18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 37

[cahn]

More diaries of our favorite 18th-century Prussian diary-keeper have been unearthed and have been synopsized!

January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!

Comments

Re: Peter Hagendorf: Diary of a Mercenary from the 30-Years-War - I

[mildred_of_midgard]

Funnily enough, when you posted that question, I had just gotten to the page where Marian Füssel talks about that in my reading (history of the Seven Years' War)!

I don't have statistics (other than the usual "Germany lost over half its population in places" and if that had happened again, I think we would know), but to summarize what he says:

* The historical narrative has always been that warfare got less destructive for a while after the Thirty Years' War, partly because more efficient bureaucracies meant less need to rely on forage and plunder, and partly because everyone got civilized and started avoiding big battles.

* But that's oversimplifying.

* Obviously 18th century warfare was not as bad as the Thirty Years' War or the coalition wars, says Füssel.

* But we have to distinguish between theory and practice.

* 18th century warfare was capable both of the civilized treatment of officers and of massacres, and the brutality was just as much a part of the Enlightenment as the rest.

That's what I've got.

Re: Peter Hagendorf: Diary of a Mercenary from the 30-Years-War - I

[luzula]

Thanks! The book I am currently reading and will soon write up is shedding some light on this.