The Creation of Prussian Army and Prussian State

The Creation of Prussian Army and Prussian State
Frederick William, the Great Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia (1640-88), was one of the European princes who made the most effective use of the techniques of absolutism.

In 1640 he inherited a scattered and ungovernable collection of territories that had been devastated by the Thirty Year’s War.

Brandenburg, the richest of his possessions, had lost nearly half of its population.

The war had lasting impact upon Frederick William’s character.

A long stay, in Holland during the final stages of the Dutch revolt impressed upon him the importance of a strong army and a strong base of revenue to support it.

Frederick William had neither. In 1640 has forces totaled no more than 2,500 men, most of them, including the officers, the dregs of German society.

Despite the fact that he was surrounded by powerful neighbors – Sweden and Poland both claimed sovereignty over parts of inheritance – the territories under his control had no tradition of military taxation.

The nobility, known as die Junker, enjoyed immunity from almost all forms of direct taxation, and the towns had no obligation to furnish either men or supplies for military operations beyond their walls.

When Frederick William attempted to introduce an excise, he was initially rebuffed. But military emergency overcame legal precedents,

By the 1650s Frederick William had established the excise in the towns though not on the land.

With the excise as a steady source of revenue, the Great Elector could now create one of the most capable standing armies of the age.

He built his forces in stages, careful not to frighten his powerful eastern neighbors.

The geographical scattering of his territory was a benefit. He could raise and train his troops in the west without endangering his security in the east.

The strictest discipline was maintained in the new army and the Prussian army developed into a feared and efficient fighting machine.

Frederick William organized one of the first departments of war to oversee all of the details of the creation of his army, from housing and supplies to the training of young officer candidates.

By the time Frederick William died, the army had grown to over thirty thousand and state revenue had triple.

The creation of the Prussian army was a force that led to the creation of the Prussian state.
The Creation of Prussian Army and Prussian State

The English Revolutions

The English Revolutions
In June 1647 soldiers kidnapped the king and demanded that parliament pay their arrears, protect them from legal retribution, and recognize their service to the nation.

Those in Parliament who opposed the army’s intervention were impeached and when London Presbyterians rose up against the army’s show of force, troop move in town occupy the city.

The civil war, which had come so close to resolution in 1647, had now become a military revolution.

Religious and political radicals flocked to the army and encouraged the soldier to support their programs and to resist disbandment.

New fighting broke out in 1648 as King Charles encouraged his supporters to resume war.

But forces under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax (1612 – 71) and Oliver Crompton (1599 – 1658) easily crushed the royalist uprisings in England and Scotland.

The army now demanded that Charles 1 be brought to justice for his treacherous conduct both before and during the war.

When the majority in the Parliament refused, still hoping against hope to reach an accommodation with the king, the soldiers again acted decisively.

In December 1648 army regiments were sent to London to purge the two houses of Parliament of those who opposed the army’s demands.

The remaining members, contemptuously called the Rump Parliament, voted to bring the king to trial for his crimes against the liberty of his subjects.

On 30 January 1649, Charles 1 was executed and England was declared to be Commonwealth.

The monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished and the nation was to be governed by what was left of the membership of the House of Commons.
The English Revolutions

The Rise of the Assyrians

The Rise of the Assyrians
The rise of the Assyrians began as villages looked for protection to the city of Ashur, named after their principle god. The land had productive plains, pastureland and mountains rich in copper ore, limestone, alabaster, and marble. It lay athwart caravan routes from the Hittites in Anatolia to Southern Mesopotamia, or eastwards across the Zagros mountains to India.

At first, war played little part in the life of the Assyrians, who were busy acquiring wealth. Merchants travelled freely, trading exiles from Ashur. They produced and sold copper, the raw material for tools and weapons. From the east they imported tin essential for turning copper into bronze.

Under King Shamshi-Adad I (1813 – 1781 BC) the Assyrians enjoyed a brief flowering, but with their good fortune acquired enemies. Pressure from the Babylonians under Hammurabi and from the expanding Hittite Empire to the west was followed by four centuries of foreign domination.

By the time they have shaken this off, their attitudes towards outsiders had changed. The farmers and traders had become warriors. Looking north and east they saw a continual threat from the mountain peoples, and against them adopted a policy of attack and extermination of forced resettlement. During the 13th and 12th centuries, Assyria’s kings push their boundaries ever outwards, with campaigns of conquest every summer. Their use of brutality to intimidate enemies was to become the distinctive stamps of Assyrians warfare.

It is not difficult to imagine the terror that an Assyrian attack inspired. Its army was vast, well trained and disciplined. It had several expert commanders, and plentiful supplies of equipment for all types of combat. By 800 BC, the Assyrians could field an army of 20,000 light cavalry armed with bows and spears, and 1200 two horse chariots.

The heavy infantry, clad in coats of mail, wielded daggers and swords of iron, the new metal which made the Assyrian’s weapon stronger than those of their opponents. The cavalry, the early days, rode into actions on two horse chariots and dismounted to shoot from behind tail wicker shields. Gradually arches mastered the tactics of shooting accurately from horseback at full gallop.
The Rise of the Assyrians

Egyptians Soldier: Careers for Boys (1300 BC)

Egyptians Soldier: Careers for Boys (1300 BC)
The high spirited young man of Ancient Egypt had an outlet for his energies that promised excitement and a path for advancement.

For the Egypt of New Kingdom times had a large and well-trained army, which protected the frontiers and patrolled the pharaoh’s outlying lands. The King was the army’s commander in chief and often took to the field in person, with a bodyguard of chosen men, and officials to advise him.

Each division of the Egyptian army consisted of about 5000men. Four thousand of them were infantry troops who were subdivided into companies of 200 men. Companies, with names such as ‘Bull in Nubia’ and ‘Manifest in Justice’, were divided into unit of 50 soldiers.

The division’s remaining 1000 men formed a chariot wing of two man teams. They were also foreign mercenaries, often lightly armed skirmishers, who were particularly useful on frontier and desert patrol. Because of the good prospects it offered, the army was not usually short of volunteers.

In emergency however men could be conscripted and then one in a hundred were usually called up. New recruits had their hair cropped, and were issued with leather body armour, helmets and shields. They learned it use all the army’s weapon, but tended to specialize in one in particular, so that there were companies of spearmen, companies of the bowmen and so on.
Egyptians Soldier: Careers for Boys (1300 BC)