The military revolution : military innovation and the rise of the west, 1500-1800 / Geoffrey Parker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Parker, Geoffrey, 1943-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Military art and science--Europe--History--16th century.

Military art and science.

Military art and science--Europe--History--17th century.

History.

Europe.

Military art and science--Europe--History--18th century.

Physical Description:

xix, 265 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Summary:

This is a new edition of Geoffrey Parker's much-admired illustrated account of how the West, so small and so deficient in natural resources in 1500, had by 1800 come to control over one third of the world. This edition incorporates new material, including a substantial 'Afterword' which summarizes the debate which developed after the book's first publication. Geoffrey Parker's argument is in two parts. First the military practice of the West 'at home' in Europe is analysed, with special reference to the role of firearms in the transformation of both offensive and defensive warfare; to the rapid growth in army size; and to the creation of ocean-going warships which fought with long-range guns instead of ramming and boarding. He then argues that these major changes amounted to a 'military revolution' which gave Westerners a decided advantage over the people of other continents: over the Amerindians in the sixteenth century, over most Indonesians in the seventeenth, and over many Indians and Africans in the eighteenth. The book concludes with a brief survey of how the industrial revolution caused a second series of military changes which allowed the West to dominate almost the entire world by 1914.

Notes:

"The Lees Knowles lectures, 1984, given at Trinity College, Cambridge"--Half t.p.

Includes bibliographical references.

Includes index.

ISBN:

0521474264

0521479584

OCLC:

123276558