" The Battle of Malplaquet" Topic

"The battle of Malplaquet was one of the bloodiest contests in modern history. Its "Butchers Bill" was by far the worst of any engagement fought during the War of Spanish Succession, and the shock wave that it engendered reverberated through all strata of what today we consider to have been a polite and genteel society. The dawning of the Age of Reason had caused a shift in the political outlook of most Western European countries, and governments now looked toward the economic virtues of trade rather than religious intolerance. Thus the d toll at Malplaquet was to traumatize the nations of Europe just as much as the horrific loss of life at the Somme and Verdun were to do some two hundred years later.

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 brought to an end the Thirty Years War, which had ravaged Europe not only with bitter-armed conflict, but also with pestilence, and the atrocities committed by all sides caused military thinkers to revaluate their whole concept of warfare. By 1700 the art of war had became the art of manoeuvre, and in particular the art of fortification and siege craft. Campaigns were normally fought during the spring and summer, armies going into winter quarters in October and emerging once again in April to continue their chess- like manoeuvring. Armies were now far more disciplined in comparison to the marauding hordes of mercenaries employed during the Thirty Years War, and although foreign troops were still used in most armies of the period, they were subject to the same stringent measures of discipline as the indigenous soldiers of the country under which they served…."
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Amicalement
Armand

Wrong Board. Malplaquet was my art of the War of Spanish Succession (@ 1702-1712).

My mistake…. sorry for that…

Amicalement
Armand