Download or read book The New Cambridge Modern History Volume 7 The Old Regime 1713 1763 written by J. O. Lindsay and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1957 with total page 654 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume surveys the political, military and diplomatic history of a period of changing alliances and limited and gentlemanly but frequent wars. It gives particular weight to the emergence of Prussia and Russia as European Powers and to the rivalry of France and England in America, in India and on the high seas. The economic background to these national fortunes is of increasing international trade, technological progress and colonialisation. Socially, European society slowly evolved from the domination of the aristocracy to that of urban populations and bourgeois administrators. Intellectually, the culture of Europe took on what are recognized as specifically eighteenth-century forms and ideals. From the point of view of world history this period saw the confirmation of European pre-eminence and dominion.

Download or read book World Political Systems after Polarity written by Nerses Kopalyan and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-06-14 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What will the current global political order look like when American unipolarity ends? Historically, the power configurations of world political systems have been defined by four structures: multipolarity, tripolarity, bipolarity, and unipolarity. These concepts inform both the formulation and the analysis of short-term policies and long-term, grand strategies of powerful actors in the world political order and may be of profound importance to the future peace and stability of the global system. The concept of nonpolarity, however, has never been addressed as a possible or a potential structural formulation in the nomenclature of global political systems. This book provides a coherent conceptualization of nonpolarity and how diplomacy will operate in a more collective age, and fits into the ongoing discussion about the nature of the political world order as we approach the end of the "American century."

Download or read book Rewriting German History written by Jan Rüger and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-10-11 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rewriting German History offers striking new insights into key debates about the recent German past. Bringing together cutting-edge research and current discussions, this volume examines developments in the writing of the German past since the Second World War and suggests new directions for scholarship in the twenty-first century.

Download or read book The French Navy and the Seven Years War written by Jonathan R. Dull and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Seven Years? War was the world?s first global conflict, spanning five continents and the critical sea lanes that connected them. This book is the fullest account ever written of the French navy?s role in the hostilities. It is also the most complete survey of both phases of the war: the French and Indian War in North America (1754?60) and the Seven Years? War in Europe (1756?63), which are almost always treated independently. By considering both phases of the war from every angle, award-winning historian Jonathan R. Dull shows not only that the two conflicts are so interconnected that neither can be fully understood in isolation but also that traditional interpretations of the war are largely inaccurate. His work also reveals how the French navy, supposedly utterly crushed, could have figured so prominently in the War of American Independence only fifteen years later. ø A comprehensive work integrating diplomatic, naval, military, and political history, The French Navy and the Seven Years? War thoroughly explores the French perspective on the Seven Years? War. It also studies British diplomacy and war strategy as well as the roles played by the American colonies, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Portugal. As this history unfolds, it becomes clear that French policy was more consistent, logical, and successful than has previously been acknowledged, and that King Louis XV?s conduct of the war profoundly affected the outcome of America?s subsequent Revolutionary War.

Download or read book A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution written by Jonathan R. Dull and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1987-07-01 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looks at the effect of the American Revolution on European relations, relates American diplomatic efforts to others of the time, and explains why England could not find allies against the colonists

Download or read book The French and Indian War and the Conquest of New France written by William R. Nester and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2014-05-07 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The French and Indian War was the world’s first truly global conflict. When the French lost to the British in 1763, they lost their North American empire along with most of their colonies in the Caribbean, India, and West Africa. In The French and Indian War and the Conquest of New France, the only comprehensive account from the French perspective, William R. Nester explains how and why the French were defeated. He explores the fascinating personalities and epic events that shaped French diplomacy, strategy, and tactics and determined North America’s destiny. What began in 1754 with a French victory—the defeat at Fort Necessity of a young Lieutenant Colonel George Washington—quickly became a disaster for France. The cost in soldiers, ships, munitions, provisions, and treasure was staggering. France was deeply in debt when the war began, and that debt grew with each year. Further, the country’s inept system of government made defeat all but inevitable. Nester describes missed diplomatic and military opportunities as well as military defeats late in the conflict. Nester masterfully weaves his narrative of this complicated war with thorough accounts of the military, economic, technological, social, and cultural forces that affected its outcome. Readers learn not only how and why the French lost, but how the problems leading up to that loss in 1763 foreshadowed the French Revolution almost twenty-five years later. One of the problems at Versailles was the king’s mistress, the powerful Madame de Pompadour, who encouraged Louis XV to become his own prime minister. The bewildering labyrinth of French bureaucracy combined with court intrigue and financial challenges only made it even more difficult for the French to succeed. Ultimately, Nester shows, France lost the war because Versailles failed to provide enough troops and supplies to fend off the English enemy.

