The books in the Essential Bibliographies series include an essay by a noted scholar on the important historiographical issues and a pertinent bibliography for a particular period or theme in military history. They serve as research tools for librarians, researchers, and readers with a professional interest and as a starting point for pursuing further studies. This title, the second in the series by Jeremy Black (
War in European History, 1494–1660
), fills the relative neglect of the time period between the age of military revolution and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. In Europe, both Austria and Russia had driven back the Ottoman Turks, and the fate of their empire—the “Eastern Question”—became an important issue in European power politics. Within Europe, no power in Western or Central Europe, despite major efforts by France and Austria, respectively, could match Russia’s rise to dominance in Eastern Europe. By contrast, Britain won the struggle for European maritime superiority, decisively so in 1759, and that led to its success over France in the battle over transoceanic colonies. The War of American Independence (1775–83) eventually ranged around the world as well. Although the British lost the struggle to control the thirteen colonies, which became the independent United States of America, the British survived what, from 1778, also became a war with France, Spain, the Dutch, and leading Indian powers with most of their empire retained.
War in European History, 1660–1792
, covers it all.