islamic Spain At the Battle of Tours the Franks under Charles Martel stopped short a Muslim invasion The Abassids defeated the Tang Chinese army at the Battle of Talas but were later defeated by the Seljuk Turks and the Mongols centuries later until the Arab Empire eventually came to an end after the Battle of Baghdad in 1258 In China the Sui dynasty had risen and conquered the Chen Dynasty of the south They invaded Vietnam northern Vietnam had been in Chinese control since the Han dynasty fighting the troops of Champa who had cavalry mounted on elephants After decades of economic turmoil and a failed invasion of Korea the Sui collapsed and was followed by the Tang dynasty who fought with various Turkic groups the Tibetans of Lhasa the Tanguts the Khitans and collapsed due to political fragmentation of powerful regional military governors jiedushi The innovative Song dynasty followed next inventing new weapons of war that employed the use of Greek Fire and gunpowder see section below against enemies such as the Jurchens The victory of the Polish Lithuanian forces over the Muscovites at the Battle of Orsha in 1514 The Mongols under Genghis Khan Ogedei Khan Mongke Khan and Kublai Khan conquered most of Eurasia They took over China Persia Turkestan and Russia After Kublai Khan took power and created the Yuan dynasty the divisions of the empire ceased to cooperate with each other and the Mongol Empire was only nominally united In New Zealand prior to European discovery oral histories legends and whakapapa include many stories of battles and wars Maori warriors were held in high esteem One group of Polynesians migrated to the Chatham Islands where they developed the largely pacifist Moriori culture Their pacifism left the Moriori unable to defend themselves when the islands were invaded by mainland Maori in the 1830s They proceeded to massacre the Moriori and enslave the survivors 65 66 Warrior culture also developed in the isolated Hawaiian Islands During the 1780s and 1790s the chiefs and alii were constantly fighting for power After a series of battles the Hawaiian Islands were united for the first time under a single ruler who would become known as Kamehameha I Gunpowder warfare Edit Further information Gunpowder warfare Eighty Years War or Dutch Revolt against Spain painting by Sebastiaen Vrancx After gunpowder weapons were first developed in Song dynasty China see also Technology of Song Dynasty the technology later spread west to the Ottoman Empire from where it spread to the Safavid Empire of Persia and the Mughal Empire of India The arquebus was later adopted by European armies during the Italian Wars of the early 16th century This all brought an end to the dominance of armored cavalry on the battlefield The simultaneous decline of the feudal system and the absorption of the medieval city states into larger states allowed the creation of professional standing armies to replace the feudal levies and mercenaries that had been the standard military component of the Middle Ages In Africa Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al Ghazi was the first African commander to use gunpowder on the continent in the Ethiopian Adal War that lasted for fourteen years 1529 1543 The period spanning between the 1648 Peace of Westphalia and the 1789 French Revolution is also known as Kabinettskriege Princes warfare as wars were mainly carried out by imperial or monarchics states decided by cabinets and limited in scope and in their aims They also involved quickly shifting alliances and mainly used mercenaries Over the course of the 18th 19th centuries all military arms and services underwent significant developments that included a more mobile field artillery the transition from use of battalion infantry drill in close order to open order formations and the transfer of emphasis from the use of bayonets to the rifle that replaced the musket and virtual replacement of all types of cavalry with the universal dragoons or mounted infantry Military Revolution Edit Main article Military Revolution The Military Revolution is a conceptual schema for explaining the transformation of European military strategy tactics and technology in the early modern period 67 The argument is that dramatic advances in technology government