[lit-ideas] Re: Virility and Slaughter
- From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 02:38:01 -0500
To the point I was making.
Military paradigms change VERY slowly. Consider the organization-theory
model given below. It lists only 12(!) major paradigms of warfare in the
past 1,000 years. -Eric
_____
http://jciss.llnl.gov/syst.html
SYSTEMIC EFFECTS OF MILITARY INNOVATION AND DIFFUSION
Emily O. Goldman and Richard B. Andres
University of California, Davis
If we view military evolution proceeding along a path of punctuated
equilibrium, we can identify twelve significant transformations in
war-making that have occurred over the past one thousand years. (See
Figure 4) We note the date of the battle, conquest, or event in which
the innovation demonstrates its superiority decisively in a contest with
a first class military power.56
Revolutionary Military Innovations
Mongol Decisive battles: First War against Chin Empire and conquest of
Northern China, 1211-1215. Mounted archer and shock troops combined with
siege mechanics, extremely effective military doctrine, and superior
command, control, communication, and intelligence.
Infantry Decisive battle: English victory over French at Crècy, 1346.
Combined-arms infantry-cavalry team with pike and long-bow infantry
predominant permits dismounted army to defeat Europe's finest cavalry
nearly three times its size.
Artillery Decisive battles: French reconquest of Normandy and
Aquitaine, 1449-53, and beginning of expulsion of English from France
with use of cannon to break through English strongholds. Charles VII
creates standing army with permanent and highly effective artillery
organization and reverses English victories of Hundred Years War
(1337-1457) in less than five years. At the same time, Turks under
Mohammed II use massive siege artillery to batter down walls and capture
Constantinople (1453), ending the Byzantine empire.
Fortress Decisive battles: Sieges checking Hapsburg heir Charles V's
drive for hegemony in Italy, c1525. Cities and states protected by the
trace italienne with its angular bastion could withstand long sieges
against traditional methods of battery and assault.
Ship-of-the-line Decisive battle: Lepanto, 1571. First true naval
engagement in which Venetian galleasses defeat Turkish oar-driven
galleys. Checks Muslim advance into western Mediterranean, ends their
domination of central and eastern Mediterranean, and signals end of
golden age of Ottoman power. Gradual victory of sailing ships mounting
large guns over galleys culminates with superior English tactics in the
Battle of the English channel (1588) that repel Spanish Armada,
heralding new era of the broadside battery sailing ship that fought
effectively at long range. English stake their claim to mastery of the seas.
Musket/Drill Decisive battles: Swedish defeats of Hapsburgs in 1631-34
during Thirty Years War, beginning with Breitenfeld, 1631. Use of
combined arms (pike, musket, cavalry, rapid-firing mobile artillery),
linear tactics, and classical drill and discipline permits Gustavus
Adolphus to defeat armies of Spain -- an empire with vastly greater
resources than Sweden's. Leveraged by improvements in military
administration and key role of absolutist state.
Nation in Arms Decisive battles: War of the Second Coalition, 1800.
Napoleon vastly expands scale of war with universal conscription and
mobilization of society for war, combined with republican nationalism
and modern industrial output and logistics.
Industrialism I: Steam and Rapid Mobilization Prussia combines
technical advances in steam, railroad, telegraph and rifle to defeat
Austria (1866) and France (1870). At sea, Britain exploits heavy-gunned
ships, steam propulsion, and improvements in gunnery and fire control to
vastly increase overseas empire. Culminates with Dreadnought in 1906.
Industrialism II: Machine Gun and Trench Warfare Decisive battle:
Marne, 1914. Rifled small arms and artillery, and machine guns outstrip
mobility provided by steam. Industrial mass production dramatically
increases supply of munitions and mobilizes society for war. Produces
"total" war and tactical stalemate.
Industrialism III: Internal Combustion, Radio, and Mobility Decisive
battles: Battle of France, 1940 and Pearl Harbor, 1941. Improvements in
internal combustion engines, mechanization, aircraft design, and
communication technology reintroduce mobility and maneuver and permit
large numbers of warfighting packages to deliver blows directly against
enemy nation.
Nuclear Decisive event: Hiroshima, 1945. Coupling of nuclear warheads
with more efficient delivery systems, jet propulsion, and electronics
(radar and computers) permits complete and instantaneous destruction of
state without need to defeat armed forces.
Information Decisive battle: none to date. Persian Gulf War, 1991
signals impending RMA. Advances in range, strike, stealth, sensors,
precision-guided munitions, micro-electronics, computers, and
information processing heightens importance of C3I and permits collapse
of previous spatial and temporal constraints on simultaneous operations.
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