ABSTRACT
The ‘Age of Reason’ is a term which has been applied by historians to the period spanning the middle decades of the eighteenth century. In polite society it was an age of optimism and intellectual progress, for much which had been obscure was now being defmed and elucidated through rational enquiry. In many countries the sovereigns and ministers were inspired by the ambition to regulate public affairs through ‘Enlightened’ reforms which were intended for the general good, even if their work often proved to be superficial. Warfare itself was limited and controlled by physical, political and ethical constraints. Large standing armies were another characteristic of the age, and they laid the foundations for a new military professionalism, though even here the transformation was incomplete, since the machinery of army and state encountered great difficulties in supplying, moving and directing these great masses of troops.
