The AskHistorians Podcast is a project that highlights the users and answers that have helped make r/AskHistorians one of the largest history discussion forums on the internet. You can subscribe to us via iTunes, Stitcher, or RSS, and now on YouTube and Google Play. 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:
For his debut as an interviewer rather than as a guest on the podcast, /u/EnclavedMicrostate is joined by flaired user /u/dandan_noodles to discuss warfare and its changes and continuities from the mid-eighteenth century and the wars of Frederick the Great up to the early nineteenth century and the wars of Napoleon. Why were wars fought? Who joined the armies? How did they fight? Did the revolution in French politics create a revolution in French warfare? Find out all this and more in this episode.
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Thanks all!
Wonderful podcast. My thanks to both the host, /u/EnclavedMicrostate, and the guest, /u/dandan_noodles!
/u/dandan_noodles, in the first quarter of the podcast, there is a lot of focus on Frederick the Great's managing of the Prussian Army and the innovations he pushed in order to outperform his enemies. One thing I've always been led to believe, is that his penchant for uniformity and order led to a disdain of the otherwise popular irregular troops, such as hussars and skirmishers. Was this actually true? If it is, how did Frederick alleviate the lack of skirmishing power? Did he train his regular troops to perform such tasks instead?
Great discussion :) I was very happy to see the ancient Greeks get a shout out, and on the unexpected topic of epiteichismos. There's definitely a lot about your description of 18th-century warfare that also rings true for Classical Greece!
Nice podcast. Your point about the limited ability of Frederick to supply his campaigns, supplementing his tax revenues with whatever he could extort from Saxony reminded me of a memoir I once read of ( I think) a Scottish cavalry officer in his army who witnessed a couple of soldiers being executed for taking something like a loaf or two of bread from a peasant; she complained to an officer, the soldiers were immediately sentenced to be killed on the spot, in horror she begged for their lives but was ignored. It implied an army of very badly-supplied, hungry men. The Scottish officer clearly thought this was severe discipline: was it, for the time?
I havent actually listened to the podcast yet so sorry if this question is redundant:
I know of the inaccuracy of the muskets during that time and their shooting in close formations to compensate for that. Yet I dont get why? I know the principle of "throw enough shit at the wall and some of it will stick" but if 5 people stand 10cm apart from each other and shoot at the same guy or if they stand 1 meter apart from each other and shoot at the same guy shouldnt make a huge difference?
Maybe I should make a picture in paint to illustrate it.