Liechtenstein and Gribeauval: ‘Artillery Revolution’ in Political and Cultural Context

Abstract

This article compares artillery and ordnance reform in 1750s Austria and 1760s France. Although the reform programmes were very similar technologically, they assumed considerably different significance in the context of their respective militaries and societies. In France, Gribeauval’s system became part of the larger intellectual project of recasting French government and society in a technocratic mould, a project that persisted (against opposition) into the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. In Austria, the different structure and organizational culture of the ‘technical arms’, a military culture with different assumptions about knowledge and expertise, and a more narrowly based political culture made the Liechtenstein reforms part of a considerably less radical centralizing policy.