Warfare was a force for incredible creative destruction on the German lands between 1500 and 1800. It accompanied and catalysed confessional division, political fragmentation, demographic catastrophe, state formation, and national revitalization. The German peoples’ particular entry into and exit from early modernity are inseparable from their experiences of war. This course introduces students to key themes in the military, social, economic, political, and intellectual history of the German lands between the careers of the theologian Martin Luther and the military theorist Carl von Clausewitz. It highlights the complex ways early modern warfare shaped and was shaped by structural and contingent factors, often with profound consequences for broader German societies and subsequent generations. Prerequisite(s): 3 credit
Warfare was a force for incredible creative destruction on the German lands between 1500 and 1800. It accompanied and catalysed confessional division, political fragmentation, demographic catastrophe, state formation, and national revitalization. The German peoples’ particular entry into and exit from early modernity are inseparable from their experiences of war. This course introduces students to key themes in the military, social, economic, political, and intellectual history of the German lands between the careers of the theologian Martin Luther and the military theorist Carl von Clausewitz. It highlights the complex ways early modern warfare shaped and was shaped by structural and contingent factors, often with profound consequences for broader German societies and subsequent generations. Prerequisite(s): 3 credit
