Test 2

Question 1

What is war?

Answer 1

All societies engage in 
some form of warfare 
which, broadly defined, 
would include all acts of 
ritualized or collective 
violence committed by 
one organized group 
against another.

Question 2

What is limited and Unlimited war?

Answer 2

Limited war is when you get your adversary to agree to your terms

Unlimited war is when you processed until you achieve total disarmament.

Question 3

Strategy Vs. Tactic

Answer 3

Strategy: the decision made about where forces should be deployed and where armies should seek to fight in order to achieve an overall victory

Tactics: the way various military forces are employed on the battlefield in an attempt to “win the day”. this is more so how an army fights on a battlefield

Question 4

What are the elements of tactics and the battlefield?

Answer 4

Kinetic Action: the employment of force by one unit against another either at close range (melee) or at long range (firepower). This is essentially people banging into each other on the battlefield

Mobile Action: The employment of speed on the battlefield. this is when you dispatch certain forces quickly in order to aid kinetic action. For most of history, this has been the Calvary.

Shock Action: the psychological effect of the employment of force. People with spears and swords running at you would trigger the flight or fight response.

Security: protection against offensive action. This is to ensure that your own formation is secure. I.E. if you know there is a Calvary you should make sure that your forces do not get scattered by them.

Question 5

What is the Infantry?

Answer 5

infantry is the most basic military force composed of individual foot soldiers carrying weapons that allow them to engage any enemy in hand-to-hand combat or at the range.

Infantry units can be composed of professional soldiers or citiziens armies raised from the countryside and vary in quality and technology

Question 6

What is Calvary?

Answer 6

traditionally, calvary have been the most mobile arm of military forces and consisted of warriors carrying a range of weapons mounted on horseback

They can employ firepower but most often have been used for their shock effect

Question 7

What is Artillery?

Answer 7

dense formations and fortifications can be attacked using artillery which in the ancient world included catapults and ballista which fired heavy rocks and bolds from a distance

has both a kinetic and shock effect but is and shock effect but is highly immobile and so requires significant protective forces

Good for maintaining land area.

Question 8

What is the line formation?

Answer 8

In the early 19th-century firepower was brought to bear on the enemy through a combination of artillery fire and volleys fired from lines and infantry (order mince)

Line formations 2-6 deep maximzed the technological limitations of the smoothbore musket but also brought the most weapons to bear on the enemy at anytime.

Question 9

What is the Colum formation?

Answer 9

The column formation (order profonde) could be used to maximize the shock effect of infantry

It could break through infantry line formations through them into disorder but was also vulnerable to firepower

The cavalry charge was used for its shock effect on massed infantry

Question 10

What is a professional Army?

Answer 10

supplemented by professional mercenaries, dominated 18th-century professional armies

Question 11

What is the ordre mixte?

Answer 11

As armies increasingly 
came to rely on untrained 
volunteers, the precise 
tactics of the 18th century 
broke down.

The ordre mixte of 
columns and lines became 
the hallmark of French 
battle tactics in which 
infantry, supported by 
artillery sought to drive 
the enemy from the field 
through the weight of numbers

Question 12

Psychology of warefare

Answer 12

Battle is an inherently 
terrifying experience which 
makes morale and cohesion 
equally important elements 
of the battlefield.

Morale is the willingness 
of soldiers to place the 
welfare of the group before 
considerations about their 
individual wellbeing.

Question 13

What is combat stress reaction

Answer 13

this is when morale breaks down during warfare and soldiers no longer are mentally capable to engage in battle.

There are accounts of what today we call combat stress reaction going back to acient times as war is an inherently stressful and terrifying expierence

Question 14

What is Dynastic warefare?

Answer 14

Kings fighting kings largely for more territory

Religion also played a 
dominant role in both 
rationalizing war and 
organizing international 
diplomacy.

Question 15

What is Siege Warefare?

Answer 15

In the medieval time it was about taking castles, but in this period because you are dealing with more emerging states, sieges were rarely decisive and could last months or years, and you can capture an important city but this can be only one step in a larger campaign

Question 16

Muskets

Answer 16

The development of the flintlock musket and bayonet at the end of the 1600s increased rates of fire and made the pike obsolete

To fight effectively, soliders had to train to load and fire their highly inaccurates weapons as a unit while employing the bayonet to parry infantry and cavalary charges

As muskets become the main weapon, training becomes even more important since the loading of it needs to be in a very specific order.

Question 17

What were some of the problems with new professional armies?

Answer 17

Larger armies which relied on the discipline required a steady supply of food, pay, ammunition, and other supplies

This, in turn, necessitated the professionalization of these functions

In the medieval period, a number of 10,000 was large and they would feed themselves by ravaging the countryside,

As armies get larger and they rely on individuals to fight wars, raiding them hurt loyality and it takes a lot to feed an army of 80,000 people what this creates is logistics which is the amount of food and supplies these armies needs for their horses, and indivdiauls

Question 18

What was the average soldier like?

