ACTA HISTORICA - A MTA TÖRTÉNETTUDOMÁNYI FOLYÓIRATA TOM. 16 (1970)

16. kötet / 1-2. sz. - ÉTUDES - G. PERJÉS: Army Provisioning, Logistics and Strategy in the Second Half of the 17th Century

Army Provisioning, Logistics and Strategy in the Second Half of the 17th Century By G. PERJÉS The Growth of Army Manpower in the Second Half of the 17th Century The most decisive phenomenon in the warfare of the second half of the 17th century was the enormous growth of manpower in the armies.1 During the Thirty Years' War, the effective strength of the armies of opposing parties varied from 100 000 to 120 000 men; in the War of the Spanish Succession, as many as 450 000—500 000 soldiers were fighting on both sides.2 Naturally, these considerable forces did not operate together in the same theatres of war, but were divided into several "camps", i.e. several independent armies.3 At the time of the Thirty Years' War the strength of the belligerent armies involved in pitched battle was usually 30 to 40 000 combatants on both sides; by the time of the War of the Spanish Succession this number had risen to 60 — 80 000, sometimes even to 100 000 men. All this took place at a time when the growth of Europe's population was not rapid at all; in France, for example, the population even decreased by the end of that period.4 Except for England and the Netherlands, there was no change in the level of agricultural production, nor in that of transportation facilities. So it happened that, given substantially unchanged population num- 1 General references: X. AUDOUIN: Histoire de Г administration de la guerre. I — IV. Paris 1831. II. p. 261. — G. HANOTAUX: Histoire de la nation française. Tome VIII. Histoire militaire et navale. Vol.I. — J. COLIN: Der origines aux croisades. — FR. REBOUL: Des croisa­des à la révolution. Paris 1925. p. 427. — E. FRAUENHOLZ: Das Heerwesen in der Zeit des Abso­lutismus. München 1940. p. 35. —• Feldzüge des Prinzen Eugen von Savoyen. Vols I — XIII. Wien 1876 — 1886. Vol. III. p. 21., IV. p. 630. — ScnMOLLER: Preußische Verfassungs-, Ver­waltungs- und Finanzgeschichte. Berlin 1921. p. 110. — LAVISSE — RAMBAUD: Louis XIV. 1643-1715. (Histoire générale VI.) Paris 1912. p. 711. 2 It seems almost incredible bow small the forces were in the Thirty Years' War that entailed so great consequences. Wallenstein's army consisted of 120 000 men in 1627, Gustavus Adolphus had 100 000 men in 1632. —E. FRAUENHOLZ: Das Söldnertum in der Zeit des dreißig­jährigen Krieges. München 1938. p. 36. 3 As for the interpretation of the "camps" see my introduction to Zrinyi's "Tábori kis trakta" (Short Treatise on Camps). In Zrinyi Miklós hadtudományi munkái (Works on Military Science). Budapest 1957. p. 97. 1 W. WILLCOX: Increase in the Population of the Earth and the Continents since 1650. New York 1931. p. 71. — M. REINHARDT: Histoire de la population mondiale de 1700 à 1948. Paris n.d. p. 56. — HUBER — BUNLE — BOVERET: La population de la France. 3rd edition, Paris 1948. p. 21. — The population of France amounted to 21.1 millions in 1700, whereas only to 18 millions in 1715; M. LEVASSEUR: La population française. I —III. Paris 1888 —1892. Vol. III. p. 206. Hislorica Acadcmiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 16, 1970

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