finance and public administration transformed and modernized European armies tactics and logistics Since warfare was so central to the European state the transformation had a major impact on modernizing government bureaucracies taxation and the national economy The concept was introduced by Michael Roberts in the 1950s as he focused on Sweden 1560 1660 Roberts emphasized the introduction of muskets that could not be aimed at small targets but could be very effective when fired in volleys by three ranks of infantry soldiers with one firing while the other two ranks reloaded All three ranks march forward to demolish the enemy The infantry now had the firepower that had been reserved to the artillery and had mobility that could rapidly advance in the battlefield which the artillery lacked The infantry thereby surpassed the artillery in tactical maneuvering on the battlefield Roberts linked these advances with larger historical consequences arguing that innovations in tactics drill and doctrine by the Dutch and Swedes 1560 1660 led to a need for more and better trained troops and thus for permanent forces standing armies Armies grew much larger and more expensive These changes in turn had major political consequences in the level of administrative support and the supply of money men and provisions producing new financial demands and the creation of new governmental institutions Thus argued Roberts the modern art of war made possible and necessary the creation of the modern state 68 In the 1990s the concept was modified and extended by Geoffrey Parker who argued that developments in fortification and siege warfare caused the revolution The concept of a military revolution based upon technology has given way to models based more on a slow evolution in which technology plays a minor role to organization command and control logistics and in general non material improvements The revolutionary nature of these changes was only visible after a long evolution that handed Europe a predominant place in warfare a place that the industrial revolution would confirm 69 70 The concept of a military revolution in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has received a mixed reception among historians Noted military historians Michael Duffy and Jeremy Black have strongly criticised it as misleading exaggerated and simplistic 71 Industrial warfare Edit Further information Industrial warfare Franco Prussian War As weapons particularly small arms became easier to use countries began to abandon a complete reliance on professional soldiers in favor of conscription Technological advances became increasingly important while the armies of the previous period had usually had similar weapons the industrial age saw encounters such as the Battle of Sadowa in which possession of a more advanced technology played a decisive role in the outcome 72 Conscription was employed in industrial warfare to increase the number of military personnel that were available for combat Conscription was notably used by Napoleon Bonaparte and the major parties during the two World Wars Total war was used in industrial warfare the objective being to prevent the opposing nation to engage in war Napoleon was the innovator 73 William Tecumseh Sherman s March to the Sea and Philip Sheridan s burning of the Shenandoah Valley during the American Civil War were examples 74 75 On the largest scale the strategic bombing of enemy cities and industrial factories during World War II was total warfare Modern warfare Edit Further information Modern warfare Since the 1940s preparation for a major war has been based on technological arms races involving all sorts of new weapons systems such as nuclear and biological as well as computerized control systems and the opening of new venues such as seen in the Space race involving the United States the Soviet Union and more recently China 76 Modern war also saw the improvement of armored tank technology While tanks were present in the First World War and the Second World War armored warfare technology came to a head with the start of the Cold War Many of the technologies commonly seen on main battle tanks today such as composite armor high caliber cannons and advanced targeting systems would be developed during this time citation