ABSTRACT
The period 1660-1721 witnessed a series of epic struggles of which the most dramatic were the defeat of the Turks by the Austrians, the triumph of Peter the Great over his Swedish rival Charles XII, and the conflicts between Louis XIV of France and his neighbours, culminating in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) in which Louis’ hopes of dominating western Europe were dashed. The major wars were lengthy struggles: the Russo-Polish war of 1654-67; the Dutch war of 1672-8, a conflict that began with a French attack on the Dutch but that broadened to include most of western Europe; the Nine Years’War, otherwise known as the War of the League of Augsburg, or King William’s War, of 1688-97; and the Great Northern War of 1700-21. During this period the armed forces of the major European states grew appreciably and there were important tactical developments, although it would be mistaken to imply by any periodization that all forces were developing in a uniform and consistent fashion.