Download or read book Pursuit of Profit and Preferment in Colonial North America written by William G Godfrey and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 2013-10-15 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did an ambitious British army officer advance his career in mid–eighteenth–century North America? What was the nature of political opportunism in an imperial system encompassing an old world and a new? This study examines the career of an Anglo–Irish–Acadian army officer, treating in considerable detail the network of old-world connections and patrons which at times facilitated his advancement. John Bradstreet was born in Nova Scotia and died in New York. He was a major participant in colonial North American military events ranging from the capture of Louisbourg in 1745 to the British campaign against Pontiac in 1764. Early in his career he became lieutenant–governor of St. John’s, Newfoundland, and eventually rose to the rank of major–general in the British army, while linking his military performance to a relentless pursuit of profit and preferment. He was a man consistently on the periphery of both English and American societies; yet his career reveals a great deal about the mid–eighteenth–century trans–Atlantic world and about the dilemma of proponents of Empire who were viewed with increasing suspicion in both mother country and colonies. The author draws upon British, American, and Canadian archival sources, taking advantage of Bradstreet’s prolific correspondence to support and develop his narrative.

Download or read book Merchants on the Mediterranean written by Despina Vlami and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-05-18 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How easy and uncomplicated was it for an 18th-century, medium-sized, Ottoman trade company to expand its business in the West? Which kind of resources, in terms of knowledge, information, experience, contacts and capital, could guarantee its successful passage from the business environment of a precapitalist oriental market to that of a major commercial and financial center of western Europe? Following the venture of the Ottoman Greek merchants Bartholo and Raphael Cardamici, who in the 1760s traded goods between Smyrna, Constantinople and Amsterdam, Despina Vlami investigates various aspects of the organization and strategy necessary for such an important transition. To expand their wholesale trade business to Amsterdam, the Cardamicis chose as their local correspondent an experienced and strong-minded Dutch merchant, Thomas De Vogel. De Vogel's letters addressed to his Ottoman clients reveal the course of their business transactions and the making of their personal relationship. At the same time, they are comprehensive and efficient tutorials on trade business and strategy guiding the Ottoman Greek merchants through the unpredictable and unfamiliar 18th-century international business universe.

Download or read book Frederick the Great written by Tim Blanning and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-03-29 with total page 705 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive biography of the legendary autocrat whose enlightened rule transformed the map of Europe and changed the course of history Few figures loom as large in European history as Frederick the Great. When he inherited the Prussian crown in 1740, he ruled over a kingdom of scattered territories, a minor Germanic backwater. By the end of his reign, the much larger and consolidated Prussia ranked among the continent’s great powers. In this magisterial biography, award-winning historian Tim Blanning gives us an intimate, in-depth portrait of a king who dominated the political, military, and cultural life of Europe half a century before Napoleon. A brilliant, ambitious, sometimes ruthless monarch, Frederick was a man of immense contradictions. This consummate conqueror was also an ardent patron of the arts who attracted painters, architects, musicians, playwrights, and intellectuals to his court. Like his fellow autocrat Catherine the Great of Russia, Frederick was captivated by the ideals of the Enlightenment—for many years he kept up lively correspondence with Voltaire and other leading thinkers of the age. Yet, like Catherine, Frederick drew the line when it came to implementing Enlightenment principles that might curtail his royal authority. Frederick’s terrifying father instilled in him a stern military discipline that would make the future king one of the most fearsome battlefield commanders of his day, while deriding as effeminate his son’s passion for modern ideas and fine art. Frederick, driven to surpass his father’s legacy, challenged the dominant German-speaking powers, including Saxony, Bavaria, and the Habsburg Monarchy. It was an audacious foreign policy gambit, one at which Frederick, against the expectations of his rivals, succeeded. In examining Frederick’s private life, Blanning also carefully considers the long-debated question of Frederick’s sexuality, finding evidence that Frederick lavished gifts on his male friends and maintained homosexual relationships throughout his life, while limiting contact with his estranged, unloved queen to visits that were few and far between. The story of one man’s life and the complete political and cultural transformation of a nation, Tim Blanning’s sweeping biography takes readers inside the mind of the monarch, giving us a fresh understanding of Frederick the Great’s remarkable reign. Praise for Frederick the Great “Writing Frederick’s biography . . . requires a diverse set of skills: expertise in eighteenth-century diplomatic and military history, including the intricacies of the Holy Roman Empire; a familiarity with the music, architecture and intellectual traditions of Northern Europe; and, not least, a profound sense of human psychology, the better to grasp the makeup of this complex and tormented man. Fortunately, Tim Blanning . . . has all of these skills in abundance.”—The Wall Street Journal “At once scholarly and highly readable . . . [Blanning] has given us a superb portrait of an enlightened despot, equally at home on the battlefield and in the opera house, both utterly ruthless and culturally refined.”—Commentary “Blanning, in clear thinking and prose, investigates all aspects of Frederick’s personality and reign. . . . The last word on this significant king, for years to come.”—Booklist (starred review) “Masterly . . . Blanning brilliantly brings to life one of the most complex characters of modern European history.”—The Telegraph (five stars) “A supremely nuanced account . . . This biography finds [Blanning] at the height of his powers.”—Literary Review

