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Author: Bruce Basset-Powell Publisher: Casemate ISBN: 1612002293 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 386
Book Description
The riveting story of the nineteenth-century rise of the Prussian army—a key factor in the unification of Germany—with maps and illustrations. On July 3, 1866, a Prussian force overwhelmed and defeated an Austrian army near the fortress city of Königgrätz in a bloody battle that lasted all day. At a stroke, the foremost power in Germany and central Europe had been reduced to a second rate player. The event caused anxiety and alarm in the capitals of the western world. How was an upstart country like Prussia able to upset the balance of power in Europe? Only sixteen years before, it had been put in its place by Austria with the treaty of Olmütz. Its performance as an Austrian ally had been less than stellar in the Second Schleswig War of 1864, despite its defeat of the Danes at Düppel. Yet within five years, a Prussian-led army would humble France and a Prussian king would be crowned emperor of a united Germany. The history of the world would be changed forever. This book tells the story of this army, chronicling its growth from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the reforms of the 1860s, then offering a full account of the wars against Denmark in 1864 and Austria in 1866. The author shows how the confluence of three men’s lives—King William I, Helmuth von Moltke, and Otto von Bismarck—provided the essential ingredients that created this victorious army. The growth and influence of the General Staff is examined, along with the recruitment and training of officers and men. Powell fully describes the organization of the army and the fledgling navy, as well as the weapons with which they fought.
Author: Bruce Basset-Powell Publisher: Casemate ISBN: 1612002293 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 386
Book Description
The riveting story of the nineteenth-century rise of the Prussian army—a key factor in the unification of Germany—with maps and illustrations. On July 3, 1866, a Prussian force overwhelmed and defeated an Austrian army near the fortress city of Königgrätz in a bloody battle that lasted all day. At a stroke, the foremost power in Germany and central Europe had been reduced to a second rate player. The event caused anxiety and alarm in the capitals of the western world. How was an upstart country like Prussia able to upset the balance of power in Europe? Only sixteen years before, it had been put in its place by Austria with the treaty of Olmütz. Its performance as an Austrian ally had been less than stellar in the Second Schleswig War of 1864, despite its defeat of the Danes at Düppel. Yet within five years, a Prussian-led army would humble France and a Prussian king would be crowned emperor of a united Germany. The history of the world would be changed forever. This book tells the story of this army, chronicling its growth from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the reforms of the 1860s, then offering a full account of the wars against Denmark in 1864 and Austria in 1866. The author shows how the confluence of three men’s lives—King William I, Helmuth von Moltke, and Otto von Bismarck—provided the essential ingredients that created this victorious army. The growth and influence of the General Staff is examined, along with the recruitment and training of officers and men. Powell fully describes the organization of the army and the fledgling navy, as well as the weapons with which they fought.
Author: Michael Howard Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1134972199 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 446
Book Description
In 1870 Bismarck ordered the Prussian Army to invade France, inciting one of the most dramatic conflicts in European history. It transformed not only the states-system of the Continent but the whole climate of European moral and political thought. The overwhelming triumph of German military might, evoking general admiration and imitation, introduced an era of power politics, which was to reach its disastrous climax in 1914. First published in 1961 and now with a new introduction, The Franco-Prussian War is acknowledged as the definitive history of one of the most dramatic and decisive conflicts in the history of Europe.
Author: Roger L. Ransom Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9781108454353 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 346
Book Description
The First World War left a legacy of chaos that is still with us a century later. Why did European leaders resort to war and why did they not end it sooner? Roger L. Ransom sheds new light on this enduring puzzle by employing insights from prospect theory and notions of risk and uncertainty. He reveals how the interplay of confidence, fear, and a propensity to gamble encouraged aggressive behavior by leaders who pursued risky military strategies in hopes of winning the war. The result was a series of military disasters and a war of attrition which gradually exhausted the belligerents without producing any hope of ending the war. Ultimately, he shows that the outcome of the war rested as much on the ability of the Allied powers to muster their superior economic resources to continue the fight as it did on success on the battlefield.
Author: Stephen Shann Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1782002316 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 135
Book Description
At the time of the Second Empire, under Napoleon III, the French army, elevated from tactful obscurity, was re-modelled on Napoleonic lines. This army first fought in the Crimea, and then against Austria. Later, In Mexico, they had a disastrous adventure while in Europe Prussia was fast emerging as a challenge to France's military pre-eminence. Together with Austria, Bismarck first crushed Denmark before turning on Austria herself. The victory at Sadowa in 1866 stunned Europe, and in Paris Napoleon and his advisers set to thinking of a way to counter this new threat. In this first of two volumes looking at the French Army of the Franco-Prussian War, Stephen Shann and Louis Delperier examine the history, organisation and weapons of the French Imperial troops.
Author: Dennis Showalter Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1780937636 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 421
Book Description
The Wars of German Unification is the definitive account of the three of the most decisive conflicts in the history of modern Europe. In this new edition, Dennis Showalter offers a thoroughly updated look at the wars and their context that will be invaluable for those interested in the military, social and political history of the period. Showalter explores how the Schleswig-Holstein conflict of 1864; the 'Six Weeks War' of 1866; and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 fundamentally altered the balance of power in 19th-century Europe. They marked the establishment of Prussian hegemony in central Europe, the creation of the Bismarckian Reich in 1871, the reduction of Habsburg influence and the collapse of Napoleon III's Second Empire. The Wars of German Unification offers a balanced and incisive account of the wars, their origins and their consequences, and firmly embeds these conflicts in their political, ideological and military contexts. This volume traces the transition from the 'cabinet wars' of the 19th century and shows how the conflicts that made up the wars of German unification provided the foundation for the birth of modern warfare.
