ABSTRACT
The crucible of the early modern period created a new world alloyed from several historical elements and melded by the fires of warfare. A growing chorus of historians claims that the early modern era witnessed a military revolution, although they debate the scope, timing, and influence of the phenomenon. Just how the label "militaiy revolution" will fare over the next decade of historiographical controversy no one can tell. Artillery not only gave naval vessels their power, but Geoffrey Parker theorizes that it shaped the entire military revolution. Parker goes so far as to ascribe the growth of armies to the spread of the new style of fortresses— designed with low walls, broad ditches, and angled bastions in what he terms the trace italienne. In the need to support the expanded forces of the seventeenth century, armies developed better mechanisms of collecting and distributing supplies.
