Early modern European warfare features prominently in several important discussions of early modern violence, notably the debate on the Military Revolution and its variants,

as well as forming part of the standard narrative of state formation and the emergence of an international order based on sovereign states. The latter are still largely defined according to models articu­lated in late nineteenth-century European thought which identified the state as a ‘monopoly of violence'.

This chapter sets out to test some of these older claims, highlighting both the diversity of European warfare and the variety of ways in which warfare interacted with state and ‘international' structures. It will attempt to include the northern and eastern extremities of Europe, which were largely ignored in older accounts. Chronologically, the chapter will necessarily have to include some developments from the later fifteenth century. It will stop around 1790 and thus exclude the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras.

More on the topic Early modern European warfare features prominently in several important discussions of early modern violence, notably the debate on the Military Revolution and its variants,: