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Origins of Modern Wars
The Origins of the French Revolutionary Wars
The main part of Tim Blanning's book deals with the origins of the three major wars which France fought over the course of the Revolution: that of 1792 against Austria and Prussia, that of 1793 against Great Britain, Spain, and the United Provinces, and that of 1798-9 against the Second Coalition (Austria, Russia, and Great Britain). Despite the critical importance of these conflicts for Europe as a whole, no such study has been published this century; moreover, there is an increasing awareness that, in their long-standing concentration on 'history from below', historians of the period have allowed some of the most important aspects of the French Revolution -- most notably the wars -- to become neglected. In the book Tim Banning synthesizes for the first time the work on the subject, recent and not so recent but all too often ignored, which has been published in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Russian. The appearance of this major study will therefore be widely welcomed.
But the book does more than just examine the origins of the wars of the 1790s. It is also a major contribution to the debate on the origins of all modern wars. In his substantial introductory chapter, Tim Blanning analyses the theories of war advanced by other disciplines (psychology, ethnology, anthropology and the social sciences amongst them) and examines their advantages and shortcomings. Among the controversial issues he discusses are the nature of human aggression, economic determinism, the 'primacy of foreign policy', the theories of Clausewitz and the role played by ideology. In particular, Tim Blanning stresses the reciprocal nature of war and the need to examine the response of the victim as well as the motives of the aggressor. These general explanations of war are recalled at appropriate intervals throughout the book, so that the contemporary relevance of the events of the 1790s is never lost from view.
But the book does more than just examine the origins of the wars of the 1790s. It is also a major contribution to the debate on the origins of all modern wars. In his substantial introductory chapter, Tim Blanning analyses the theories of war advanced by other disciplines (psychology, ethnology, anthropology and the social sciences amongst them) and examines their advantages and shortcomings. Among the controversial issues he discusses are the nature of human aggression, economic determinism, the 'primacy of foreign policy', the theories of Clausewitz and the role played by ideology. In particular, Tim Blanning stresses the reciprocal nature of war and the need to examine the response of the victim as well as the motives of the aggressor. These general explanations of war are recalled at appropriate intervals throughout the book, so that the contemporary relevance of the events of the 1790s is never lost from view.
236 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1986
About the author
Timothy C.W. Blanning
30 books108 followersTimothy Charles William Blanning, FBA is Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge, where he taught from 1992 until 2009. His work focuses on the history of Europe from the 17th century to the beginning of the First World War.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 12, 2021
On April 20, 1792, the French National Assembly voted to declare war against Austria. In doing so, they unwittingly launched nearly a quarter-century of warfare upon the world, one that would end only with Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeat on the battlefield of Waterloo and his imprisonment on a remote Atlantic island. Even more significantly, though, they inaugurated what could be regarded today as the modern era of warfare, with its nationalistic appeals, mass mobilizations, and widespread destructiveness.
These dual subjects are the focus of Tim Blanning’s book. Drawing upon his considerable knowledge of the era, he details both the background of 18th century European politics and the developments which led to the declarations of the revolutionary wars. More broadly, though, he also assesses modern theories about the nature of war, and how they contribute to our understanding of its existence. It’s an appropriate approach to take particularly for what is meant to be the first chronological volume in a series of books on the origins of modern wars, yet Blanning is wise enough to use them to inform our understanding of the elements that motivate modern wars generally rather than the causes of specific ones.
To determine the latter, Blanning focuses on the events that led to the outbreak of European wars in 1792, 1793, and 1798. In his view, none of them were inevitable, and broke out not because of ideological differences but over more practical political concerns. As he notes, for rulers in 18th century Europe war was a tool of policy, one waged with armies that were smaller and more professional than before. These were used to pursue territorial gain or economic advantage over other European. Traditional enmities barely factored into this, as nations who might oppose each other in one war might find themselves allies in the next.
As Blanning demonstrates, this did not change with the advent of the French Revolution. Here he challenges the common interpretation of the wars as ideologically driven, showing how the major European powers were more concerned with their existing contests for position than they were with the possibility of revolution spilling over from France. Many of the regimes that might have most feared a popular uprising in fact welcomed Louis XVI’s revolutionary plight in the belief that it weakened France’s ability to challenge their schemes elsewhere. While this proved true in the early years of the Revolution, many politicians in the French National Assembly were only too eager to exploit Austrian bellicosity in early 1792 as a means of rallying a fracturing polity behind them. This paid off with a victorious war against an Austro-Prussian coalition, with the newly empowered France becoming enough of a threat to British and Russian interests to bring them into the conflict the following year. These interests were also at play in 1798 with the outbreak of the War of the Second Coalition, by which time the revolutionary rhetoric that rallied the French population six years earlier was an increasingly distant memory.
