Winston Churchill once said that the wars of men would be much worse than the wars of kings, which is the premise of this excellent history of the change in European warfare as a result of the French Revolution. Yes, the religious wars were terrible, as was the Thirty Years War, but to a large extent, the worst excesses of those wars (the slaughter of civilians) were the result of local conditions and not the policies of the engaged. Indeed, the ethos of the pre-Revolution wars was based on the mores of the aristocrats who were able to move from the audience chamber (or boudoir) to the battlefield and back with ease. Wars were largely wars of movement and position, for as Maurice de Saxe believed, a good General could spend his entire career successfully if he never had to actually fight a battle.
The French Revolution opened a new door on warfare, where, for the first time, terms such as “extermination”, “not human”, “deserving to be killed” and more were used, and they were used by the zealots of the Revolution which promised the liberation of mankind. Who were the first victims of that new form of warfare? Why fellow Frenchmen of course; the crushing of the resistance of the Vendee was not only brutal and planned by the leaders of the Revolution, but it also created some of the greatest butchers/heroes of France. But once whetted, the forces of the Revolution had to move forward, bringing the glories of the Revolution to all the peoples of Europe. Those who opposed the sacred message of the Revolution had to be subdued and forced into the light, often by the most brutal force.
Of course, from the forces of Revolution came Napoleon who turned against the Revolution and set himself up as the supreme power not only in France, but throughout most of Europe. He may have had in some corner of his mind bringing “enlightenment” to the peoples of Germany, the Hapsburg Empire, Italy, etc. but his real concern was his personal (and his family’s) enrichment and aggrandizement all at the cost of millions of average people whose main concern in life was putting enough food on their table for their families.
Reading this book immediately brings to mind the adage that you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. Those who participate in, create or propose revolutions always justify themselves with self-congratulating platitudes like that, but they never are the ones who pay the price for the destruction they cause until, as with all revolutions, they themselves are devoured by their own creature. What a shame that that self-destructive cycle cannot be sped up.
