The Pursuit of Power. Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000

Advances in Europe’s Art of War, 1600–1750 139

15,

And put it again betwixt

your fingers

16,

Blow your pan

differentiation within civil society fully compatible with domestic

peace and order. Overwhelming force came to reside in the hands of

soldiers obedient to the king’s own bureaucratically appointed of­

ficers. Neither aristocratic challenges to royal power nor lower-class

protests against perceived injustice had the slightest chance of success

as long as well-drilled troops were available to defend royal preroga­

tives. Accordingly, Europe began to enjoy a previously unattainable

level of domestic peace. This facilitated a notable increase in wealth,

so that in many parts of the Continent it became feasible to support

professional standing armies on tax income without straining the eco­

nomic resources of the population too severely. The United Prov­

inces, France, and Austria led the way; other European states followed

close behind.

Standardization and Quasi-Stabilization

of European Armed Forces

As tax income became sufficient to meet military payrolls more or less
punctually, the profound disturbances that the commercialization of
war had introduced into Europe in the fourteenth century seemed