The Enlightenment

Special note for readers coming in from the Guardian's "Snakes are Evil" article.


The light bulb goes on (or rather, the candle is lit.) And why you should never say "freedom is not free."

The un-Enlightened ones have had their wars. Now its time for the Enlightened ones to have theirs. Starting with the American Revolution, and finishing with the Napoleonic Wars.

Early enlightenment warfare and the line of battle.

June 27, 1709 Battle of Poltava The Great Northern War between Sweden and Russia. This was an un-Enlightened "final argument of kings" type war.

11 May 1745. The Battle of Fontenoy. According to Napoleon Bonaparte, the French victory in this battle extended the Ancien Régime's life span by another thirty years. Montage with clips from a movie I cannot yet identify.

1756 - 1763 The Seven Years War. The upstart kingdom of Prussia grabs the rich province of Silesia off Austria, touching off what will become a de facto world war. But this will be an Enlightened war. Louis XIV of France, very un-Enlightened, will one day say "I am the state." But Fredrick the Great, the Enlightened one who is conducting this war, will justify it by saying "I am the first servant of the state." Enlightenment ideas will be taken up even by the class that will be undone by them, the aristocracy.

Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon gets his first taste of battle.

In the British colonies in America, it will be know as the French and Indian War. The French enlisted the aid of some of the Indian tribes in attacking the British colonists. Trailer for The Last of the Mohicans. The earlier cinematic effort with Randolf Scott. (Ah, Randolf Scott! Remember him?)

1775–1783 The American Revolutionary War

The American Revolution helped give birth to the idea of nationalism. Americans started to think of themselves as being free American individuals instead of as subjects of King George III. This was one of the major breaks with the Medieval Era.

Documentary: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

A battle scene from the film Revolution (Al Pacino, Annie Lennox) Al Pacino? Annie Lennox?!

19 April 1775. Battles of Lexington and Concord.
Movie: April Morning with Tommy Lee Jones.

June 17, 1775. The Battle of Bunker Hill. Brief reenactment clip. From a PBS documentary.

26 December 1776 - Battle of Trenton.
Clips from the "The Crossing." Jeff Daniels plays George Washington. Clip 1. Clip 2.

16 August 1780. The Battle of Camden. From The Patriot.

15 March 1781. Battle of Guilford Courthouse from The Patriot.

September 28 – October 19, 1781. The Siege of Yorktown. Cornwallis' army is finally trapped in Yorktown. The last battle of the American Revolutionary War. Cornwallis at Yorktown from "the Patriot." A clear, if somewhat cartoonish overview.

1789–1799 The French Revolution.

Quick musical overview: The French Revolution: From Louis XVI to Napoleon

Documentary: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9.

1803 to 1815 The Napoleonic Wars.

Napoleonic Warfare and human consciousness.

Napoleonic Warfare and the line of battle.

PBS Documentary Series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20.

Montage of Napoleonic Warfare from the TV miniseries, Napoleon. (Isabella Rosselini plays Josephine).

21 October 1805. The Battle of Trafalgar. British admiral Nelson gives his life destroying the French fleet. Britain will never again fear invasion by Napoleon's armies. Documentary. Naval warfare in the age of Napoleon: "Master and Commander." Trailer. Clip. Another clip. The Royal Navy - Heart of Oak.


2 December 1805 The Battle of Austerlitz.

14 October 1806 Battle of Jena. Napoleon vs. the Prussians. Clip from a movie.

7 September, 1812. The Battle of Borodino. The Russians have repeatedly retreated from before Napoleon's Grande Armee. But they have attacked his one weakness while doing so - his lack of supply wagons. They have burned the farm produce as they retreated. But now the Russian army finally turns to give battle to Napoleon and it is a very bloody mess.  From Sergei Bondarchuk's 1968 movie version of War and Peace. 

May 2, 1808 to April 17, 1814. The Peninsular War.

Napoleon will over-extent his forces in Spain, which will allow the future Duke of Wellington to kick his army out of it after discovering what will be the counter to Napoleonic warfare: positioning his regiments behind the slopes of hills so that they will not be exposed to fire until Napoleon's regiments come up to them at nearly point-blank range where they can be met with a devastating volley before being counter-charged. Also: having his line regiments lie down on the ground when artillery barrages come in so as to minimize the damage of artillery fire. (duh!) Wellington will later use exactly these tactics during the battle of Waterloo. And much later on, these tactics will reach their apotheosis in the trench warfare of World War I.

Movie series: Sharpe's Rifles. Rifles are the new high tech weapon in this period that will only been given to "chosen men" who are in "rifle" regiments. These men wear the distinctive dark green jackets of sharpshooters. The "rifles" are muskets that instead of being smooth-bored, have bores that have been rifled. I.e., have spiral grooves put into their barrels that cause the musket shots to spin as they leave the barrel, and therefore achieve a higher velocity, a longer range, and a higher accuracy. Rifles have now made the skill of sharpshooting possible.

16–19 October 1813.The Battle of Leipzig. Also called "the battle of the Nations," this battle came about because of Napoleon's failed invasion of Russian in 1812. The nations of central Europe, smelling blood in the water, combine to try and destroy Napoleon's army once and for all. They succeeded to the extent that Napoleon is later forced to abdicate as the allied nations march into Paris. Retrospective of the battle from the Russian and Swedish side.


1812 to 1815. The War of 1812.
American dullards think invading Canada is a good idea.
Documentary: 1812 - First Invasion.

January 8, 1815. The Battle of New Orleans. Scene from the 1958 movie, "The Buccaneer." Charlton Heston as Gen. Andrew Jackson.

While not an accurate portrayal, the scene does give the essence: a frontal attack on a defended earthwork. Again, this is the counter to the Napoleonic mass infantry charge.

18 June 1815 Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon vs. English and Prussians.
Movie about Waterloo, starring Rod Steiger as Napoleon and Christopher Plummer as Wellington.

October 2, 1835 – April 21, 1836 The Texas War of Independence. The dictator, Santa Anna, promoted himself as "The Napoleon of the West," and collected Napoleonic artifacts. Musical montage of the final assault on the Alamo from the 1960 John Wayne movie. Wayne played Davy Crockett (who else?). The battle of San Jacinto from the 2004 film with Dennis Quaid as Gen. Sam Huston: pre-battle horse-back speech, montage of the battle.

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