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From the author of the acclaimed The Thirty Years War and Heart of Europe, a masterful, landmark reappraisal of German military history, and of the preconceptions about German militarism since before the rise of Prussia and the world wars.
German military history is typically viewed as an inexorable march to the rise of Prussia and the two world wars, the road paved by militarism and the result a specifically German way of war. Peter Wilson challenges this narrative. Looking beyond Prussia to German-speaking Europe across the last five centuries, Wilson finds little unique or preordained in German militarism or warfighting.
Iron and Blood takes as its starting point the consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire, which created new mechanisms for raising troops but also for resolving disputes diplomatically. Both the empire and the Swiss Confederation were largely defensive in orientation, while German participation in foreign wars was most often in partnership with allies. The primary aggressor in Central Europe was not Prussia but the Austrian Habsburg monarchy, yet Austria’s strength owed much to its ability to secure allies. Prussia, meanwhile, invested in militarization but maintained a part-time army well into the nineteenth century. Alongside Switzerland, which relied on traditional militia, both states exemplify the longstanding civilian element within German military power.
Only after Prussia’s unexpected victory over France in 1871 did Germans and outsiders come to believe in a German gift for warfare―a special capacity for high-speed, high-intensity combat that could overcome numerical disadvantage. It took two world wars to expose the fallacy of German military genius. Yet even today, Wilson argues, Germany’s strategic position is misunderstood. The country now seen as a bastion of peace spends heavily on defense in comparison to its peers and is deeply invested in less kinetic contemporary forms of coercive power.
Author(s): Peter H. Wilson
Publisher: Belknap Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 980
City: Cambridge
Cover
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Note on Form
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Part 1: Balancing War and Peace
1 Warlords
Military Power and Political Authority
The Holy Roman Empire
The Development of Collective Security
Austria
Germany
Switzerland
Cow Swiss and Sow Swabians
The Public Peace and Foreign Service
Enforcing the Public Peace
Foreign Service
Wars in Italy
The Battle of Marignano and the ‘Invention’ of Swiss Neutrality, 1515
The Wars of Charles V
Pavia and the Sack of Rome
The Turkish Wars, 1521–33
Renewed Italian and Turkish Wars
The Schmalkaldic War, 1546–7
The Princes’ Revolt and Renewed War with France, 1551–9
Peace and Security in a Confessionalized Age
Western and Northern Security
Eastern Security and the Long Turkish War
2 Forming Armies
Supreme Field Captains
Command and Control
Military Administration
War Councils
Militia and ‘Mercenaries’
Vassals
Militia
Professionals
Contracting
Pike and Shot
Army Size
Infantry
Cavalry
Artillery
Fortifications
Command of the Rivers
Navies in German History
Mediterranean Campaigns
The Hansa
The Danube Flotilla
3 Going for a Soldier
Good and Bad War
Military Knowledge
Attitudes to War
Violence
The Trade of War
Motives
Geographical Origins
Social Origins
‘Dishonourable trouser devils’
Corporate Autonomy
Mutiny and its Response
Landsknecht Culture
Landsknecht Dress
The Campaign Community
Welfare, Medical Care, and Mortality
No Money, No War
War Costs
Fiery Taxes
Economic Impact
Part II: Accepting War as Permanent
4 Restraining the War Monster
The Thirty Years War, 1618–48
The War in German History
Causes
The Bohemian Revolt and its Aftermath
The Peace of Westphalia
Collective Security, 1648–80
Peace Implementation
Peace Preservation
Initial Armaments
The Turkish War, 1662–4
The Dutch War, 1672–9
Defence Reform, 1681–2
The Réunions, 1679–81, and Switzerland’s Response
Imperial Defence Reform
The Turkish and French Wars, 1683–1714
The Siege of Vienna and the Great Turkish War
The Nine Years War, 1688–97
The End of the Great Turkish War
The Great Northern War, 1700–21
The War of the Spanish Succession, 1701–14
5 Permanent Armies
Generalissimos
Field Command
The First General Staffs
War Commissariats and Councils
From Contract to Commission
Contracting
Officer Appointment and Promotion
Recruitment
Militia and Conscripts
Close Order and Firepower
Size
Infantry
Cavalry
Dragoons
Light Troops
Artillery and Technical Troops
Fortifications
Maiden Voyages
Naval Developments
The Imperial Navy
The Brandenburg Navy and Colonies
The Hansa
The Swiss Flotilla
6 From Extraordinary to Ordinary Burden
From Divine Punishment to State Necessity
Military Knowledge
Attitudes
Violence
A Precarious Existence
Motives
Geographic Origins
Social Origins
Campaign Communities
Regulation
Soldiers’ Identities
‘Camp Followers’
Medical Care and Welfare
An Iron Century
Human Impact
War Finance
Economic Impact
Part III: Professionalizing War
7 Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns
Austria Overstretched, 1714–39
Inner German Rivalry in a European Context
Turkish and Mediterranean Wars, 1716–20
The War of the Polish Succession, 1733–5
The Turkish War, 1735–9
Imperial Civil Wars, 1740–63
Prussia’s Seizure of Silesia
The War of the Austrian Succession
The Seven Years War
The Threat of Partition, 1764–91
The Military Imbalance
The First Partition of Poland, 1772