needed A distinctive feature since 1945 is the absence of wars between major powers indeed the near absence of any traditional wars between established countries The major exceptions were the Indo Pakistani War of 1971 the Iran Iraq War 1980 1988 and the Gulf War of 1990 91 Instead actual fighting has largely been a matter of civil wars and insurgencies 77 The most recent example of a war between two nation states would be the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine See also Edit War portal History portalWar Studies Ancient Greek warfare Military science List of military writers Maritime history Military globalization Naval history Roman warfare Society for Military History Military history of ancient Rome Military history of Africa Military history of Asia Military history of Europe Military history of Oceania Military history of North America Military history of South America Military history by country Journal of Military History scholarly journal War in History scholarly journal War amp Society scholarly journal History of physical training and fitnessNotes and references Edit Military History Instructor Course MHIC US Army Combined Arms Center Becoming a Military History Instructor in the Army The Griffon 108th Cowley Parker p xiii William H McNeill Modern European History in Michael Kammen ed The Past Before Us Contemporary Historical Writing in the United States 1980 pp 99 100 Ian F W Beckett 2016 A Guide to British Military History The Subject and the Sources Pen and Sword p 24 ISBN 9781473856677 Eugene P A Scleh Teaching History Through Film Film amp History 1973 3 3 pp 12 16 John A Lynn Rally Once Again The Embattled Future of Academic Military History Journal of Military History 61 Oct 1997 777 89 online Ronald H Spector Teetering on the Brink of Respectability Journal of American History 2007 93 4 1158 60 online Morillo Pevkovic pp 4 5 Black 2004 p ix Bergen Hilary Documenting Shock and Awe Researching Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom History Associations 2015 http www historyassociates com blog historical research blog researching iraq and afghanistan wars Archived 2015 08 03 at the Wayback Machine Paul Kennedy The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 Random House 1987 Jeffrey Kimball The Influence of Ideology on Interpretive Disagreement A Report on a Survey of Diplomatic Military and Peace Historians on the Causes of 20th Century U S Wars The History Teacher May 1984 17 3 pp 355 84 in JSTOR See H War policies See H War book reviews Richard Jensen Military history on the electronic frontier Wikipedia fights the War of 1812 The Journal of Military History 76 4 2012 523 556 online dead link Stephen Wood Too serious a business to be left to military men Museum International 38 1 1986 20 26 R Cody Phillips The Guide to US Army Museums Center for Military History 2005 online Andrew Whitmarsh We Will Remember Them Memory and Commemoration in War Museums Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies 2001 vol 7 pp 11 15 Otto Mayr The Enola Gay Fiasco History Politics and the Museum Technology and culture 39 3 1998 462 473 online Herodotus The father of history Warburton Farah Karls pp 137 38 Peters Ralph New Glory Expanding America s Supremacy 2005 p 30 Barton C Hacker Military institutions weapons and social change Toward a new history of military technology Technology and Culture 35 4 1994 768 834 Mary Aiken Littauer The military use of the chariot in the Aegean in the Late Bronze Age American Journal of Archaeology 76 2 1972 145 57 in JSTOR P R S Moorey The emergence of the light horse drawn chariot in the Near East c 2000 1500 BC World Archaeology 18 2 1986 196 215 Richard Ernest Dupuy and Trevor Nevitt Dupuy The encyclopedia of military history from 3500 BC to the present 1970 Robin D S Yates New Light on Ancient Chinese Military Texts Notes on Their Nature and Evolution and the Development of Military Specialization in Warring States China T oung Pao 1988 211 48 JSTOR 4528419 Leslie J Worley Hippeis the cavalry of Ancient Greece 1994 Jeffrey Rop Reconsidering the Origin of the Scythed Chariot Historia 62 2 2013 167 81 William Gowers The African elephant in warfare African Affairs 46 182 1947 42 49 doi 10 1093 oxfordjournals afraf a093538 