Description
Book SynopsisPublished in English in 1806, advocating swift and decisive tactics and mathematical principles to strategy, this work had considerable influence upon Prussian and Austrian military thought in the late nineteenth century, and is regarded as one of the founding texts of modern geopolitics.
Table of ContentsCommentator's preface; Part I. A View of the Principle on Which the Modern System of War Is Founded: 1. General notions; 2. Of lines of operation; 3. Of diverging lines of operation; 4. Of parallel lines of operation; 5. Of lines of operation; 6. Of the most advantageous form and direction of a base; 7. Of retreats within the base; 8. Of parallel and eccentric retreats; 9. Of the result of all the foregoing inquiries; 10. The difference between strategics and tactics; 11. Of the order of battle; 12. Of the Chevalier Foulard's column; 13. Difference between the tactics of the ancients and those of the moderns; 14. Result of the foregoing chapters; Part II. Consequence of the Principle Which Requires a Military Base Previous to Any Operation: 1. Masses of fighting men; 2. One consequence of the foregoing exposition; 3. Europe will one day be divided into several great states; 4. Natural limits; 5. The superiority given by the modern system of war to number over valour; 6. Perpetual peace; 7. Conclusion; Part III. Application of the Principle of the Base to Past Military Events, and to Those that May Take Place in Future: 1. Of the period at which the first development of the principle of the base was made; 2. Examination of some campaigns of the Seven Years' War; 3. Observations on the wars which have occurred since the Seven Years' War; 4. What are the natural bounds of the great European states?; Conclusion.