Download or read book The British Soldier in America written by Sylvia R. Frey and published by Univ of TX + ORM. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This social history of the common British soldier in the American Revolution dispels myths and sheds new light on who fought for the Crown—and why. In this extensive study, Sylvia Frey surveys recruiting records, contemporary training manuals, statutes, and memoirs to provide insight into the soldier’s “life and mind.” In the process she reveals a great deal about the common soldier: his social origins and occupational background, his size, age, and general physical condition, his personal economics and daily existence. Her findings dispel the traditional assumption that the army was made up largely of criminals and social misfits. Special attention is given to soldiering as an occupation, and the moral and material factors which induced men to accept the high risks. Focusing on two of the major campaigns of the war—the Northern Campaign which culminated at Saratoga and the Southern Campaign which ended at Yorktown—Frey describes the human face of war, with particular emphasis on the physical and psychic strains of campaigning in the eighteenth century. Frey rejects the traditional assumption that soldiers were motivated to fight exclusively by fear and force and argues instead that the primary motivation to battle was generated by regimental esprit, which in the eighteenth century substituted for patriotism. After analyzing the sources of esprit, she concludes that it was the sustaining force for morale in a long and discouraging war.

Download or read book Empires Systems and States written by Michael Cox and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a collection of leading scholars to consider various dimensions of the 'turn' to history in International Relations. The scope of this volume is broad. It includes conventional accounts of the development of the European states system, but is not limited by it. Other essays consider the non-European experience; a number of path-breaking essays on how other cultures and continents have ordered their political communities, in particular, the question how and why a states system triumphed over other forms of political organisation. The theme of the subtitle - great transformations - is pursued by each author. The essays consider one of the biggest questions of our time, namely, how did we arrive at this historical and institutional expression of political community? And what alternative future world orders exist? The volume will be of interest to scholars of International Relations and History interested in great transformations in world politics.

Download or read book Disease War and the Imperial State written by Erica Charters and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-11-03 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Seven Years' War, often called the first global war, spanned North America, the West Indies, Europe, and India. The author demonstrates how disease played a vital role in shaping strategy and campaigning, British state policy, and imperial relations during the Seven Years' War.

Download or read book Civilians and War in Europe 1618 1815 written by Erica Charters and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-12 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This interdisciplinary volume examines the relationship between civilians and war in Europe in the period 1618 to 1815, challenging familiar narratives of the rise of modern war and the nature of early modern warfare.

Download or read book Theology and the Enlightenment written by Paul Avis and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-11-17 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenging the common assumption that the Enlightenment of the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries was an essentially secular, irreligious and atheistic movement, this book critiques this standard interpretation as based on a narrow view of Enlightenment sources. Building on the work of revisionist historians, this volume takes the argument squarely into the theological domain, whether Anglican, Dissenting, Lutheran or deistic, whilst also noting that the Enlightenment deeply affected Roman Catholic and Jewish theologies. It challenges the stereotype of 'Enlightenment rationalism', and the penultimate chapter brings out the biblical and ecclesial roots of the image of enlightenment and reclaims it for Christian faith.

Download or read book The Rise of Prussia 1700 1830 written by Philip G. Dwyer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the beginning of the eighteenth century Prussia was but one in a mosaic of German states, but it rose to be the unchallenged leader of German-speaking Europe after the fall of Napoleon. The book goes beyond the political, military and diplomatic concerns of the Prussian elite, whose record of events is the one upon which most histories of Prussia are based, and explains its rise in relation to Prussian society as a whole. Political analysis is integrated with material on such areas as agrarian society, urban life and religion, which are not fully examined in existing histories.

Download or read book Germany in the Age of Absolutism written by Rudolf Vierhaus and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reconstructs the structures that marked the history of Germany from the Thirty Years' War to the end of the Seven Years' War.

Download or read book Charles Gravier Comte de Vergennes written by Orville T. Murphy and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1983-06-30 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first complete study of Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes, one of the most distinguished diplomats and statesmen of eighteenth-century France. Vergennes represented France as a diplomat in Germany, Constantinople, and Stockholm, and was Louis XVI's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Orville Murphy traces Vergennes' career as he steadily rose from the provincial nobility of the robe to the ranks of the court aristocracy; from the post of an obscure diplomat to the lofty position of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Murphy, however, has written much more than an interesting biography. The book develops a link between diplomatic personalities, the foreign policies of the French kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, and the contemporary social, economic, and political problems during much of the eighteenth century. Indeed, Vergennes and his policies are central to any study of the American Revolution, the underlying causes of the French Revolution, and of the subsequent "Age of Revolutions" in Europe.