De la guerre de siège à la guerre de mouvement : une révolution logistique à l'époque de la Révolution et de l'Empire ?

摘要

Jean-Philippe Cénat, From the War of Siege to the War of Movement : a logistical revolution during the Revolution and Empire ? Logistics, too often neglected by historians, is a decisive factor for the understanding the passage from a war of siege to a war of movement from Louis XIV to Napoleon. In the seventeenth century, armies needed above all two things to survive : bread and fourage. If this last element was requisitionned in occupied countries, to obtain bread armies had no other recourse but to provision themselves by stores, a reality that considerably limited troop movement, reinforced the role of fortresses and led to interminable wars of attrition. In fact, one had to wait for the Revolution and the Empire for a series of military and technical factors (an increase in the number of troops and improved firepower, the development of a system of divisions), ideological (a new military mentality) or economic (notably the agricultural revolution) that liberated armies from the « tyranny » of behind-the-line provisionning. Still, the system of Napoleonic wars also imposed limits, and the armies could not live entirely from the land.