JSTOR 718841 Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund 1998 A History of India PDF Routledge 8 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help John S Morrison The Greek Trireme The Mariner s Mirror 27 1 1941 14 44 H T Wallinga The Trireme and History Mnemosyne Vol 43 Fasc 1 2 1990 pp 132 49 JSTOR 4431893 Moerbeek Martijn January 21 1998 The battle of Salamis 480 BC Accessed May 16 2006 See The Medieval Castle Accessed May 16 2006 Selby Stephen 2001 A Crossbow Mechanism with Some Unique Features from Shandong China Archived 2008 05 18 at the Wayback Machine Accessed on May 17 2006 Brenda J Buchanan ed Gunpowder explosives and the state a technological history Ashgate 2006 Raphael Kate 2009 Mongol Siege Warfare on the Banks of the Euphrates and the Question of Gunpowder 1260 1312 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 19 3 355 370 doi 10 1017 S1356186309009717 JSTOR 27756073 S2CID 162999079 a b c d e f g h i j Andrade Tonio 2016 The Gunpowder Age China Military Innovation and the Rise of the West in World History Princeton University Press ISBN 9780691178141 Calvert J B February 19 2006 Cannons and Gunpowder Archived 2007 07 01 at the Wayback Machine Accessed on May 18 2006 H C B Rogers A History of Artillery 1975 Jorge The Invincible Armada Accessed on May 18 2006 Tom Parrish The Submarine A History 2004 Early Underwater Warfare California Center for Military History May 18 2006 Archived from the original on February 17 2006 Retrieved March 2 2016 Martin J Brayley Bayonets An Illustrated History 2012 John Christopher Balloons at War Gasbags Flying Bombs amp Cold War Secrets 2004 HM Iftekhar Jaim and Jasmine Jaim The Decisive Nature of the Indian War Rocket in the Anglo Mysore Wars of the Eighteenth Century Arms amp Armour 8 2 2011 131 38 Robert Held The Age of Firearms a pictorial history Harper 1957 George Elliot Armstrong Torpedoes and Torpedo vessels 1896 online a b Purton Peter Fraser 2009 A History of the Late Medieval Siege 1200 1500 Boydell amp Brewer Ltd ISBN 978 1843834489 a b Brackenbury Henry 1865 Ancient Cannon in Europe Woolwich The Royal Artillery Institution Crombie Laura 2016 A New Power in the Late Fourteenth Century Low Countries Philip the Bold s Planned Franco Burgundian Invasion of England and Scottish Alliance 1385 1386 History 101 344 3 19 doi 10 1111 1468 229X 12144 Middleton John 2004 World Monarchies and Dynasties Routledge ISBN 9780765680501 a b c d Stavros Matthew October 2013 Military Revolution in Early Modern Japan Japanese Studies 33 3 243 261 doi 10 1080 10371397 2013 831733 S2CID 144268167 a b c Swope Kenneth M 2013 A Dragon s Head and a Serpent s Tail Ming China and the First Great East Asian War University of Oklahoma Press ISBN 978 0806185026 Patrick Wright Tank the progress of a monstrous war machine Penguin 2003 Norman Polmar Aircraft carriers a graphic history of carrier aviation and its influence on world events 1969 Kim Coleman A history of chemical warfare Palgrave Macmillan 2005 Ryan Jenkins World War 2 New Technologies 2014 Paul P Craig and John A Jungerman The Nuclear Arms Race Technology and Society 1990 Jeremy Black The Cold War A Military History 2015 Suren Pahlav S General Surena The Hero of Carrhae s Great Battles of Bulgaria Moriori The impact of new arrivals Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand Chatham Islands New Zealand A to Z Michael Duffy The Military Revolution and the State 1500 1800 1980 Jeremy Black A Military Revolution A 1660 1792 Perspective in Clifford J Rogers ed The Military Revolution Debate Readings on the Military Transformation of Early Modern Europe 1995 pp 95 115 Jacob F amp Visoni Alonzo G The Military Revolution in Early Modern Europe a Revision 2016 Geoffrey Parker The Military Revolution 1560 1660 A Myth Journal of Modern History 48 2 1976 pp 195 214 online Jeremy Black A Military Revolution A 1660 1792 Perspective pp 95 115 and Michael Duffy The Military Revolution and the State 1500 1800 1980 John France Perilous Glory The Rise of Western Military Power 2011 pp 219 264 on 1815 1914 David A Bell The first total war Napoleon s Europe and the birth of modern warfare 2008 John Bennett Walters General William T Sherman and Total War Journal of Southern history 14 4 1948 447 480 online Mark E Neely Jr Was the Civil War a Total War Civil War History 37 1 1991 5 28 Alex Roland Was the Nuclear Arms Race Deterministic Technology and Culture 51 2 2010 444 461 online Robert J Bunker and Pamela Ligouri Bunker The modern state in epochal transition The significance of irregular warfare state deconstruction and the rise of new warfighting entities beyond neo medievalism Small Wars amp Insurgencies 27 2 2016 325 344 Further reading EditArcher I John R Ferris Holger H Herwig and Timothy H E Travers World History of Warfare 2nd ed 2008 638 pp Black Jeremy Warfare in the Western World 1775 1882 2001 240 pp Black Jeremy Warfare in the Western World 1882 1975 2002 256 pp Brownstone David and Irene M Franck Timelines of War A Chronology of Warfare from 100 000 BC to the Present 1994 Chambers John Whiteclay ed The Oxford Companion to American Military History 2000 online Cowley Robert and Geoffrey Parker eds The Reader s Companion to Military History 2001 excellent coverage by scholars Complete text online free of 1996 edition Dear I C B and M R D Foot eds Oxford Companion to World War II 2005 2nd ed 2010 online Doughty Robert Ira D Gruber Roy K Flint and Mark Grimsley Warfare In The Western World 2 vol 1996 comprehensive textbook online vol 1 to 1871 Dupuy R Ernest and Trevor N Dupuy The Encyclopedia of Military History From 3500 B C to the Present 1977 1465 pp comprehensive summary focused on wars and battles online Dyer Gwynne The Shortest History of War From Hunter Gatherers to Nuclear Superpowers A Retelling for Our Times 2022 Grossman Mark World military leaders a biographical dictionary Infobase Publishing 2007 Holmes Richard ed The Oxford Companion to Military History 2001 1071 pp online at OUP Jones Archer The Art of War in the Western World 2001 Kohn George C Dictionary of Wars 3rd ed 2006 704 pp very useful summary across world history Karsten Peter ed Encyclopedia of War and American Society 3 vols 2005 Keegan John The Face of Battle 1976 excerpt Keegan John The Price of Admiralty The Evolution of Naval Warfare 1989 Lamphear John ed African Military History Routledge 2007 Lee Wayne E Waging War Conflict Culture and Innovation in World History 2015 excerpt Lynn John A Battle A Cultural History of Combat and Culture 2003 Muehlbauer Matthew S and David J Ulbrich eds The Routledge History of Global War and Society Routledge 2018 Nolan Cathal J The Allure of Battle A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost 2017 Nolan Cathal J The Age of Wars of Religion 1000 1650 An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization 2 vol 2006 Parkinson Roger Encyclopedia of modern war Routledge 2021 since 1793 Roy Kaushik A Global History of Pre Modern Warfare Before the Rise of the West 10 000 BCE 1500 CE Routledge 2021 Townshend Charles ed The Oxford History of Modern War 2nd ed 2005 Trevor N et al Encyclopedia of military biography Bloomsbury 2020 Tucker Spencer C ed Weapons and Warfare From Ancient and Medieval Times to the 21st Century 2 vol ABC CLIO 2020 Tucker Spencer C ed Middle East Conflicts from Ancient Egypt to the 21st Century An Encyclopedia and Document Collection 4 vol ABC CLIO 2019 Tucker Spencer Encyclopedia of American Military History 2019 Historiography and memory Edit Barnett Correlli Shelford Bidwell Brian Bond and John Terraine Old Battles and New Defences Can We Learn from Military History 1986 online edition Black Jeremy Determinisms and Other Issues Journal of Military History 68 Oct 2004 1217 32 in Project MUSE Black Jeremy Rethinking Military History 2004 online edition Bucholz Arden Hans Delbruck and Modern Military History The Historian vol 55 3 1993 pp 517 Chambers II John Whiteclay The New Military History Myth and Reality Journal of Military History 55 July 1991 395 406 Chambers John Whiteclay All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 the antiwar film and the image of the First World War Historical journal of film radio and television 14 4 1994 377 411 Charters David A Marc Milner and J Brent Wilson eds Military History and the Military Profession 1992 Citino Robert M Military Histories Old and New A Reintroduction The American Historical Review Vol 112 no 4 October 2007 pp 1070 90 online version Grimsley Mark Why Military History Sucks Nov 