The article is a review of Jeremy Black’s book “Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: Strategies for World War”. The central issue of the monograph is the problem of strategy development in European armed conflicts at the turn of the 18–19 centuries in a global context. The author of the book points out that the development of strategic plans is influenced not only by military concepts and traditions, but by the social, political and cultural contexts of the age. Since the scale of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars went beyond Western Europe, land and sea operations should be considered in a global dimension, considering other clashes in Asia, North and South America. The vast geography of hostilities forced the warring countries to adjust their policies. J. Black points out that despite the revolutionary innovations, much in the French armed forces remained the same. Napoleon, having abandoned part of the legacy of the 1790s, was unable to develop a successful strategy that was effective at the global level. France lost the struggle for dominance in sea lanes and lost its influence in India and the Caribbean. It also failed to establish successful interaction with its allies. The result of a series of wars of the late 18 – early 19 centuries was not only the rise of the British and Russian empires, but also significant changes in the strategic planning of the European powers.
Global Intellectual History of Strategies during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (on the book by J. Black)
Eremin Vladimir
The study is sponsored by the Russian Science Foundation, grant 20-18-00113.
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