Military Revolution

Military revolutions are significant changes that alter both the fabric of societies and the nature of warfare itself. Revolutions in Military Affairs (RMAs) are technological, economic and doctrinal changes that occur within these revolutions. RMAs are useful in revealing how societies capitalize on military revolutions and use them to their advantage. Throughout history, nation states have used RMAs to exploit the advantages of military revolutions derived from the formation of nation states and the French Revolution. The first significant military revolution was the rise of the nation state. In 1648, Europe concluded thirty years of continuous bloodshed over religious alliances . At the conclusion of these conflicts, the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia established a new order in Europe that gave rise…

The Military Revolution was a notion first introduced by Michael Roberts in an inaugural lecture at Queens University, Belfast in 1956. In this lecture; entitled The Military Revolution, 1560 – 1660, Roberts outlines a series of military advances that lead to an upheaval of European society (Roberts 1967). The change that this so called “revolution” instigated drastically reconfigured the understanding and experience of war for Europeans. Storrs and Scott noted this particularly in the context…

Rise through Force: European Hegemony and the Military Revolution With the dawn of the second millennium (C.E.), the bulk of Europe existed as a relative backwater and there was little foreseeable evidence that this fragmented conglomerate of fiefdoms would eventually surge forth to control a better part of the known and unknown world. But surge forth it did, and by the twentieth-century the West , for better or worse, had come to dominate and influence societies around the globe. As the…

The revolution begins in earnest when these cadres have assembled to themselves a great following of the discontent, from a spectrum of classes and interests, and commit illegal acts and direct challenges to the sovereignty of the old regime. Previously formulated demands are placed before the ruling class, radical changes which would require the “virtual abdication of those governing” (253). To quell the unrest, the government contemplates and applies military force. “One is impressed...…

Napoleon Bonaparte, a significant historical leader and dominant military general, is seen as the reviver of France after the initiation of the French Revolution in 1789. Napoleon Bonaparte was born August 15th, 1769 in Ajaccio, on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. At a young age Napoleon attended the military college of Brienne where he studied for 5 years, and his military interests were nurtured from a young age. Later on in 1785, Napoleon returned to Corsica for the death of his father…

Relative to the Western way of war, the aspects of discipline, innovation, and finance best characterize warfare throughout the Napoleonic era . To place this argument within historical context, Europe experienced an enormous amount of change during the French and Industrial Revolutions. Knox and Murray regard these upheavals as catalysts contributing to the second and third “military revolution ”. Additionally, they label the new concepts introduced to warfare as Revolutions in Military…

Although both of these cases have demonstrated that this is a very effective way to handle guerrilla terrorist organizations, it marginalizes great segments of the population and also draws a very clear line in the sand between what is right and wrong. By using uniformed military to suppress political uprisings, the federal government is painting a very dark picture of its self in that there is no room to speak up for change without having it result in armed conflict. In a lot of ways, once the…

To what extent was military defeat a cause for the Russian revolution? The First World War was truly massive war. It had rather complex origins, it was vast in terms of scale, its human and material costs were enormous, and its results were profound. The First World War resulted in the end of four empires; the German, the Russian, the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman empires all ceased to exist by the end of the First World, either as a result of the economic demands of war - like Russia, which…

On September 30, 1991, a military revolution under the control of Lieutenant General Raoul Cedras has defeated the government of Jean-Bertran Aristide the president of Haiti. In 1992, during his presidential candidacy, Bill Clinton disapproved of the Bush administration for its rule on refugee return. He promised to increase pressure on the militaristic dictatorship by constricting economic approvals upon Haiti. President George H.W. Bush requested the reinstatement of democracy. He worked…

Napoleon Bonaparte was arguably one of the best rulers France has ever had. Napoleon Bonaparte, also known as Napoleon I, was a great military genius and political revolutionary of France. He made many changes for France and made it able to function after the Revolution. But he also got a lot of his success from the French Revolution. It made it very easy for him to rise up the ranks of the military, gain supporters, and take over France. There was so many problems that the government of France…