ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the armies of Europe as they stood in 1789 and in the process show, first, that they represented a foe that was worthy of considerable respect and, second, that many of the innovations the French Revolution supposedly brought to the art of war were not in fact innovations at all. It argues that what did the armies of the ancien regime consist and how were they organised. In all the armies of the larger states, meanwhile, the third pillar upon which they rested was the artillery. Prior to 1700 the numbers of guns employed had been steadily on the increase, and the coming of the new century did nothing to check this development. Indeed, armies as a whole were inclined to vary dramatically in quality with those of the smaller and poorer states trailing far behind those of their wealthier neighbours.
