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Warfare and History
War and the State in Early Modern Europe: Spain, the Dutch Republic and Sweden as Fiscal-Military States
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw many ambitious European rulers develop permanent armies and navies. Jan Glete examines this military change as a central part of the political, social and economic transformation of early modern Europe
288 pages, Paperback
First published August 11, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 1, 2020
Great book with a clear thesis, interesting supporting chapters that go deep on three examples, and no fluff. My only criticism is that the final Swedish chapter wasn't as well developed as the Spanish and Dutch ones, which was probably due to a combination of it going last and the fact that it was originally a stand alone essay.
November 15, 2021
The chapter on the Swedish fiscal-military state was great.
January 8, 2021
A good book, in which Glete first lays down the theoretical framework of his views on early modern state building: that fiscal-military states are complex organizations created by innovative rulers and they were possible because the state more and more became the most efficient protection seller within a country. Then, he examines Spain, Dutch Republic and Sweden's state building efforts according to this theory.
His ideas generally make sense and are well written, but they don't go much further than debunking myths about absolutism and explaining the steps of early modern state building. Glete doesn't really explain why most other European countries created fiscal-military organizations later than the three countries he examines. Was it because their rulers were not innovative or skilled enough? Why did Castille and Sweden succeed in curtailing their estates and setting up permanent taxation and large professional armies, while France, England or Austria couldn't (until much later)? These are relevant questions which were poorly, if at all addressed by Glete. Additionally, repetition of his theoretical formulations (like the one I summarized in the first paragraph) again and again makes the book more boring and monotonous than it could have been.
What Glete handled perfectly is the short summaries and analyses of histiography in both theoretical and case-study chapters. These really put his study in the proper context, and is very important for especially beginners in the field (like me) so that they don't take Glete's book as objective historical truth, but as a possible explanation of how (but sadly, not why) European fiscal-military states came about.
His ideas generally make sense and are well written, but they don't go much further than debunking myths about absolutism and explaining the steps of early modern state building. Glete doesn't really explain why most other European countries created fiscal-military organizations later than the three countries he examines. Was it because their rulers were not innovative or skilled enough? Why did Castille and Sweden succeed in curtailing their estates and setting up permanent taxation and large professional armies, while France, England or Austria couldn't (until much later)? These are relevant questions which were poorly, if at all addressed by Glete. Additionally, repetition of his theoretical formulations (like the one I summarized in the first paragraph) again and again makes the book more boring and monotonous than it could have been.
What Glete handled perfectly is the short summaries and analyses of histiography in both theoretical and case-study chapters. These really put his study in the proper context, and is very important for especially beginners in the field (like me) so that they don't take Glete's book as objective historical truth, but as a possible explanation of how (but sadly, not why) European fiscal-military states came about.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews