Warfare and British Society, c1250–present
What's covered
Key facts
Early Modern Warfare
Bayonets fitted to muskets in the late 17th century made the pike obsolete because one soldier could now both shoot and stab.
Warfare Through Time
The musket required far less training than the longbow, which took a lifetime of practice to master, so large armies of conscripts could be raised and armed quickly.
Industrial Warfare
Reporting from the Crimean War exposed military mismanagement, and Florence Nightingale's reforms at Scutari transformed military nursing.
Medieval Warfare
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.
Modern Warfare
Warfare changed after 1945: MAD prevented direct superpower conflict, so the Cold War expressed itself through proxy wars (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Angola) instead.
World War Two
Air power played a far bigger role in WW2 than in WW1: bombers could strike factories and cities far behind the front line, and control of the air was vital in campaigns such as the Battle of Britain and D-Day.
Early Modern Warfare
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.
Warfare Through Time
Napoleon used the corps system: self-contained units (each with its own infantry, cavalry, and artillery) that could march separately yet concentrate at the decisive point of battle.
Industrial Warfare
The Crimean War was the first British conflict to make heavy use of railways and rifled small arms.
Medieval Warfare
The dominant military structure of medieval warfare was the castle, around which campaigns were planned.
Practice questions with answers
A taste of the 61 questions in this topic, answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
What was a major 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 armies raised only for each war
- •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
How did the role of castles change from the 13th to the 15th century?
- •Castles became the exclusive property of the Crown after 1300, when Parliament passed laws banning private lords from owning fortified buildings
- •Castles declined completely after 1300: lords moved entirely to unfortified manor houses once the Magna Carta ended baronial warfare
- •Castles grew more purely military: lords stripped out domestic quarters to create professional garrison forts as Hundred Years' War demanded
- ✓They became increasingly residential and administrative rather than purely military: lords added comfortable halls, chapels and gardens as symbols of wealth and status
What was a key 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
What was the significance of the musket replacing the longbow in European armies by the 17th century?
- •Muskets replaced cavalry entirely; no European army used horses in combat after the English Civil War
- ✓Muskets required less training than the longbow, enabling mass conscript armies to be raised quickly
- •Muskets were quieter than bows, meaning armies could move silently and achieve total surprise on the field
- •The musket was more accurate than the longbow and could be used at twice the range with no training
Why did air power play a far bigger role in WW2 than it had 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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