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PEACE

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 615 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PEACE . See also:

WAR. See also:Year. Number. Year. Number. 1750 . 18,857 1745 • 74,187 1793 • 17,013 1761 . 67,776 1822 . 71,790 1777• 90,734 1845 . See also:Ioo,oII 1812 . 245,996 1857 .

156,995 1856 . 275,079 1866 203,404 1858 . . 222,874 See also:

Note.—See also:Prior to 1856 the See also:British forces serving in See also:India are not included. During See also:William's reign the small See also:English See also:army See also:bore an See also:honourable See also:part in the See also:wars against See also:Louis XIV., and especially distinguished itself under the See also:king at Steinkirk, See also:Neerwinden and See also:Namur. Twenty English regiments took part in the See also:campaign of 1694. In the See also:great wars of See also:Queen See also:Anne's reign the British army under See also:Marlborough acquired a See also:European reputation. The See also:cavalry, which had called forth the admiration of See also:Prince See also:Eugene when passed in See also:review before him after its See also:long See also:march across See also:Germany (1704), especially distinguished itself in the See also:battle of See also:Blenheim, and See also:Ramillies, Oudenarde and See also:Malplaquet were added to the See also:list of English victories. But the army as usual was reduced at once, and even the cadres of old regiments were disbanded, though the alarm of Jacobite insurrections soon brought about the re-creation of many of these. During the reign of the first and second Georges an See also:artillery See also:corps was organized, and the army further increased by five regiments of cavalry and See also:thirty-five of See also:infantry. Fresh laurels were won at See also:Dettingen (1743), in which battle twenty English regiments took part; and though See also:Fontenoy (q.v.) was a See also:day of disaster for the English arms, it did not See also:lower their reputation, but rather added to it. Six regiments of infantry won the See also:chief See also:glory of Prince See also:Ferdinand's victory of See also:Minden (q.v.) in 1759, and throughout the latter part of the Seven Years' War the British contingent of Ferdinand's army served with almost unvarying distinction in numerous actions. About this See also:time the first English regiments were sent to India, and the 39th shared in See also:Clive's victory at See also:Plassey.

During the first See also:

half of See also:George III.'s reign the army was principally occupied in See also:America; and though the See also:conquest of See also:Canada may be counted with See also:pride among its exploits, this See also:page in its See also:history is certainly the darkest. English armies capitulated at See also:Saratoga and at See also:York-See also:town, and the war ended by the evacuation of the revolted the beginning of the war, the infantry, like that of the See also:continental See also:powers, was formed in three ranks; but a two-See also:rank formation had been introduced in America and in India and gradually became See also:general, and in 1809 was finally approved. In the See also:Peninsula the army was permanently organized in divisions, usually consisting of two brigades of three or four battalions each, and one or two batteries of artillery. The See also:duke of See also:Wellington had also brought the See also:commissariat and the army transport to a high See also:pitch of perfection, but in the long peace which followed these establishments were reduced or broken up. 67. The See also:period which elapsed between See also:Waterloo and .the See also:Crimean War is marked by a number of See also:Indian and: caloni.al wars, but by no organic changes in the army, with perhaps the single exception of the Limited Service See also:Act of 1847, by which enlistment for ten or twelve years, with See also:power to re-engage to See also:complete twenty-one, was substituted for the See also:life enlistments hitherto in force. The army went to See also:sleep on the 'laurels and recollections of the Peninsula. The duke of Wellington, for many years See also:commander-in-chief, was too anxious to hide it away in the colonies in See also:order to See also:save it from further reductions or. utter extinction, to See also:attempt any great administrative reforms. The force which was sent to the See also:Crimea in 1854 was an agglomeration of battalions, individually of the finest quality,. but unused to See also:work together, without trained See also:staff, administrative departments or army organization of any See also:kind. The See also:lesson of the See also:winter before See also:Sevastopol was dearly bought, but was not thrown away. From that time successive war ministers and commanders-inchief have laboured perseveringly at the difficult task of army organization and See also:administration. Foremost in the work was See also:Sidney See also:Herbert (See also:Lord Herbert of See also:Lea), the soldier's friend, who See also:fell a See also:sacrifice to his labours (1861), but not before he had done much for the army.

