Questions
- What was the ‘tactical crisis’? Why did it confound all attempts at solution?
- How and why did concerns for domestic political stability constrain the military
policies of the great powers? - How useful was Concert diplomacy in keeping international order?
- Could Germany have kept France and Russia apart, thereby saving itself from
facing the nightmare prospect of war on two fronts?
Further reading
E. Belfield The Boer War(London: Leo Cooper, 1993).
M. F. Boemke, R. Chickering and S. Förster (eds) Anticipating Total War: The German and
American Experiences, 1871–1914(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
S. Förster and J. Nagler (eds) On the Road to Total War: The American Civil War and the
German Wars of Unification, 1861–1871(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
M. Howard The Franco-Prussian War: The German Invasion of France, 1870–1871(London:
Methuen, 19 8 1).
P. Howes The Catalytic Wars: A Study of the Development of Warfare, 1860–1870(London:
Minerva Press, 199 8 ).
B. H. Reid The Civil War and the Wars of the Nineteenth Century(London: Cassell, 2002).
L. Sondhaus Naval Warfare, 1815–1914(London: Routledge, 2001).
G. Wawro The Austro-Prussian War: Austria’s War with Prussia and Italy in 1866(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1996).
—— The Franco-Prussian War: The German Conquest of France in 1870–1871(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003).
74 War, peace and international relations
- For most of the century, the principal technical advances in armaments
benefited infantry weapons. But by 1900 the artillery had more than caught up
and it was to prove dominant in 1914–1 8. - From the 1 8 40s until 191 8 , soldiers in all countries tried to resolve the ‘tactical
crisis’ produced by the lethality of modern firepower. No fully satisfactory
answers were discovered. - The Congress System established in 1 8 14–15 died an early death in the 1 8 20s.
However, its legacy in a Concert System endured weakly, albeit still usefully,
at least into the late 1 8 70s. - A fatal and fateful development in the 1 8 90s was the permanent division of
great power Europe into two rival armed camps.