Horses, guns and governments: A comparative study of the military transition in the Manchu, Mughal, Ottoman and Safavid empires, circa 1400 to circa 1750

Abstract

The experts of Western European warfare agree that Western Europe during the early modern era (i.e. the period roughly from 1500 to 1750) experienced substantial military changes. One of the crucial components of the early modern Western European military transition was the spread and development of gunpowder weapons in both land and sea warfare. Scholars disagree on the impact of the Western European military transition on the extra-European world. A comparative study of the military systems of the big Asian empires’ military system would throw light on this thorny issue, and this is the objective of the present work. This essay attempts a comparative analysis of the armies and navies of the large agrarian bureaucratic empires of Asia (Ottoman, Safavid, Manchus/Qing and the Mughals), which were major powers in terms of political, military and economic strength before the onset of industrialization around 1800. This study will focus on the question of how far the Asian polities were able to integrate gunpowder weapons into their military systems.

'Westernizations' from Peter I to Meiji: War, Political Competition, and Reform

“…10 The initial stage of Westernizing transformations everywhere entailed technical borrowing: the importation of quantities of modern weapons and attempts to introduce among traditional troops elements of relevant tactical models and technical skills. Although some authors posit the existence of cultural and/or religious factors that slowed down the diffusion of military technologies, a growing body of literature seems to suggest that in societies across Eurasia rulers eagerly sought to adopt new weapons and military technologies as soon as these became available (Chase 2003;Lorge 2008;Grant 1999:;Agoston 2005;Khan 2004;Roy 2012).…”

“…5 These theoretical accounts of early modern state building explicitly built on the Western European historical experience, and extra-European powers typically received no serious attention or were treated as outlying cases. 6 Lately, however, a growing number of scholars have used the "military revolution" prism to explore the early modern "Westernizing" reforms in the non-Western world (among others, Lorge 2008;Ágoston 2014;Ágoston 2011;Poe 1996;Poe 1998;Paul 2004;Roy 2012).…”