Abstract
Matchlocks to Flintlocks: Warfare in Europe and Beyond, 1500–1700 by William Urban represents a fine work of military history of the era with a surprisingly broad scope. Unlike many studies of military history, the author’s easy-to-read narrative style and macro perspective provide a big picture view of how changes in the way war was waged between 1500 and 1700 affected the world at large, touching upon war’s influence on economics, taxation, religious motivations, and the political systems of the day. Urban’s narrative extends to Russia and the steppes region, trade ports in India, and (briefly) North and South America as well. That is not to say that he has produced a poorly focused work.
Indeed, Urban manages an excellent balance that ties his geographic locales farther afield back to the ‘main stage’ of Western Europe. Similarly, he outlines the effects of religious tensions both within Christianity and between Christianity and Islam as they touch upon period warfare, without getting bogged down. As with his previous study Bayonets for Hire, Urban still includes a fair amount of information about the use of mercenary troops, but does so from the wider view of the effects of war as a whole. The scope of the work and narrative style, however, leave somewhat less room for fine detail. Thus Matchlocks to Flintlocks is an excellent choice as a broadly based work of military history aimed at a broader general audience, but is less suitable for research academics or those interested in minutiae.
Urban’s choice of a narrative style naturally imposes some limitations as to what can be reasonably covered. The title is a good example. While use of the phrase ‘Matchlocks to Flintlocks’ potentially implies that the development of firearms technology will be covered in some detail, in fact such technical descriptions receive relatively little attention, occurring as insightful but somewhat isolated nuggets hidden in Urban’s overall narrative. The fact the inception of the matchlock was in large part due to the advent of the spring is mentioned, but exactly what a flintlock is, and how it was in many ways a superior design, is never explained. For those with a small amount of base knowledge in military history this is not an issue, but as this work is geared toward a more general readership some additional explanation would have been useful. The capacities of various types of military units are similarly scattered but are covered to a greater and more satisfying degree, with the advantages enjoyed by different types of troops and how they were dealt (or not dealt) with at different battles being outlined. The result is a smooth narrative for the casual reader. Those attempting to tease out a chronology of a specific aspect of military history such as transitions in weaponry or troop deployment will need to look elsewhere. In a larger sense, however, the title is perfectly fitting, in its examples of the broad changes in technology, recruitment, supply, training, and leadership that occurred from 1500 to 1700.
As a whole, Matchlocks to Flintlocks provides a narrative which laudably goes beyond the typical geographic focus on Western Europe. For the interested layperson or those new to the field and seeking an overview of the influences on and changes within the state of warfare from 1500 to 1700, Urban has produced an exemplary book.