Throughout his book Blanning displays an impressive command of both the available documentary materials and the decades of historical scholarship about the era, which he employs to provide his readers with an insightful examination of his subject. By integrating the diplomatic events of the 1790s into the larger context of contemporary European politics, he makes a persuasive argument for looking past the radical rhetoric in favor of the underlying continuities. It’s an impressive work that, over thirty-five years after its original publication, remains a valuable introduction to both the diplomacy of the French Revolutionary period in particular and the factors that lead to war more generally.
These dual subjects are the focus of Tim Blanning’s book. Drawing upon his considerable knowledge of the era, he details both the background of 18th century European politics and the developments which led to the declarations of the revolutionary wars. More broadly, though, he also assesses modern theories about the nature of war, and how they contribute to our understanding of its existence. It’s an appropriate approach to take particularly for what is meant to be the first chronological volume in a series of books on the origins of modern wars, yet Blanning is wise enough to use them to inform our understanding of the elements that motivate modern wars generally rather than the causes of specific ones.
To determine the latter, Blanning focuses on the events that led to the outbreak of European wars in 1792, 1793, and 1798. In his view, none of them were inevitable, and broke out not because of ideological differences but over more practical political concerns. As he notes, for rulers in 18th century Europe war was a tool of policy, one waged with armies that were smaller and more professional than before. These were used to pursue territorial gain or economic advantage over other European. Traditional enmities barely factored into this, as nations who might oppose each other in one war might find themselves allies in the next.
As Blanning demonstrates, this did not change with the advent of the French Revolution. Here he challenges the common interpretation of the wars as ideologically driven, showing how the major European powers were more concerned with their existing contests for position than they were with the possibility of revolution spilling over from France. Many of the regimes that might have most feared a popular uprising in fact welcomed Louis XVI’s revolutionary plight in the belief that it weakened France’s ability to challenge their schemes elsewhere. While this proved true in the early years of the Revolution, many politicians in the French National Assembly were only too eager to exploit Austrian bellicosity in early 1792 as a means of rallying a fracturing polity behind them. This paid off with a victorious war against an Austro-Prussian coalition, with the newly empowered France becoming enough of a threat to British and Russian interests to bring them into the conflict the following year. These interests were also at play in 1798 with the outbreak of the War of the Second Coalition, by which time the revolutionary rhetoric that rallied the French population six years earlier was an increasingly distant memory.
Throughout his book Blanning displays an impressive command of both the available documentary materials and the decades of historical scholarship about the era, which he employs to provide his readers with an insightful examination of his subject. By integrating the diplomatic events of the 1790s into the larger context of contemporary European politics, he makes a persuasive argument for looking past the radical rhetoric in favor of the underlying continuities. It’s an impressive work that, over thirty-five years after its original publication, remains a valuable introduction to both the diplomacy of the French Revolutionary period in particular and the factors that lead to war more generally.
September 5, 2024
The methodological first chapter does use straw men, but they are the actual scarecrows out there begging to be burned. I particularly liked the section on quantitative analysis of the causes of war, it was hilarious. There are, of course, many serious IR studies that go beyond Blanning's scarecrows, but the essay is worth reading.
I picked this up because I'm writing a novel on the fall of the Bastille. So I'll just note that this book is on the external wars from 1792 onward, not on the Revolution itself (literally nothing about that in the book). Just so you know.
I picked this up because I'm writing a novel on the fall of the Bastille. So I'll just note that this book is on the external wars from 1792 onward, not on the Revolution itself (literally nothing about that in the book). Just so you know.
October 4, 2017
Covers a complicating time in European politics and war. Does so with moderate clarity and with interesting analysis of war and its causes on a deep sociological level.
August 12, 2011
Poorly written, clogged with a silly introduction where Blanning sets up straw man arguments, but a good examination of how wars begin. It is all over power, and everything else simply gives the war its specific dimensions, one way or another. Blanning though could have said more about the later point.
September 5, 2014
I actually loved the sociological breakdown of war within the first 2 chapters. However, once Blanning starts his long description of the French Revolution, it gets a little boring. I wish he could've kept the same spirit he held during the first two chapters, while teaching the revolution.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews