Studying the History of Warfare

Throughout history there have been changes in the conduct of war, military organization, as well as the evolution of weapons and information technology, military organization and doctrine. Military professionals will understand how warfare is conducted today by studying the historical changes shaping military warfare. Changes in warfare arrived from what we can identify as military revolution, a radical change in military strategy and tactics, and revolution in military affairs, a fundamental change in the nature of warfare.

Every major war in the early modern period of western history produced a military revolution which resulted in significant improvements to weaponry and rendering obsolete long tested methods of conducting warfare. The Hundred Years’ War, beginning in 1337, introduced the English long bow as well as the crude use of gunpowder in proto-artillery. By the Thirty Years’ War of 1618, improved firearms such as the flintlock musket as well as lighter artillery revolutionized early modern warfare. World War I and World War II, brought the world into a nuclear age and, in terms of technology, began the process of reducing ground troops with controlled devices. Every century has had a degree of military revolution, yet the longer and more encompassing wars resulted in greater and more far reaching changes in weaponry and tactics.

One of the most important developments in military revolution was the implementation of linear formations, first by Maurice of Orange (1567-1625) and then by Gustav Adolf (1594-1632). Not only did these smaller unit formations, based on Roman formations and only three or four ranks deep (in sharp contrast to the massive Spanish tercios and Swiss columns that had previously been in style), allow for greater maneuverability and fighting power, but their adoption affected many aspects of military organization and administration. In addition to these changes in formation, armies then began to replace the pike and the lance...