Industrialisation in the 19th century brought quantum leaps in weapons technology and the overall development of the Western military. While the armies at Waterloo in 1815 still fought with flintlock muskets and muzzle-loading cannons, a hundred years later in the First World War mass armies faced each other with long-range multi-loading rifles, machine guns and rapid-fire guns. This advance in weapons technology is at the same time held responsible for the fact that European colonial empires in Africa and Asia reached their zenith. Apart from the colonial conflicts, however, the 19th century between Waterloo and the First World War is regarded as a peaceful epoch of conflicts limited in time and space.
This book aims to present the military developments in the Western world in the 19th century and to question existing patterns of interpretation. It shows that the first half of the 19th century was much more conflictual than often portrayed, both in Europe and on the American continents, where new Western-style states emerged and fought long wars with each other. The volume also questions the role of modern weaponry in the conquest of Western colonial empires and makes clear that improvements in logistics and communications were perhaps even more important. It also sheds new light on the common portrayal of the First World War by comparing it with other contemporary Western conflicts, such as the Mexican Civil War, the Balkan Wars or the Russian Civil War. "Western Warfare 1775-1923" is a compact and complex account of a period of conflict and military innovation that sheds new light on many developments.