1996 War Historian org online at 1 Higham John ed A Guide to the Sources of British Military History 2015 654 pages excerpt Hughes Matthew and W Philpott eds Palgrave Advances in Modern Military History 2006 excerpt Karsten Peter The New American Military History A Map of the Territory Explored and Unexplored American Quarterly 36 3 1984 389 418 in JSTOR Kimball Jeffrey The Influence of Ideology on Interpretive Disagreement A Report on a Survey of Diplomatic Military and Peace Historians on the Causes of 20th Century U S Wars History Teacher 17 3 1984 pp 355 384 DOI 10 2307 493146 online Kohn Richard H The Social History of the American Soldier A Review and Prospectus for Research American Historical Review 86 June 1981 553 67 in JSTOR Lee Wayne E Mind and Matter Cultural Analysis in American Military History A Look at the State of the Field Journal of American History 93 March 2007 1116 42 Fulltext History Cooperative and Ebsco Lynn John A Rally Once Again The Embattled Future of Academic Military History Journal of Military History 61 Oct 1997 777 89 Mearsheimer John J Liddell Hart and the Weight of History 1988 234 pp Messenger Charles ed Reader s Guide to Military History Routledge 2001 948 pp detailed guide to the historiography of 500 topics excerpt and text search Morillo Stephen What is Military History 2006 Moyar Mark The Current State of Military History The Historical Journal 2007 50 225 40 online at CJO Muehlbauer Matthew S and David J Ulbrich eds The Routledge History of Global War and Society 2018 2 Muehlbauer Matthew S and David J Ulbrich Ways of War American Military History from the Colonial Era to the Twenty First Century 2018 3 Murray Williamson and Richard Hart Sinnreich eds The Past as Prologue The Importance of History to the Military Profession 2006 Noe Kenneth W George C Rable and Carol Reardon Battle Histories Reflections on Civil War Military Studies Civil War History 53 3 2007 pp 229 online edition Porch Douglas Writing History in the End of History Era Reflections on Historians and the GWOT Journal of Military History 2006 70 4 1065 79 on war on terror 2001 present Reardon Carol Soldiers and Scholars The U S Army and the Uses of Military History 1865 1920 U Press of Kansas 1990 270 pp ISBN 978 0 7006 0466 1 Reid Brian Holden American Military History the Need for Comparative Analysis Journal of American History 2007 93 4 1154 57 Reid Brian Holden and Joseph G Dawson III eds Special Issue The Vistas of American Military History 1800 1898 American Nineteenth Century History 7 June 2006 139 321 Riseman Noah The Rise of Indigenous Military History History Compass 2014 12 12 pp 901 11 cover 20th century DOI 10 1111 hic3 12205 Rogers Clifford J ed The Military Revolution Debate Readings On The Military Transformation Of Early Modern Europe 1995 Sharman Jason C Myths of military revolution European expansion and Eurocentrism European Journal of International Relations 24 3 2018 491 513 online Schleh Eugene P Books About Film and War Film amp History An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies 8 1 1978 11 14 Schleh Eugene P All Quiet on the Western Front A History Teacher s Reappraisal Film amp History 8 4 1978 66 69 Spector Ronald H Teetering on the Brink of Respectability Journal of American History 2007 93 4 1158 60 online Spiller Roger Military History and its Fictions Journal of Military History 2006 70 4 1081 97 online Winter Jay and Antoine Prost The Great War in History Debates and Controversies 1914 to the Present Cambridge UP 2005 excerpt Wolters Timothy S Harvey A DeWeerd and the Dawn of Academic Military History in the United States Journal of Military History Jan 2021 85 1 pp 95 133 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Military history International Bibliography of Military History of the International Commission of Military History from Brill nl H WAR daily discussion group for military historians from Michigan State University Department of History H Net Humanities amp Social Sciences Online Web Sources for Military History from AmericanHistoryProjects com Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Military history amp oldid 1136047019, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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