Empire and Military Revolution in Eastern Europe: Russia's Turkish Wars in the Eighteenth Century

Description

In terms of resource mobilization and devastation the wars between Russia, the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire were some of the largest of the eighteenth century, and had enormous consequences for the balance of power in Eastern Europe. Brian Davies examines how these conflicts characterized the course of Russian military development in response to Ottoman and Crimean Tatar threats and to determine under what circumstances and in what ways Russian military power experienced a "revolution" awarding it clear preponderance over the Ottoman-Crimean system. A central part of Davies' argument is that identifying and explaining a Military Revolution must involve examining the role of factors not purely military. One must look not only at new military technology, new force and command structure, new tactical thinking, and new recruitment and military finance practices but also consider the impact of larger demographic, economic, and sociopolitical changes.

Brian Davies is Professor of History at the University of Texas at San Antonio, USA.

[This book] offers a magnificent panorama of the country's expansion. The reader will return to it again and again, not only to appreciate what good scholarship must be, but also as an inexhaustible source of information... We now have a splendid work of reference and analysis to understand the geopolitical situation in the Black Sea basin during much of the eighteenth century. Readers must look forward to the appearance of the next volume. -- J. P. LeDonne, Harvard University * Slavonic and East European Review * Davies' book will be definitely of great interest to professional historians and students of military history and everyone who seeks deeper insights into Russia's Turkish wars. -- Oxana Zemtsova, European University Institute * European Review of History *