Answer 18

Most soldiers were poor, 
illiterate men who went into 
service from the masses of 
urban poor who had been 
pushed off the land.

The army was not a path to
riches but provided a means
to survive from day to day.

Soldiers were thus marginal
people with limited power
and few other prospects.

I.E. a lot of people in England were kicked off of farming land and went to the city which created a class of landless people who had no way of feeding themselves, the army provides one opportunity to feed themselves.

Question 19

What was the recruiting process like?

Answer 19

Recruiting was often 
conducted to the ‘beat of 
the drum’ by officers 
entrusted with finding 
men to ‘take the king’s 
shilling’.

The ranks could also be 
filled with vagrants and 
petty criminals, 
especially in the 
colonies.

Recruiting is done with a lot of cohesion and bribery, they would also often get people drunk and then signing them into the army.

Question 20

Paradox of drinking

Answer 20

The army paradoxically 
issued alcohol to soldiers 
and used it's easy 
availability as an 
inducement to service 
and then severely 
punished men for 
drunkenness.

This paradox reflected 
both class differences 
and the uncertain nature 
of military discipline: it 
was a negotiation. 

Drunkness was tolerated to a certain extent, being drunk on duty was a crime but at the same time you were being fed alchohal.

Question 21

How was discipline used?

Answer 21

It was thought that an 
the effective army was one 
that was highly 
disciplined, which was 
necessary for the tactics of 
the day.

Drunkenness, desertion, 
and  disobeying orders 
could all be punished with 
physical pain or even 
death in the belief that 
fear of punishment would 
keep soldiers in line.

Although common (desertion), was the most harshly punished, desertion within the British army was often punished with execution but could also be punished by branding if it was a first-time offence so that people would know that you were a deserter.

Why did people tolerate this?

This was just the way things were done. Things were not necessarilt better inside the army as outside the army.

Question 22

What did they do with older soldiers?

Answer 22

There was no systematic
provision for military
pensions until the late 19th
and early 20th centuries.

Old soldiers might be 
admitted to a soldier’s 
hospital if infirm or 
otherwise depended on 
charity for survival.

Question 23

What is military medicine?

Answer 23

Military medicine has
always served a dual
purpose.

First, it provides for the 
humane treatment of those 
wounded in battle. Second, 
it helps motivate men to 
fight and ensures that the 
progress of marching 
armies are 
“unencumbered” by the 
wounded.

Question 24

Infectious disease

Answer 24

Wounds sustained on the 
battlefield were an obvious 
task for the medical 
services, but until the 20th 
century, infectious 
diseases caused the vast 
majority of casualties in 
armies during both 
peacetime and at war.

Disease often had a decisive
effect on the ability of
armies to wage war.

Question 25

Theories of disease

Answer 25

Early modern European 
understandings of disease 
were based on older Greco-
Roman ideas that can be 
loosely grouped under the 
heading of “Humoral 
theory.”

The humoral theory held that 
there were four basic fluids 
(humour) in the body and 
sickness was caused by 
imbalance.

any sickness or fever was thought of as the body trying to purge one fluid or conserve another so the body could have balance.

Question 26

Physicians Vs Surgeons

Answer 26

Until the 18th century (and
even beyond), physicians
and surgeons were
separate professions.

Physicians diagnosed 
sickness, proscribed 
medications, and gave a 
prognosis while surgeons 
worked on physical 
wounds pulled teeth, and 
performed minor 
operations.

Surgeons touch patients but physicians didn’t

Question 27

Nurses in the Army

Answer 27

In the 18th century, the 
development of formalized 
casualty evacuation 
brought a growing need 
for professional nursing 
care.

While nurses continued to 
often be the wives or 
widows of soldiers, the 
position of Head Matron 
became an important 
position in the military 
medical establishment.

Question 28

Thyroid fever

Answer 28

This water-borne illness 
was a major cause of 
“camp disease” as it 
spread via water 
contaminated with 
bacteria.

Armies on the march, 
besieging towns, and in 
garrison were both 
susceptible to typhoid 
and helped it to spread.

It goes through three stages

1. In the first week you would have an intermittent rolling fever, which is a fever that goes up and down and causes your pulse rate to decrease which is the point of what usually happens with fevers
2. The second week your fever would get high and stay high and your pulse rate would drop to around 60 beats a min
3. Develop a rash, the third week causes the patient to become dillirious, the fever would either break or they would die from an internal hemerage or dehydration

Question 29

Smallpox

Answer 29

Smallpox is caused by 
an airborne virus 
which can kill up to 30 
percent of people 
infected.

Inoculation against 
smallpox was 
developed in the 
Ottoman Empire and 
was gradually adopted 
in Europe in the late 
18th century.

those exposed to cow pox did not tend to develop smallpox

Question 30

Cholera

Answer 30

Cholera is a bacterial
infection of the small
intestine caused by Vibrio
cholerae.

The symptoms of cholera 
are a characteristic ‘rice 
water’ diarrhea and 
vomiting leading to severe 
dehydration and death in 
50% of cases without 
modern treatment.

