War and Strategy in Late Modern History [LHISB319]

Objectives

- knowing the essentials of Belgium's and Western Europe's late modern military history - enabling students to find research subjects grounded on relevant archival sources - showing students good examples of military history writings to emulate

Content

A presentation of : - military history as a field of research - case studies taken from the wars affecting the Belgian territory between 1792 and 1945 and representative of the evolution of war and the art of war - besides the Belgian armed forces (including in foreign service), the major Western military powers involved in Belgian campaigns and battles: Austria, France, Prussia-Germany, Britain and the United States - current debates between academic historians - main archival sources and major secondary works.

Table of contents

FIRST PART - SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY (online on Webcampus) CHAPTER 1 - SOURCES CHAPTER 2 - WORKING INSTRUMENTS CHAPTER 3 - THEMATIC AND SYNTHETIC WORKS CHAPITRE 4 - PERIODS OF THE HISTORY OF WAR SECOND PART - CASE STUDIES, CURRENT DEBATES AND FIELDS OF RESEARCH INTRODUCTION - THE RENEWAL OF MILITARY HISTORY CHAPTER 1 - THE WARS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEON CHAPTER 2 - STRATEGIC THINKING FROM 1815 TO 1914 CHAPTER 3 - THE FIRST WORLD WAR CHAPTER 4 - THE SECOND WORLD WAR