Lecture 18: Techno Revolution and War in the Age of Steam

Nap was exiled to

elba…

in march 1815, nap escaped and

began rebuilding his armies

nap tries to make a duel w his enemies -

which they reject, so he his to fight

naps plan:

a. attack weakest enemy armies

1. prussians

2. brit

b. to do so, march north, leaving other troops to watch over invasion routes

step one of nap’s plan seems to go well -

he defeats prussians - but has to make sure that they stay for from brit - he detaches 1/3 of his army to prevent this

wellington picked battlefield

a. long ridge - which he could conceal troops behind

b. set up walled forms in front as mini-fort- to slow French attacks

nap always has to worry about the prussians appearing

on his right

but he negins w an attack on his left to try to

focus wellington’s attention there

frontal attacks fail and nap decided to rely on his artillery, then

final infantry assaults - which failed and nap had to flee the battlefield (and the prussians arrived)

so, nap finally gone (died 1821-

will warfare continue to change?

what will happen to

column, line, square?

the area of waterloo - an area so often fought over that it became known as

“the cockpit of europe”

in the early 18th c,

the duke of marlborough, fighting the armies of louis XIV, had to deal w allies - the dutch in particular - the brit govt’s representative = charles viscount townshend (“turnip”)

much of netherlands = land reclaimed from north sea by the “polder system”

1. barrier

2. pump out water

3. then fertilize reclaimed land

townshend admired and used dutch methods in eastern england townshend made a

reputation for these methods

but the real money came not from agriculture,

but from sheep

since the middle ages a major wealth - producer in england =

wool

producing wool into thread then cloth =

labor intensive (5 spinsters for each weaver)

as demanded increased in the 18th c, the bottleneck =

hand labor

in 1760s, investors = began to tackle the problem

a. james hargreaves invents the “spinning jenny” - speeds up thread making

b. richard arkwright - who hitches spinning to water power

now we begin to see factories

water powered spinning machines

next step - attach water power to

looms to turn thread to cloth

the limits of water power:

a. drought

b. freezing

for centuries eng has been increasingly deforested -

people relied upon coal for heating

coal could produce steam -

the power of the late 18th and 19th c

so, in turn, steam replaced water power

to run factories

coal moved by steam power to factories -

steam engines pulled wagons - and som people - railways appeared

steam ships

another step

as other technologies appear,

will military technology change - and what about formations?

improvements in weapons percussions caps + trifling -

will change in weaponry change warfare? will column/ line/square still be in use?