Clausewitz on 19th Century Warfare: Evolution of War Strategies and the Rise of Absolute War

Extract

[...] The excerpt studied shows that the way of making war has evolved a lot between the 18th and 19th centuries. War would approach the absolute war of Clausewitz with more violent conflicts, more animated by the people and tending to bring military men to power. One can relativize this view: Clausewitz's limited wars have also led to a very important unleashing of violence as explained by historian Pierre Serna about the Seven Years' War, forms of guerrilla warfare that can even be spotted during this conflict in Canada between British troops and the French, using small war tactics. [...]

[...] Now more violent, war in the 19th century also undergoes a transformation related to the role of the people in conflicts. Unlike the limited wars of the 18th century, which pitted monarchs against each other:a king who makes war on another king » and pitched battles between regular armies:an army that makes war on another army » like during the Battle of Rossbach in 1757, thethe war of the present time is a war of all against all » Here we see that the people become crucial during conflicts. [...]

[...] As Clausewitz says,the conduct of war and politics converge here and the general becomes at the same time a statesman » (l13). The author has in mind the example of Napoleon 1he here who merged the role of head of state and head of the armies, politically leading the country, reforming it (Civil Code for example) but also planning the conduct of wars (strategy) and deploying his troops during battles (tactics) for example as at Austerlitz in 1805, as we can see in the Napoleon by Ridley Scott (2023). [...]

[...] We note a very famous formula of his thought:( . ) war ( . ) a true political instrument, a continuation of political relations, an execution of these by other means. » (l8-10). In other words, if diplomatic negotiations between states are not enough, if a state cannot obtain from another state what it wants, war becomes a tool among others to achieve political objectives. Clausewitz also expresses this when he says:War is an act of violence engaged to compel the enemy to submit to our will » (l1-2). [...]

[...] There are indeed three major principles during any war for Clausewitz: the political, the military, and the popular. During revolutionary wars, the role of the people became much more decisive than before, particularly through their participation in the war effort via guerrilla warfare, such as the Spanish people's fight against French troops in the 1800s, which Goya well depicted. More importantly, since the revolutionary wars and the Napoleonic wars, war has become the affair of the peopleof a community », « of entire peoples » Clausewitz likely refers here to the massive recruitment of soldiers in France. [...]