Warfare Of The Early Modern Era
Early modern warfare is associated with the start of the widespread use of gunpowder and the development of suitable weapons to use the explosive, including artillery and handguns such as the arquebus and later the musket, and for this reason the era is also summarized as the age of gunpowder warfare.
Prior to the 15th century, gunpowder was used on a limited basis, but its use became universal in the early modern period, its apex occurring during the Napoleonic Wars from 1792 to 1815. This entire period is contained within the Age of Sail, which characteristic dominated the era's naval tactics, including the use of gunpowder in naval artillery.
All of the Great Powers of Europe and the Middle East were actively fighting numerous wars throughout this period, grouped in rough geographical and chronological terms as the European wars of religion between the 1520s and the 1640s (including the Thirty Years' War, the Eighty Years' War and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms) and the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659); the Northern Wars, Polish–Swedish wars and Russo-Swedish Wars; the Russo-Turkish Wars, Ottoman–Habsburg wars, and other Ottoman wars in Europe. In the Horn of Africa; the Adal's conquest of Ethiopia and the involving of the Ottomans, Mamluks and the Portuguese. In Asia the Persia–Portugal war, the Mughal conquests, the Chinese Ten Great Campaigns, and the Anglo-Mysore Wars; and throughout the 18th century the "Second Hundred Years' War", an umbrella term which includes the Nine Years' War, Seven Years' War, War of the Spanish Succession, War of the Austrian Succession, and finally the American War of Independence, French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars of the late 18th to early 19th centuries which mark the end of this era.
The understanding of "gunpowder warfare", expressed here, comes from the works of Michael Roberts who argued that a military revolution occurred in the 16th century that forever changed warfare, and society in general. Since he wrote in the 1950s his narrative has been augmented and challenged by other scholars.
Read more about Warfare Of The Early Modern Era: Islamic Empires, East Asia, See Also
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