Revised second edition of the classic study, looking at Habsburg Spain's handling of the Dutch Revolt.

Combining approaches and insights from cultural, social and military history this study traces the evolution and decline of the Spanish officer corps and general staff during the Eighty Years War in connection with contemporary trends such as modernization and aristocratization.

'War,' wrote Cardinal Richelieu, 'is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men'. Yet the prelate's mournful observation scarcely begins to encapsulate the full complexity and unspeakable horror of the greatest man-made calamity to befall Europe before the twentieth century. Claiming far more lives proportionately than either the First or Second World Wars, it was a contest involving all the major powers of Europe, in which vast mercenary armies extracted an incalculable toll upon helpless civilian populations as their commanders and the men who equipped them frequently grew rich on the profits. Swedish troops alone are said to have destroyed some 2,000 German castles, 18,000 villages and 1,500 towns, while other vast armies in the pay of Spain, France, the Holy Roman Emperor and a host of pettier princelings brought death to as many as 8 million souls. Rarely has such a perplexing tale been more in need of a new account that is both compelling and informed, and no less comprehensible than comprehensive.

War is a compelling subject. It is common to almost all known societies and periods of history. The Cambridge History of Warfare, first published in 2005, provides a detailed account of war in the West from antiquity to the present day, and is unique because of its controversial thesis that war in western societies has followed a unique path leading to western dominance of the globe. From the Greek victory at Marathon to the Gulf War, readable and authoritative, The Cambridge History of Warfare places in context the key events in the history of armed engagement. All aspects of war on land, sea, and in the air are covered: weapons and technology; strategy and defense; discipline and intelligence; mercenaries and standing armies; cavalry and infantry; chivalry and Blitzkrieg; guerilla assault and nuclear arsenals. This volume, first published as The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare, includes maps and an updated bibliography.