Originally published in 2007, this book incorporates the rich literature on the history of the fiscal organization and financial dynamics of the Spanish empire within the broader historical debates ...on rival European imperial states from 1760 to 1810. The focus is on colonial Mexico because it served as a fiscal and financial submetropolis that ensured the capacity of the imperial state to defend itself in a time of successive international conflicts. Throughout the reign Charles IV, the finances of the Spanish state began to sink. This collapse was caused by the enormous expense of waging successive wars in the Americas and Europe. In each war, colonial Mexico was a most important source of resources for the Crown, but these demands gradually outstripped the tax base of the viceroyalty despite the extraordinary silver boom of the late eighteenth century. The bankruptcy of the Spanish monarchy and its empire was the inevitable consequence.
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1 violently changed the course of European History. Alarmed by Bismarck's territorial ambitions and the Prussian army's crushing defeats of Denmark in 1864 and Austria ...in 1866, French Emperor Napoleon III vowed to bring Prussia to heel. Digging into many European and American archives for the first time, Geoffrey Wawro's The Franco-Prussian War describes the war that followed in thrilling detail. While the armies mobilized in July 1870, the conflict appeared 'too close to call'. Prussia and its German allies overwhelmingly outnumbered the French. But Marshal Achille Bazaine's grognards ('old grumblers') were the stuff of legend, the most resourceful, battle-hardened, sharp-shooting troops in Europe. From the political intrigues that began and ended the war to the bloody battles at Gravelotte and Sedan and the last murderous fights on the Loire and in Paris, this is a stunning, authoritative history of the Franco-Prussian War.
In Operation Cobra, six US divisions during six dramatic days in Normandy ended the stalemate on the western front, breaking through German defenses after seven weeks of grueling attrition warfare. ...After D-Day examines the experiences of U.S. soldiers in the July 25-30, 1944, Normandy campaign: their mistakes, hardships, and fears, as well as their leadership, courage, and determination. Drawing on original archival sources, Carafano argues that previous accounts of Operation Cobra are flawed. Standard explanations of its success--the force of air power, innovative tactics, superior logistics, the inestimable value of "citizen soldiers," hedgerow busting "rhino" tanks--are in fact myths. And serious mistakes were made: one of the most famous US generals, Omar Bradley, ordered strategic bombing close to US lines, a decision that led to the killing and maiming of hundreds of US soldiers by "friendly fire." Nonetheless, Carafano demonstrates, operational flexibility--the ability of commanders to exercise effective combat leadership and take advantage of troop strengths and material advantages--resulted in Allied victory.
A comparative examination of military development in early modern Eastern Europe, focusing on Russian, Polish-Lithuanian, Ottoman, Habsburg, Cossack, and Western European mercenary practice.
Survival 0 The International Institute for Strategic Studies , (IISS)
2023, 2020, 2023-04-14, Letnik:
62
eBook
Survival, the IISS's bimonthly journal, challenges conventional wisdom and brings fresh, often controversial, perspectives on strategic issues of the moment.
In this issue:
Anatol Lieven argues that ...strong and legitimate states remain central to any efforts to limit climate change and mitigate diseases such as coronavirus, and to maintain Western democracy
Oriana Skylar Mastro warns that hereditary autocratic regimes such as North Korea's are prone to sudden collapse, something for which policymakers should be prepared
Shelby Butt and Daniel Byman contend that Russia's attempts to undermine the West include supporting white-supremacist and other far-right groups
And eight more thought-provoking pieces, as well as our regular book reviews and noteworthy column
Examining a wide body of sources this book offers a comprehensive analysis of late Byzantine attitudes to warfare and places late Byzantine military ethos, thought and practice in the wider ...geographical, cultural and historical context.
Quagmire Anderson, Donald; Beidler, Phil
2021, 20211001, 2021-10-01
eBook
In Quagmire you'll find a range of voices-men and women,
military and civilian-and a range of perspectives from the
homeland, the combat zone, and war's aftermath. These personal
responses to war in ...Iraq and Afghanistan have been selected from
War, Literature & the Arts: An International Journal of the
Humanities to mark the thirtieth anniversary of its inaugural
publication. The responses cover approximately fifteen years of the
United States' conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and demonstrate
the aftermath of war and the degreed ripples that extend beyond
soldiers to families and friends, lovers, hometowns, even pets. As
citizens, Pablo Neruda advised, we have an obligation to "come and
see the blood in the streets." To ignore what we do in war and what
war does to us is to move willfully toward ignorance. To ignore
such reminders imperils ourselves, our communities, and our nation.
Shakespeare was not exaggerating when he defined being a soldier as one of the seven ages of man. Over the early modern period, many millions of young men from the four corners of the present United ...Kingdom went to war, often-and most bloodily-against each other. The almost continuous fighting on land and sea for the two and one-half centuries between Bosworth and Culloden decimated lives, but created the British state and forged the nation as the world's predominant power.
In this innovative and moving book, Charles Carlton explores the glorious and terrible impact of war at the national and individual levels. Chapters alternate, providing a robust military and political narrative interlaced with accounts illuminating the personal experience of war, from recruitment to the end of battle in discharge or death. Carlton expertly charts the remarkable military developments over the period, as well as war's enduring corollaries-camaraderie, courage, fear, and grief-to give a powerful account of the profound effect of war on the British Isles and its peoples.
From antiquity until now, most writers who have chronicled the events following the death of Alexander the Great have viewed this history through the careers, ambitions, and perspectives of ...Alexander's elite successors. Few historians have probed the experiences and attitudes of the ordinary soldiers who followed Alexander on his campaigns and who were divided among his successors as they fought for control of his empire after his death. Yet the veterans played an important role in helping to shape the character and contours of the Hellenistic world.
This pathfinding book offers the first in-depth investigation of the Macedonian veterans' experience during a crucial turning point in Greek history (323-316 BCE). Joseph Roisman discusses the military, social, and political circumstances that shaped the history of Alexander's veterans, giving special attention to issues such as the soldiers' conduct on and off the battlefield, the army assemblies, the volatile relationship between the troops and their generals, and other related themes, all from the perspective of the rank-and-file. Roisman also reexamines the biases of the ancient sources and how they affected ancient and modern depictions of Alexander's veterans, as well as Alexander's conflicts with his army, the veterans' motives and goals, and their political contributions to Hellenistic history. He pays special attention to the Silver Shields, a group of Macedonian veterans famous for their invincibility and martial prowess, and assesses whether or not they deserved their formidable reputation.
