ABSTRACT
The relationship between warfare and society in early modern Europe between about 1450 and 1815 was complex and diverse, and marked by fluid interchange and exchange. This was because warfare was not a specialised and isolated aspect of wider society, but an undifferentiated aspect of it. The technical practice of warfare was not a self-contained process but grew and developed, as this chapter will show, in dialogue with technological innovation, social and cultural disciplining and education, economic entrepreneurship, and even political experimentation. In so doing it helped to shape these forces, and to influence how people in early modern Europe conceived of themselves in social, cultural, and political terms. The result was a process of unchecked and transformative change, especially in paradigmatic countries such as Britain, France, and the Dutch Republic. Historiographical attention, once fixed mainly on the “military revolution,” has now broadened to encompass a wide range of interactions between warfare and society in early modern Europe, which flowed in both directions throughout this period.
