Lending to the Sound of Cannon

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio Drelichman ◽  
Hans-Joachim Voth
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Great Length ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Cost Of War ◽  
City Walls ◽  
Military Revolution ◽  
The Cost

This chapter discusses wartime spending and the rise of the fiscal-military state. The need to borrow was intimately related to the cost of war. After 1500, a “military revolution” transformed warfare in Europe. The invention of gunpowder meant that old medieval city walls no longer offered protection. The increasing use of cannon therefore required an entirely new set of protective walls. These new fortifications meant that wars became longer, with many sieges lasting more than a year. Then, the rise of firearms translated into a need to train soldiers. All these changes—the arms used, the rise of permanent, large armies and navies, new fortifications, and high frequency and great length of conflict—made wars vastly more expensive. Success in war therefore depended in the early modern period on financial resources. Eventually, states run by a successful military-fiscal complex dominated the map of Europe.

Sewing Linens

2020 ◽  
pp. 178-207
Author(s):  
Susan North
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Research Tool ◽  
Primary Research ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
The Cost

The transformation of flat linen textiles to underwear is described in Chapter 8. The cost of linen and the need to own as much underclothes and accessories as possible to maintain standards of propriety forced a strict economy on making these garments. All underwent the rigours of early modern laundry and needed to be firmly sewn together, yet finely enough to be worn comfortably under other clothing. Very little literature in the early modern period documents these processes, therefore, reconstruction is the primary research tool. The exercise of remaking linen shirts and shifts highlights the seamstress’s skills and knowledge, and emphasizes what impact different qualities of linen would have on the durability of the finished garments and cost of their making. How shirts and shifts could be ‘ready-made’ is also explored.

Social Change and Military Revolution in Early Modern Europe: Some Danish Evidence

1983 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Knud J. V. Jespersen
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Military History ◽  
Decisive Factor ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Military Revolution ◽  
The Middle Ages

There is general agreement among scholars of military history on the main features of military developments during the transition from the middle ages to the early modern period. A brief sketch of the broad outlines of these developments may therefore suffice as a preface to an investigation of Danish knight service in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.The decisive factor in the medieval army was the fully armoured, lancebearing mounted knight. The battlefield was totally dominated by the combat technique of these bands of qualifizierten Einzelkämpfern, offensive combat at close quarters. The remaining forces, in contrast, functioned merely as auxiliaries to the main arm - the heavy mounted knights.

scholarly journals Myths of military revolution: European expansion and Eurocentrism

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.C. Sharman
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
European Expansion ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Western Expansion ◽  
Military Revolution ◽  
Military Innovations ◽  
The Military ◽  
Social Root

This article critiques explanations of the rise of the West in the early modern period premised on the thesis that military competition drove the development of gunpowder technology, new tactics, and the Westphalian state, innovations that enabled European trans-continental conquests. Even theories in International Relations and other fields that posit economic or social root causes of Western expansion often rely on this “military revolution” thesis as a crucial intervening variable. Yet, the factors that defined the military revolution in Europe were absent in European expeditions to Asia, Africa, and the Americas, and conventional accounts are often marred by Eurocentric biases. Given the insignificance of military innovations, Western expansion prior to the Industrial Revolution is best explained by Europeans’ ability to garner local support and allies, but especially by their deference to powerful non-Western polities.

War and Gender

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-73
Author(s):  
Stefan Dudink ◽  
Karen Hagemann
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Total War ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Conceptual Background ◽  
History Of ◽  
Military Revolution ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
And Gender

This chapter offers an introduction to the entangled histories of gender and war from the Thirty Years’ War to the Wars of Revolution and Independence, against the background of a wider history of war and warfare in the early modern period. It starts with a critical discussion of some of the concepts historians have used to capture the nature and development of early modern war and warfare, such as military revolution, limited war, and total war. An important aspect of this discussion is the relations between transformations in early modern warfare and processes of state formation, which are central to various arguments made by historians about gender and war in the early modern period. Against this conceptual background, the chapter then presents an overview of the major wars from this period, with a focus on the Thirty Years’ War, the Seven Years’ War, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, which points, among other things, to the increasing entwinement of European and colonial war in this era. The chapter concludes with an introduction to the state of research and central themes in the history of gender and war.

Cannibals with Cannons: The Sino-Portuguese Clashes of 1521-1522 and the Early Chinese Adoption of Western Guns

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 311-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonio Andrade
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Military Effectiveness ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Significant Damage ◽  
Military Revolution ◽  
Asian Languages ◽  
The Military ◽  
Military Balance

Did Europeans have a military advantage over other peoples of the world during the early modern period (1500-1800)? Scholars of the “military revolution” school have argued that European guns, tactics, fortification techniques, and ships conferred significant benefits on European forces, whereas other scholars suggest that the European military edge was slight at best. This article examines the first armed conflict in history between European and Chinese forces: the so-called Sino-Portuguese War of 1521 and 1522. Scholars on both sides of the military effectiveness argument have adduced this conflict to buttress their positions, but there are few studies of it in either western or East Asian languages. This article suggests that during the first set of engagements, which occurred in 1521, Portuguese artillery was markedly superior, but that in the second set of engagements, in 1522, Chinese artillery played a significant role, causing significant damage to the Portuguese. If there was still a gap in 1522, it was much smaller. Thus, the Sino-Portuguese conflict is less interesting for what it tells us about the “military balance” than for what it tells us about military change. When we discuss military balances, we tend to forget how swiftly they could shift, how rapidly adaptations could take hold. Indeed, historians should take a wider perspective on the military revolution: it was not a process that simply occurred in Europe and provided an edge to Europeans abroad. It was, rather, a global process of intermixture and adaptation. In the case of China, the rapid adoption of western artillery may have started around the time of the Sino-Portuguese Conflict, but it continued through the ensuing decades, as the Ming redesigned Portuguese-style guns and adapted them to their own needs until the only thing western about them was their name: Frankish guns.

From Craft to Institution: Accounting in Italy from the Middle ages to the Early Modern Period

2012 ◽  
pp. 135-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Volkova
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Technical Standards ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Professional Field

The article describes the evolution of accounting from the simple registration technique to economic and social institution in medieval Italy. We used methods of institutional analysis and historical research. It is shown that the institutionalization of accounting had been completed by the XIV century, when it became a system of codified technical standards, scholar discipline and a professional field. We examine the interrelations of this process with business environment, political, social, economic and cultural factors of Italy by the XII—XVI centuries. Stages of institutionalization are outlined.

Becoming “Indians”: The Jesuit Missionary Path from Italy to Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-50
Author(s):  
Camilla Russell
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Society Of Jesus ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Jesuit Missions ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Italian Provinces ◽  
Jesuit Missionaries ◽  
Jesuit Missionary

The Jesuit missions in Asia were among the most audacious undertakings by Europeans in the early modern period. This article focuses on a still relatively little understood aspect of the enterprise: its appointment process. It draws together disparate archival documents to recreate the steps to becoming a Jesuit missionary, specifically the Litterae indipetae (petitions for the “Indies”), provincial reports about missionary candidates, and replies to applicants from the Jesuit superior general. Focusing on candidates from the Italian provinces of the Society of Jesus, the article outlines not just how Jesuit missionaries were appointed but also the priorities, motivations, and attitudes that informed their assessment and selection. Missionaries were made, the study shows, through a specific “way of proceeding” that was negotiated between all parties and seen in both organizational and spiritual terms, beginning with the vocation itself, which, whether the applicant departed or not, earned him the name indiano.

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