Warfare and British Society, c1250–present
What's covered
Key facts
Bayonets fitted to muskets in the late 17th century made the pike obsolete because one soldier could now both shoot and stab.
Reporting from the Crimean War exposed military mismanagement, and Florence Nightingale's reforms at Scutari transformed military nursing.
At Agincourt (25 October 1415) Henry V's English army, with thousands of longbowmen, defeated a much larger force of armoured French knights — a battle that became the showcase example of the longbow's power.
Warfare changed after 1945: MAD prevented direct superpower conflict, so the Cold War expressed itself through proxy wars (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Angola) instead.
Air power was decisive in WW2 in a way it had not been in WW1 because bombers could strike factories and cities far behind the front line, shaping the whole war.
The English Civil War (1642– 51) was significant in warfare history because the New Model Army showed professional paid soldiers were decisive in modern war.
The Crimean War was the first British conflict to make heavy use of railways and rifled small arms.
The dominant military structure of medieval warfare was the castle, around which campaigns were planned.
The 1982 Falklands War showed Britain still had the capacity to project naval power across 8,000 miles, recapturing the islands from Argentina in a brief seaborne campaign.
The Blitz (1940–41) killed ~43,000 civilians; Anderson shelters were built; British morale held despite devastation.
Sample questions
A taste of the 65 questions in this topic — answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
What was the most important change in army recruitment in the late 17th century?
- •Armies were raised from prisoners of war forced into temporary service for the Crown's campaigns
- •Conscription of every able-bodied male above sixteen via a national register became compulsory
- ✓Permanent standing armies, paid and uniformed by the state, replaced temporary feudal levies
- •Soldiers were recruited only from the landed nobility, who served entirely without pay or uniform
How did railways change British warfare in the second half of the 19th century?
- •They allowed cavalry units to remain the decisive arm long after rifles had been introduced
- •They made artillery obsolete since heavy guns could no longer be hauled across the country
- •They replaced the need for sea power because armies could now reach colonies overland
- ✓Troops, supplies, and casualties could be moved long distances in days rather than weeks
Who provided most of the soldiers in medieval English armies before the late 14th century?
- •A standing professional royal army paid year-round in cash by the king's treasury
- ✓Knights and feudal levies — landholders owed service to their lord in return for land
- •Mercenary companies hired from Italy under formal contracts of indenture and provision
- •Volunteer parish militias raised entirely by towns at their own expense in wartime
What was the most important reason no full war was fought between the USA and USSR after 1945?
- ✓Both sides held nuclear weapons, so any direct attack risked mutual destruction
- •Conventional armies had shrunk too far after 1945 to make any large land war possible
- •NATO and the Warsaw Pact agreed to permanent demilitarised borders across all of Europe
- •The United Nations Security Council banned superpower armies from leaving their own territory
Why did the longbow give English armies a decisive advantage in medieval battles?
- •Longbowmen were protected by heavy plate armour, making them impossible to kill in open battle
- •The longbow had a longer range than any cannon and could be used in all weather conditions
- •The longbow's arrows carried poison, which caused enemy soldiers to fall sick within minutes of being hit
- ✓Trained archers could fire six arrows per minute, penetrating armour and disrupting massed cavalry charges
Why was air power decisive in WW2 in a way it had not been in WW1?
- •Aircraft were used only for short reconnaissance flights and never for any bombing attacks
- •Anti-aircraft guns were so effective that no air force ever managed to reach an enemy city
- ✓Bombers could strike factories and cities far behind the front line, shaping the whole war
- •Pilots in WW2 were always grounded for poor weather, so air power had little effect overall
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