Warfare in the Napoleon era is similar to warfare practiced today - Essay Example

Warfare in the Napoleon era is similar to warfare practiced today The French Revolution created a nation of citizens andrevolutionized its Army, besides focusing on strategies and tactics of warfare, thus, becoming the model of best practices in warfare; these simple changes were the foundation for warfare during the Napoleonic era. Napoleon understood the significance of these fundamentals in warfare, and he applied them successfully in order to seize political objectives and defeat his opponents in combat, while his enemies fell miserably due to their ignorance of the same. Indeed, weapon systems and technology have changed over the years with increased sophistication1; however, warlords of today still embrace and practice the fundamentals of warfare upon which the Napoleonic era thrived. The Napoleonic era inspired changes in warfare and created organizational changes in the army that increased their lethality and ignited military reform, tactics, and strategies that are currently being used today. Napoleon created corps and divisions in order to have unity of command for his large troops, which allowed him to have better command and control, and flexibility over his units; Napoleon gave his orders through established channels of command to each division. The organizational changes that were made to the French army increased their flexibility, lethality, and maneuverability in warfare, thus, making it possible for Napoleon to trounce his opponents in combat with ease. Additionally, the Army developed Brigade Combat Teams, which enhanced the organizations ability to be flexible, and agile in warfare, thus, being able to move swiftly into combat zones and taking on the opponents with remarkable success. Similarly, armies of this era are divided into divisions to facilitate unity of command and control of troops, in addition to, enhancing flexibility, lethality, and maneuverability in warfare; combat teams that are thoroughly grounded in tactics and weapon systems to undertake technical missions exist today as well. Napoleon era warfare thrived on the skills and competence of the armies, thus, warlords like Napoleon ensured that their combat teams were well trained in warfare tactics and weapon technologies of their time. Additionally, warfare in this era involved logistics trains, and combined arms that were self-sustaining and dominated enemy forces throughout Europe. For instance, the 1809 Vienna campaigns was successful because the French used combined arms simultaneously, which allowed them to achieve greater impact than if each element was used separately. The French developed the logistics regiment and strictly dedicated it to supplying, and transporting equipment to units on the battlefield2, thus, ensuring the smooth undertaking of missions and operations. Armies today are highly trained in weapons and tactics of combat to be able to handle sophisticated artillery and to execute highly delicate operations with success, and warfare still relies on logistics carriages, which ensure a steady supply of equipment to armies in war zones, besides the simultaneous use of combined arms, like in the Napoleonic era. Napoleon’s strategy involved maintaining battles all over Europe in all the volatile areas, where enemy forces had dominated, and this ensured that the enemy forces had no time to regroup or reorganize themselves for counter attacks, thus, they were thoroughly paralyzed and defeated. Nonetheless, the French army fought on several fronts simultaneously, thereby maintaining the territory borders from all angles against the enemy forces; for instance, they fought Britain and Spain on the western front, but at the same time, they also fought Russia, Prussia, and Austria on the eastern front. In the same manner, countries today engage in and maintain battles in their enemy areas where their vulnerability lies in the attempt to neutralize enemy forces; in this regard, warfare still involves invasion and occupation of enemy territory, and such domination of battlegrounds aims at dislodging the enemy to prevent aggression. In addition, countries pursue battles on several fronts like in the Napoleonic era, to achieve political objectives and to reinforce their borders from all angles; for instance, the United States fought Iraq and Afghanistan simultaneously for nearly years in attempts to achieve its political objectives in these countries3. . The World English dictionary defines warfare as the act, process, or instance of waging war, against an aggressor; warfare is also a conflict, struggle, or strife, between parties, which seeks solutions to particular issues or aims to achieve certain objectives. From this definition, it is evident that warring parties are motivated by certain objectives, which they seek to achieve through warfare; in this regard, countries go to war to for different reasons, thus, warfare pursued as a political tool for policy. In warfare, the warring parties compete against each other to further their political agendas; in Napoleonic time countries fought to expand their territories or to achieve dominance and control of shared resources4, among other things. Similarly, countries today exploit the military option as a tool for policy implementation, to achieve certain political objectives; for instance, global insecurity due to terrorism activities and the uprising of terror insurgents like the Taliban is a major global threat and countries like America have consistently fought to secure their homelands. In this regard, acts of terror on the American soil are an aggression to the US, thus, a justifiable reason for it to invade terrorist zones such as Afghanistan with the motive of neutralizing terror groups. Ultimately, from this point, it is evident that the warfare fundamentals of warfare are the same today as they were during the Napoleonic era; the French revolution led to the establishment of the basics of warfare, which are still in practice up to date. Successful armies in the Napoleonic era focused on strategies and tactics of warfare, including the organization of armies into corps and divisions to facilitate unity of command of the units, which enhanced their flexibility, lethality, and maneuverability in warfare. Nevertheless, warfare in Napoleonic era thrived on skilled men, logistic carriage, and use of combined arms, and warlords maintained battles in their enemy zones, fighting from multiple fronts simultaneously. These fundamentals of warfare are still in practice today, the massive changes in weapon systems and technologies notwithstanding; successful armies around the world are organized on the same principles as those applied in the Napoleonic era. Works Cited Aaslestad, Katherine., & Hagemann, Karen. 1806 and its aftermath: Revisiting the period of the Napoleonic wars in German central European historiography. Central European History, 39(4), (2006). 547-579. Liaropoulos, Andrew N. Revolutions in warfare: Theoretical paradigms and historical evidence-the napoleonic and first world war revolutions in military affairs. The Journal of Military History, 70(2), (2006). 363-384. McConachy, Bruce. The roots of artillery doctrine: Napoleonic artillery tactics reconsidered. The Journal of Military History, 65(3), (2001). 617-640. Hussain, Jamila. The changing nature of warfare since world war I. Defence Journal, 15(8), (2012). 15-23. Read More