Logistics and Supply

Question 1

According to Parker, how many European became soldiers in the seventeenth century

Answer 1

10-12 million

Question 2

Name 5 reasons why people volunteered to join the army

Answer 2

1.They were paid, and received a premium based demand agricultural labour and food prices.
2. hardship and want, caused by economic recessions, crop devestations.
3. Perhaps 25,000 Scotsman crossed the sea to serve the ‘Protestant Cause’ in central Europe between 1626 and 1632, fighting in Swedish or Danish armies.
4. Some volunteers were criminals who fought as an alternative to Execution and severe punishment.
5.The most desired type of volunteer was veterans: who had already mastered the trade of armies and became professional soldiers.

Question 3

What year was a particularly bad winter and why did that cause people to become soldiers?

Answer 3

1710, the worst winter in 100 years. The price of bread rose so high that armies offered starving men a better chance at survival.

Question 4

Why marched with the Mackay regiment in the thirty years war to defect protestantism?

Answer 4

Robert Munro

Question 5

Name a country that favoured military expatriation and give an example

Answer 5

The Spanish Hasburgs
Roughly 50% of the Spanish army of Flanders had been recruited outside the country in which they fought.

Question 6

What was the allocation system?

Answer 6

This was the permanent form of compulsory military service at the age of 15, embraced by Finland and Sweden during the reigns of Charles IX and Gustavus Adolfphus.

Question 7

Why was it hard to gage the size of an army?

Answer 7

There was high levels of wastage and desertion, meaning variations in troop strength made it almost impossible for generals and governments to be sure of exactly the size of the armies at any given time.

Question 8

Give an example of how much higher military outlays were in this period?

Answer 8

Louis XIV devoted 75% of his revenues to war

Question 9

Why was loans a bad way of waging war?

Answer 9

Time and again, the temporary bankruptcy of the Spanish Crown caused the failure of her military operations.

Question 10

How much Durcats did Charles V borrow in his war against France and the Turks?

Answer 10

9.8 million Durcats

Question 11

What was military devolution?

Answer 11

Governments paid private contractors to supply military services.

Question 12

How did armies on the move secure resources?

Answer 12

The ‘contribution system’: An army threatened to set fire to, or sack, a community unless it produced a ransom. If produced, the town would receive a letter of protection.

Question 13

How was the problem of supply solved?

Answer 13

by the presence of a steady and predictable demand; when European needed large numbers of horses on a regular basis again, large numbers could be provided.

Question 14

Give an example of having trouble feeding a large army

Answer 14

To produce the 45 000 pounds of bread each day to feed an army, over 100 000 pounds of flour had to be baked.

Question 15

What does Parker argue is the greatest problem of logistics and supply, and how is this helped?

Answer 15

(i) there was simply too many troop in too small an area
(ii) An innovation from the Netherlands of stone and timber ‘barragues’ was soon followed by other states in western Europe.

Question 16

By 1640, what does Olivares (Vallido of Philip IV) say about supply in Spain?

Answer 16

‘There is the most urgent lack of all necessities’

Question 17

Why did Spain desire Cavalry in France in the 1630s?

Answer 17

The logistics of France’s wide open spaces were in radical contrast to those of Flanders;
Cavalry would be important not only in deciding battles but for rapidity and depth of penetration, and also for liaison between the separate invading commands.

Question 18

why did the cavalry importance decline?

Answer 18

The cavalry were rarely seen as a decisive element of the military, especially with the rise of the naval military. In battle, the set-piece of Seige and march dominated.
To transport horses, it proved costly and wasteful of space, with horses also being a liability for attack.

Question 19

What does David Potter say about Parrott’s Business of war?

Answer 19

1.He interestingly characterises as a ‘military devolution’, instead of revolution.
2.Parrott explores how mechanisms of finance were pushed to breaking point during the period of Swiss, German and Italian mercenaries, leading to the need of borrow money on financial markets. The role of the private enterprise operators was therefore a natural development.
3. Military enterprisers themselves entered into credit arrangements with governments which gave them great leverage

Question 20

What does John Lynn say about Parrott’s Business of war?

Answer 20

1.With regards to long wars, such as the Long Turkish War 1593-1606, states could ask enterprisers to cover their own initial costs, since such entrepreneurs would have the chance to recoup their investments over a number of years rather than months.
2. Wallenstein, and Gustavus Adolphus sustained armies based on ‘contributions’, this could not last, and the second half of the war in Germany brought to prominence of smaller and more nimble armies, maintained by more reasonable and regularised contributions.

Question 21

What does Bert Hall about Parrott’s Business of war?

Answer 21

1. Devolution gave rulers access to military resources that would otherwise have lain beyond their reach.
2. there is evidence that matters improved as the Thirty Years’ War dragged on, that contract armies became smaller, more efficiently operated, and tactically more effective than in the early decades.

Question 22

Who was mostly likely to move into Military Enterprise?

Answer 22

Nobels, those with patronage and connections

Question 23

Why did Wallenstein’s military enterprise fail?

Answer 23

it had heavy demands on financial resources across the empire, including the contribution system, and when this started to implode, the debt started to increase.

Question 24

Give three examples of Problems with Military Devolution

Answer 24

1.commanders needed to tap into large and flexible networks of munitions and arms manufacturers, suppliers of food and clothing, and transport facilities.
2. Wallenstein and Gustavus Adolphus could experiment with military gigantism: Yet under both Wallenstein and Gustavus the problems, above all, the logistical challenges, of seeking to manage vast military forces spread across wide territories, were already becoming overwhelming.