Author: Isabel V. Hull Publisher: Cornell University Press ISBN: 080146708X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 399
Book Description
In a book that is at once a major contribution to modern European history and a cautionary tale for today, Isabel V. Hull argues that the routines and practices of the Imperial German Army, unchecked by effective civilian institutions, increasingly sought the absolute destruction of its enemies as the only guarantee of the nation's security. So deeply embedded were the assumptions and procedures of this distinctively German military culture that the Army, in its drive to annihilate the enemy military, did not shrink from the utter destruction of civilian property and lives. Carried to its extreme, the logic of "military necessity" found real security only in extremities of destruction, in the "silence of the graveyard."Hull begins with a dramatic account, based on fresh archival work, of the German Army's slide from administrative murder to genocide in German Southwest Africa (1904–7). The author then moves back to 1870 and the war that inaugurated the Imperial era in German history, and analyzes the genesis and nature of this specifically German military culture and its operations in colonial warfare. In the First World War the routines perfected in the colonies were visited upon European populations. Hull focuses on one set of cases (Belgium and northern France) in which the transition to total destruction was checked (if barely) and on another (Armenia) in which "military necessity" caused Germany to accept its ally's genocidal policies even after these became militarily counterproductive. She then turns to the Endkampf (1918), the German General Staff's plan to achieve victory in the Great War even if the homeland were destroyed in the process—a seemingly insane campaign that completes the logic of this deeply institutionalized set of military routines and practices. Hull concludes by speculating on the role of this distinctive military culture in National Socialism's military and racial policies.Absolute Destruction has serious implications for the nature of warmaking in any modern power. At its heart is a warning about the blindness of bureaucratic routines, especially when those bureaucracies command the instruments of mass death.
Author: Daniel Hughes Publisher: Presidio Press ISBN: 0307538516 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 290
Book Description
Field Marshal Helmuth Graf von Moltke is best known for his direction of the German/Prussian campaigns against Austria in 1866 and France in 1870-71, yet it was during his service as chief of the General Staff that he laid the foundation for the German way of war which would continue through 1945. Professor Daniel Hughes of the Air War College, in addition to editing and assisting with the translation of this selection of Moltke’s thoughts and theories on the art of war, has written an insightful commentary on “Moltke the Elder” that places him in the broader context of Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz’s sometimes abstract philosophical ideas. The book also contains an extensive bibliographic and historiographic commentary that includes references to Moltke and his theories in the current literature in Germany, England, and the United States—a valuable aid to anyone doing research on the subject. This volume, in addition to its appeal to scholars, serves as an introduction to the theory of the German army, as well as a summary of Moltke’s enduring theoretical legacy. Praise for Moltke on the Art of War “Moltke molded the Prussian and ultimately the German army at a time of technological and economic change. For that reason . . . this book deserves a much wider audience than those interested in nineteenth-century military history. Readers will be particularly grateful for the editor’s careful explanation of terms that are easily mistranslated in English, and for concise and useful footnotes and bibliography. A model of fine editing.”—Foreign Affairs Magazine “This valuable work ably compiles the selected writings on the art of war of one of military history’s greatest geniuses. [Moltke’s] impact on American military thinking persists, especially in various military staff college curricula. Strongly recommended.”—Armed Forces Journal “A thoughtfully edited, well-translated anthology that merits a place in any serious collection on the craft of war in the modern Western world."—Journal of Military History
Author: Geoffrey Wawro Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521629515 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 334
Book Description
This is a history of the Austro-Prussian-Italian War of 1866, which paved the way for German and Italian unification. It is based upon extensive new research in the state and military archives of Austria, Germany, and Italy. Geoffrey Wawro describes Prussia's successful invasion of Habsburg Venetia, and the wretched collapse of the Austrian army in July 1866. Although the book gives a thorough accounting of both the Prussian and Italian war efforts, it is most notable for the light it sheds on the Austrians. Through painstaking archival research, Wawro reconstructs the Austrian campaign, blow-by-blow, hour-by-hour. Blending military and social history, he describes the terror and panic that overtook Austria's regiments of the line in each clash with the Prussians. He reveals the unconscionable blundering of the Austrian commandant and his chief deputies who fumbled away key strategic advantages and ultimately lost a war - crucial to the fortunes of the Habsburg Monarchy - that most European pundits had predicted they would win.
Author: Quintin Barry Publisher: Helion ISBN: 9781909384965 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
"Before the War of 1866 the name Helmuth von Moltke was scarcely known outside the Prussian army ... This book follows Moltke's part in the course of the campaign at the end of which his name had become a household word. It traces his rise to the position of Chief of the General Staff, against the background of the political situation of Prussia in the middle of the 19th Century, and the way in which he developed the functions of the General Staff."--Inside cover
Author: Bruce Basset-Powell
Author: Bruce Basset-Powell
Author: Geoffrey Wawro
Author: Michael Howard
Author: Roger L. Ransom
Author: Stephen Shann
Author: Dennis Showalter
Author: Isabel V. Hull
Author: Daniel Hughes
Author: Geoffrey Wawro
Author: Quintin Barry