The arrival of the first railways in the early 19th century was, Christian Wolmar writes, "an invention for which the military had been waiting for hundreds, if not thousands of years".rnBetween 1560 and 1660, dramatic changes in the way wars were fought had seen armies grow from of a few thousand men at most to forces many times larger, usually accompanied on their travels by a tail of women, children, servants and other hangers on that could number more than the combatants.rnThe fact that these massive groups could not rely on a steady supply of food from friendly territory at least meant they had to keep on the move, continually seeking new land to conquer and preventing them from becoming entrenched in long-term battles.
展开▼
