This course examines the history of warfare in Europe from the Renaissance through the campaigns of Frederick the Great. It combines the study of military campaigns with that of the political, economic, social, and cultural factors shaping military developments. It explores the so-called "Military Revolution" of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with particular emphasis on the relationships between military developments and state building, the rise of absolutism in France and the Wars of Louis XIV, and the rise of Prussia and the Wars of Frederick the Great. Study of the so-called "age of limited war" sets the stage for future study of the American Revolution and the Wars of the French Revolutions and Napoleon. This course contains several themes particularly useful to the modern soldier. Among them are the nature, intensity, and complexity of wars of religion.
