The AskHistorians Podcast is a project that highlights the users and answers that have helped make /r/AskHistorians one of the largest history discussion forum on the internet. You can subscribe to us via iTunes, Stitcher, or RSS, and now on YouTube. You can also catch the latest episodes on SoundCloud. If there is another index you'd like the cast listed on, let me know!
This Episode:
/u/DonaldFDraper drops in to give a broad overview of how European politics and military tactics changed in the extended century running from the end of the 30 Years War up into the ascent Napoleon. Starting with Gustavus Adolphus, the development of line infantry, and the resuscitation of cavalry tactics, the episode progresses there into the War of Spanish Succession and the dynastic gamesmanship that dictated the pace of war and peace. The episode proceeds from there into the War of Austrian Succession, the rise of Prussia, the Diplomatic Revolution, the Seven Years War, new artillery tactics, and the relative merits of muskets vs. rifles.
If you want more specific recommendations for sources or have any follow-up questions, feel free to ask them here! Also feel free to leave any feedback on the format and so on.
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Thanks all!
Coming up next fortnight: /u/RioAbajo discusses the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, wherein the Pueblo in what is now New Mexico expelled the Spanish colonizers from the region.
I just finished my archive binge of the podcast yesterday. I'm giddy at the thought at listening to this one when it's fresh.
Thank you (and everyone else involved) for your work on this.
And before any of you pedants gets pedantic, I know I'm playing fast an loose with the term "Long 18th Century." But "War and Politics mostly focused on continental Europe in the time between the end of the 30 Years War and the start of the French Revolution" was too long -- like, Treaty of Westphalia long.
And I apologize if I mix things up and say something wrong. I end up thinking of everything at once and I fear I said something wrong.
I'll get a book list up when in get home.
Recommended reading for this podcast.
The Age of Battles: The Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenfeld to Waterloo by Russell F. Weigley
Engineering the Revolution: Arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763-1815 by Ken Alder
The Philosohpy of the Enlightenment by Ernst Cassirer
Eighteenth-Century Europe: Tradition & Progress, 1715-1789 by Isser Woloch & Gregory S. Brown
The French Nobility in the Eighteenth Century: From Feudalism to Enlightenment by Guy Chaussinand-Nogaret
The War of the Austrian Succession by Reed Browning
War & Society in Early Modern Europe, 1495-1715 by Frank Tallett.
The Military Revolution Debate: Reedings on the Military Transformation of Early Modern Europe ed. by Clifford J. Rogers
(I'm sure there's a few books I'm missing but they're missing in my library.)
Edit: I forgot The Wars of Louis XIV 1667-1714 by John A. Lynn
Hi, in the podcast you are speaking of the king IN Prussia opposed to the king OF Prussia, what is the difference? Also kind of related question, is it correct Prussia had the center of its kingdom in the east, outside of Holy Roman Empire territory, so that the Prussian nobility could crown themselves, because they had no right to do so in the empire?