The War of the Bavarian Succession, 1778–9
Austria’s Last Turkish War, 1788–90
Fighting for Survival, 1792–1815
The French Revolutionary Wars, 1792–1802
The End of the Empire
The Rheinbund
Switzerland
Settling with Prussia, 1806
The War of the Fifth Coalition
The War of Liberation, 1813–15
Change and Continuity
8 Professionalizing War
By Royal Command
Army Command
War Ministries
General Staffs
Intelligence
The Cadre System
Officer Appointment
Volunteers
Militia
Conscription
Revolutionary Challenges
The German Response
Prussian Conscription
Horse and Musket
Size
Infantry
Cavalry
Light Troops
Artillery
Technical Troops and Fortifications
Ventures at Sea
A Minor Role
Austria’s Mediterranean Fleets
Prussia’s Baltic Flotilla
9 Socialization of the Military
Enlightened War and its Critics
Military Knowledge
Attitudes to War
Violence
Life on a Minimum Wage
Motivation
Geographic Origins
Social Backgrounds
Garrison Communities
Legal Status
Soldiers as a Corporate Group
Medical Provision and Welfare
Religion
Not so Limited War
The Human Impact
The Financial Burden
Economic Impact
Part IV: Nationalizing War
10 War and Nation-Building
Guardians of Order, 1815–51
Central Europe after Napoleon
The German Confederation
The Swiss Confederation
Foreign Service and its Complications
The Challenge of Revolution
The Sonderbund War, 1847
Revolutionary War, 1848–51
The Schleswig-HolsteinWar, 1848–51
Excluding Austria, 1852–69
Austro-Prussian Rivalry
Austria’s Setbacks in the 1850s
The Second Schleswig-Holstein War, 1864
The Confederation’s Destruction, 1866
Forging Imperial Germany, 1870–1
War with France
War with the French
The German Empire
Strategic Dilemmas, 1872–1914
New Alliances
The ‘Short War Illusion’
Weltpolitik
Calls for War
The July Crisis
11 Nations in Arms
A Genius for War? The Rise of the General Staff
Napoleon’s Legacy for Germany
States’ Rights
Command during the Restoration Era, 1815–48
Mid-Century Disorganization
General Staffs
Operational Command
Intelligence
Line and Landwehr
The Politics of Recruitment
Militias and Civic Guards
Long-Service Armies in Austria and the German States
Prussia’s Short-Service Model
The Roon Reforms
Later Nineteenth-Century Pressures
Rifles and Railways
Size and Higher Organization
Infantry
Cavalry
Artillery
Specialist Troops
Railways
Fortifications
Colonial Forces
Luxury Fleets
Developments to 1851
Mid-Century Reorganization
Strategic and Technical Dilemmas after 1871
Heading into Open Waters, 1891–1905
Dreadnoughts, 1906–14
The View from 1914
12 Serving the Nation
Dreams of Short Wars
Military Knowledge
Attitudes to War
The Fear of Peoples’ War
Colonial Violence and Genocide
Duty and Reward
Motivation
Social Origins
Part of Life
Martial Law
Soldiers’ Identities
Marital Relations and Social Life
Medical Care
Care of Veterans
The Treatment of Prisoners
Limited War
Human Losses
War Finance
Economic Impact
Naval Construction
Part V: Democratizing War
13 Demagogues and Democrats
The First World War 1914–18
The ‘Spirit of 1914’
The Global War
Stuck in the Mud
The Duo
Habsburg Failure
The Victory Peace
Stalemate
Bad Choices
Russia’s Defeat
The Final Throw
Collapse
Revolution and Dictatorship, 1919–38
Stabbed in the Back?
Fear of the Left
The Freikorps
Versailles
Peace Implementation
The Reichswehr
The Ruhr and Rearmament
Nazi Germany
The Black Order
The Wehrmacht
Anschluss
The Second World War, 1939–45
From Munich to War
Poland
War in the North and the West
Switzerland
From West to East
Operation Barbarossa
Case Blue
Defeat in the Mediterranean
Retreat in the East
The End
The Cold War, 1945–90
Civilian Powers?
Occupation and Denazification
Two Germanies
Rearmament
Cold War Strategy
Reunification
New Challenges since 1991
The Elusive Peace Dividend
From Kosovo to Afghanistan
European Security
14 From Total War to the End of War?
Command in the Information Age
The Last Warlords
Civilian Control
Intelligence
Citizen Soldiers
Conscription
Military Service under National Socialism
New Citizen Soldiers
Female Volunteers
Material Battles
Size
Tactics
Gas Warfare
Breakthrough Tactics
Cavalry
Motorization
Tanks
Fortifications
Post-War Dilemmas
Reform and Transformation
In Search of a Role: The Germans at Sea
The Surface Fleets
U-Boats
The Grand Scuttle
Reichsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The U-BoatWar
Post-WarNavies
Air Power
First Flight
Air Power in the First World War
Flight of the Phoenix
Special Forces
Bombing
Air Defence
Wonder Weapons
Nuclear Weapons
New Air Forces
15 Citizens in Uniform
Total War and its Legacy
Military Education
Military Thought
Blitzkrieg
Violence
War Crimes
German Resistance to the Nazis
Coming to Terms with the Past
The Peace Movement
Ordinary Men and Women
Motivation
Geographical Origins
Jewish Soldiers
Social Origins
Women in Arms
Armed Forces and Society
Legal Status
Innere Führung
Tradition
Occupation
Medical Care and Military Welfare
Prisoners
Spiralling Costs
Death and Displacement
War Finance
The War Economy
The Hunger Blockade
The Nazi War Economy
Post-WarEconomies
War Industries
Outlook
Notes
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Warlords
2. Forming Armies
3. Going for a Soldier
4. Restraining the War Monster
5. Permanent Armies
6. From Extraordinary to Ordinary Burden
7. Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns
8. Professionalizing War
9. Socialization of the Military
10. War and Nation-Building
11. Nations in Arms
12. Serving the Nation
13. Demagogues and Democrats
14. From Total War to the End of War?
15. Citizens in Uniform
Index
