Description
Book SynopsisIn War and Conflict in the Middle Ages, Stephen Morillo offers the first global history of armed conflict between 540 and 1500 or as late as 1800 CE, an age shaped by climate change and pandemics at both ends. Examining armed conflict at all levels, and ranging across China and the central Asian steppes to southwest Asia, western Europe, and beyond, Morillo explores the technological, social, cultural, and environmental determinants of warfare and the tools and tactics used by warriors on land and at sea.
Part I explains the geographical, political, and technological rules that shaped patterns of military activity everywhere. Part II explores how these rules played out in various historical contexts. Armed conflict played a central role in the making of the medieval world, and medieval people used war and conflict to create, expand, and defend their communities and identities. But the devastating effects of climate change and epidemic disease continually reshaped these communities and the nature of their conflicts.
Broad in its scope and rich in detail, War and Conflict in the Middle Ages will be the go-to guide for students and aficionados of military history, medieval history, and global history.
Trade Review“A fundamental book not only for those interested specifically in the Middle Ages, but also for those engaged with the broad range of military history as both description and analysis.”
Jeremy Black, author of A Short History of War
“Morillo has written a cohesive and illuminating volume about a topic that until now hasn’t been effectively approached from a global perspective, and he’s done it with verve and clarity. Highly recommended!”
Professor Tonio Andrade, Emory University
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
PART ONE: The Basic Rules of Medieval Warfare
1 Three Battles
2 Questions and Methods
3 Geography, Politics, and War
4 Technology and War or The Common Rules of Combat
PART TWO: Three Scenarios: Medieval Warfare in Changing Conditions
5 The Early Middle Ages, 540-850: Wars of Medievalization
6 The High Middle Ages, 850-1300: Wars of Encounter and Connection
7 The Late Middle Ages, 1300-1500? Or 1800?: Wars for New Worlds
8 Conclusions
Notes
Further Reading
Index
