ABSTRACT
Modern concepts of decisiveness owe much to the achievement of unconditional victory in the Second World War, but it is necessary to understand the eighteenth century in its own terms. All too often the present-minded approach of subsequent historians has affected the interpretation of eighteenth-century warfare. Aside from the dangers of present-mindedness, it is also clear that the concept of decisiveness can be handled in a number of different ways. The most relevant distinctions are between tactical and strategic considerations, and between the defensive and the offensive. Determination and willpower as much as purely military aspects were, as is so often the case, crucially important to decisiveness, a theme stressed in Ian Gentles’ recent study of the New Model Army. Conflict between the two types of army represented an important sphere of decisive warfare, as in the Austro-Turkish wars of 1683–99 and 1716–18 and the Russo-Turkish wars of 1735–9, 1768–74 and 1787–92.