Question 31

Nostalgia

Answer 31

Soldiers also suffered
emotionally from the
traumatic effects of
combat.

During the Napoleonic 
Wars, French physician 
Jean Larrey  described a 
condition he termed 
“nostalgia” in which 
patients were said to be 
sickened by their longing 
for home.

Nostalgia posed a 
difficult problem for the 
army because there were 
no objective signs and 
symptoms.

Question 32

what did Rene Laennec invent

Answer 32

Laennec was a French 
physician who developed 
one of the first tools 
available to physicians 
to ‘see’ inside of the body.

The stethescope he 
invented allowed 
Laennec to follow 
patients from bedside to 
autopsy.

Question 33

What do we mean by empty battlfield?

Answer 33

The chief tactical problem 
highlighted by the 
Napoleonic Wars was the 
problem of how to 
disperse an enemy 
formation on the 
battlefield.

Later strategists would 
talk of the increasingly 
“empty battlefield” which 
created a no-man’s-land 
between two opposing 
lines.

This is mainly due to the fact that battle fields became more lethal with shelling technology.

Question 34

What were the two schools of thought on how Neoplatonic wars would be won?

Answer 34

There was the Elan school of thought where on the one side, there were 
those that believed that 
the chief lesson of the 
Napoleonic Wars was that 
the side with the greatest 
morale and offensive spirit 
(élan) would win the day.

This meant avoiding costly 
firefights to drive the 
the enemy from the field with 
the bayonet. But how to do 
this? 

The other school of thought was firepower. On the other side were 
those that believed that 
the decisive factor 
would be massed 
firepower.

This might be 
accomplished through 
the massing of artillery 
batteries or 
improvements in 
firearms technology.

Question 35

Who were Sir Charles Oman (British) and Jean Colin (French)?

Answer 35

they were historians that studied the Napoleonic wars and specifically debated how the British army defeated the French during the Peninsular War

Question 36

what is the peninsulla war?

Answer 36

This was when in 1807, Napoleon’s
armies invaded Spain and portigual and as a result, the britain step in lead by the Duke
of Wellington, Sir Arthur Wellesley, to assist
Portugal

Question 37

What was the thin red line theory?

Answer 37

Oman argued that British firepower had
been decisive on the battlefield, maximized by the use of long, thin lines two ranks deep
composed of well-trained soldiers firing volleys every 15 seconds which
enveloped French attack columns from three sides with fire.

Question 38

What was the use of column formation during the napoleonic wars?

Answer 38

The column formation 
(ordre profond) could be 
used to maximize the shock 
effect of infantry
It could break through 
infantry line formations, 
throwing them into 
disorder but was also 
vulnerable to firepower
The cavalry charge was 
used for its shock effect on 
massed infantry.

Question 39

What were skirmishers?

Answer 39

Both lines and columns 
tended to be screened 
by skirmish formations 
composed of light 
infantry, men trained to 
fight alone or in pairs 
who were to find, fix, 
harass, and suppress the 
enemy in front of the 
main body of men.

Question 40

What was the use of artillery during the Napoleonic wars?

Answer 40

Artillery was employed in
batteries which could be
limbered and moved relatively
quickly.

They fired round-shot or
shrapnel shells at long range
and canister fire at close
range.

Artillery suppressed
movement and softened up
infantry formations for attack.

Question 41

What was the role of cavalry during the Napoleonic wars?

Answer 41

Cavalry supported the
infantry and artillery
through mobility.

They could be used to 
hinder movement, force 
infantry into protective 
squares, or threaten 
artillery.

Their real utility was in
riding down broken
infantry units.

Question 42

The battle of Maida

Answer 42

On 4 July 1806, near Maida,
Italy, a smaller number of
British troops met a larger
number of French troops.

The French attacked in
columns and met several
volleys from British forces
arrayed in lines.

For Sir Charles Oman, the
battle was characteristic of
French columns engaging
superior British lines.

Oman was wrong about the 
French deployment: 
subsequent research showed 
that they were not attacking 
in column but were 
deploying into line to attack 
when they met the British 
infantry.

In his analysis he was likely 
influenced by contemporary 
discussions about the best 
naval formation for the 
attack, known as “Crossing 
the T”

Question 43

The importance of ground

Answer 43

British soldiers were often outnumbered by the french so they used the hilly Spanish terrain, using cover to conceal their location, numbers, and to avoid casualties.

This use of dead-ground
was an important tactic.

Question 44

What was the Baynet charge?

Answer 44

Multiple contemporary 
accounts suggest that 
British infantry routinely 
emerged from dead-
ground at the last 
moment, held their fire 
until the decisive point, 
fired a volley or two and 
then charged with the 
bayonet.

Bayonet charges test enemy
morale.

While bayonet wounds in 
battle were relatively rare, 
the fear of “cold steel” and 
the kinetic energy of a 
charge were often enough 
to disperse an enemy 
formation reeling from 
casualties and the strain of 
the advance.