Modern Military History Vocabulary Flashcards

Flashcards covering key terms, historical figures, strategic models, and major military engagements from the modern military history lecture notes.

Competition Continuum

A strategic model portraying the constant interaction between different geopolitical forces across cooperation, adversarial competition, and armed conflict.

Assurance

A strategic use of force within the competition continuum aimed at supporting partners, exemplified by UN Peacekeeping operations.

Deterrence

A strategic action taken to disincentivize the intended actions of an adversary.

Compel

Incentivizing an adversary to perform an action they do not want to do, such as through a blockade.

Tactics

The smallest, local, and finite level of warfare, consisting of specific battles and direct engagement actions.

Operations

The level of warfare comprising campaigns and processes, often logistical in nature.

Strategy

The level of warfare focusing on broader objectives and the primary reasons for fighting a war.

Grand Strategy

The highest level of national strategy addressing overarching geopolitical goals, such as defeating fascism or containing communism.

Annihilation Strategy

A military strategy that usually culminates in a large final confrontation ending in unconditional surrender by one side.

Attrition Strategy

A military strategy where victory is achieved based on manpower and manufacturing, essentially causing death by lower quantity.

Exhaustion Strategy

A military strategy focusing on the loss of will or internal capacity of the losing side, similar to a siege.

Operation Body Count

An unsuccessful attrition tactic employed during the Vietnam War targeting a $3:1$ casualty ratio.

Carl von Clausewitz

Prussian military theorist ($1780\text{--}1831$) who claimed war cannot be understood scientifically and formulated 'The Trinity'.

Clausewitzian Trinity

A theoretical model of war combining primordial violence/hatred (the people), chance/probability (the commander and combat), and rational policy/reason (the government).

Friction

Adverse and unpredictable factors in military operations that leaders can actually plan ahead for.

Shock Troops

The original tactical role of cavalrymen before their primary focus shifted toward reconnaissance.

Marquis de Lafayette

French advisor ($1757\text{--}1834$) who met Benjamin Franklin in France and came to train colonial forces during the American Revolution.

Baron Friedrich von Stueben

German military officer ($1730\text{--}1794$) who was instrumental in training colonial troops early in the American Revolution.

Fabian Strategy

A strategy of avoiding direct engagement with a primary enemy (such as Hannibal) and relying on superior supply lines.

Battle of Saratoga

A September–October $1777$ battle where Benedict Arnold's counterattack caved in the British flank, leading to British surrender and a French treaty.

Dunmore Proclamation

A November $7, 1775$ proclamation offering freedom to enslaved people who fought for the Crown, which backfired by turning Southern slaveowners toward revolution.

Battle of Camden

An August $16, 1780$ battle in South Carolina where General Gates lost badly and abandoned his army.

Battle of Yorktown

A September–October $1781$ battle where a French blockade trapped British forces, effectively ending major Revolutionary War combat.

Camp Followers

Civilians who followed armies to provide support roles during wartime, described as 'deadheads for war'.

Napoleon Bonaparte

French leader ($1769\text{--}1821$) who excelled in math and artillery, rose during the French Revolution, and built a vast European empire.

Reign of Terror

A period during the French Revolution (September $1793$–July $1794$) marked by political violence and revolutionary zeal.

Confederation of the Rhine

A confederation established by Napoleon ($1806\text{--}1813$) used to draft German soldiers to fight in his Russian campaign.

Louis Alexandre Berthier

Competent officer ($1753\text{--}1815$) in Napoleon's army who served as an organizational mastermind instrumental in keeping up stable supply lines.

Interior Lines

A military strategic position of fighting your way out while surrounded by the enemy.

Exterior Lines

A military strategy of surrounding an enemy, which requires splitting up your forces across multiple positions.

Battle of Waterloo

A June $18, 1815$ battle where Napoleon was defeated by British and Allied forces after getting flanked from two sides.

Press Gangs

Groups in port cities used to forcibly recruit men into naval service.

Shays' Rebellion

An $1786\text{--}1787$ uprising of New England farmers protesting high state taxes, demonstrating to the federal government the weaknesses of local militias.

Battle of Bladensburg

An August $24, 1814$ battle where British forces broke the American line despite being outnumbered $2:1$, leading to the burning of Washington, D.C.

Battle of New Orleans

A January $8, 1815$ battle where Andrew Jackson's forces used parapets and trenches to win a victory after the War of $1812$ was technically over.

The Alamo

A siege ending March $6, 1836$, where Texan and Tejano defenders held out before being overwhelmed by Santa Anna's Mexican Army.

Antonio López de Santa Anna

Mexican dictator and general who fought against Texan forces at the Alamo and Goliad and commanded troops in the Mexican-American War.

James K. Polk

US President who manufactured war with Mexico by ordering military forces to camp in disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande.

Spot Resolution

A resolution introduced in Congress by Abraham Lincoln demanding President Polk point out the exact spot on American soil where blood was shed.

Volunteer Forces

Paid enlistees in the Mexican-American War who were easier to control than militias but lacked discipline in civilian areas.

Winfield Scott

Strict US Army general and organizational mastermind who conducted the Veracruz amphibious landing and designed the Anaconda Plan.

Zachary Taylor

US Army general during the Mexican-American War who was very popular among his troops.

Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

The $1848$ treaty ending the Mexican-American War in which the US acquired territory spanning from Texas to California.

Contraband of War

The military designation used beginning in $1862$ to refer to formerly enslaved people who defected to Union lines.

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederacy who relied heavily on nepotism when granting prestigious positions to friends and family.

Robert E. Lee

Top Confederate general who was effective on the battlefield but struggled with grand strategy and suffered high casualties.

George McClellan

Early Northern general ($1826\text{--}1865$) skilled at organization and logistics but criticized for fighting too slowly and cautiously.

Anaconda Plan

Winfield Scott's $1861$ Civil War strategy to bleed the South dry with a $3000\text{-mile}$ naval blockade and control of the Mississippi River.

USS Monitor vs CSS Virginia

A March $8\text{--}9, 1862$ ironclad naval battle that led to the global development of armor-piercing shells and modern battleship warfare.

CSS Hunley

A Confederate submarine that successfully destroyed an enemy vessel with a spar torpedo ('bomb on a stick') before sinking.

Siege of Petersburg

A nine-month siege ($1864\text{--}1865$) in Virginia featuring extensive trench warfare that resulted in a Union victory.

Battle of the Crater

A July $30, 1864$ battle where Union troops detonated dynamite in a tunnel beneath Confederate lines but suffered heavy losses in the aftermath.

Total War

A military strategy targeting economic, rail, and factory infrastructure, famously utilized during Sherman's March to the Sea.

Surrender at Appomattox

The April $9, 1865$ event where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant without a final large confrontation.

Destruction of the Bison

An American military effort on the Plains to eliminate $20\text{--}30\text{ million}$ bison to destroy Native American food sources.

Battle of Little Bighorn

An $1876$ battle during the Plains Wars between Native American tribes and the American Army.

USS Maine

An American warship that exploded on February $15, 1898$, serving as a catalyst for the Spanish-American War.

Roosevelt's Rough Riders

A volunteer unit in the Spanish-American War led by Theodore Roosevelt, known for wearing Brooks Brothers uniforms.

Élan

The energy and enthusiasm of an infantry charge, which military leaders over-relied upon despite modern machine guns and artillery.

Von Schlieffen Plan

The German strategic plan to wage a two-front war against France and Russia by invading through neutral Belgium.