The whole See also:

system of administration was revised. In 1854 it was inconceivably complicated and cumbersome. The " secretary of See also:state for war and colonies," sitting at the Colonial See also:Office, had a general but vague. See also:control, practically limited to times of war. The " secretary at war " was the See also:parliamentary representative of the army, and exercised a certain See also:financial control, not extending, however, to the See also:ordnance corps. The commander-in-chief was responsible to the See also:sovereign alone in all matters connected with the discipline, command or patronage of the army, but to the secretary at war in financial matters. The See also:master-general and See also:board of ordnance were responsible for the See also:supply of material on requisition, but were otherwise See also:independent, and had the artillery and See also:engineers under them. The commissariat See also:department had its headquarters at the See also:treasury, and until 1852 the See also:militia were under the See also:home secretary. A number of See also:minor subdepartments, more or less independent, also existed, causing endless confusion, See also:correspondence and frequent collision. In 1854 the business of the colonies was separated from that of war, and the then secretary of state, the duke of See also:Newcastle, assumed control over all the other administrative See also:officers. In the following year the secretary of state was appointed secretary at war also, and the duties of the two offices amalgamated. The same year the commissariat office was transferred to the war department, and the Board of Ordnance abolished, its functions being divided between the commander-in-chief and the secretary of state. The minor departments were gradually absorbed, and the whole administration divided under two great chiefs, sitting at the war office and See also:Horse See also:Guards respectively.

In 187o these, two were welded . into one, and the war office now existing was constituted, Corresponding improvements were effected in every See also:

branch. The system of clothing the soldiers was altered, the contracts being taken from the colonels of regiments, who received a See also:money See also:allowance instead, and the clothing supplied from See also:government manufactories. The pay, See also:food and general See also:condition of the soldier were improved; See also:reading and recreation rooms, See also:libraries, gymnasia and facilities for See also:games of all kinds being provided. See also:Barracks (q.v.) were built on improved principles, and a large permanent See also:camp was formed at See also:Aldershot, where considerable forces were collected and manoeuvred together. Various educational establishments were opened, a staff See also:college was establishedfor the instruction of officers wishing to qualify for the staff, and regimental See also:schools were improved. 68. The Indian See also:Mutiny of 1857, followed by the transference of the government of India, led to important changes. The See also:East India See also:Company's See also:white troops were amalgamated with the Queen's army, and the whole reorganized (see Indian Army below). The fact that such difficulties as those of 1854 and 1857, not to speak of the disorders of 1848, had been surmounted by the weak ,army which remained over from the reductions of See also:forty years, coupled with the instantaneous and effective re-See also:joinder to the threats of the See also:French colonels in 18J9—the creation of the Volunteer Force--certainly lulled the nation and its representatives into a false sense of See also:security. Thus the two obvious lessons of the See also:German successes of 1866 and 187o—the power of a See also:national army for offensive invasion, and the rapidity with which such an army when thoroughly organized could be moved —created the greatest sensation in See also:England. The year 1870 is, therefore, of See also:prime importance in the history of the See also:regular forces of the See also:crown. The strength of the home forces at different times between 1815 and 187o is given as follows (Biddulph, Lord See also:Cardwell at the War Ofce):- Regulars.

Auxiliaries. See also:

Field Guns. _ _~ 182o 64,426 60,740 22 1830 50,876 34,614 30 1840 53,379 20,791 30 1850 68,538 29,868 70 186o See also:I00.701 229,501 180 1870 89,051 281,692 18o (later lo9,000) 69. The period of reform commences therefore with 1870, and is connected, indissolubly with the name of See also:Edward, Lord Cardwell, secretary of state for war 1869-1874. In the See also:matter of organization the result of his labours was seen in the perfectly arranged expedition to See also:Ashanti (1874); as for recruiting, the introduction of See also:short service and reserve enlistment together with many rearrangements of pay, &c., proved so far popular that the number of men annually enlisted was more than trebled (11,742 See also:ill 1869; 39,971 in 1885; 40,729 in 1898), and so far efficient that " Lord Cardwell's . . . system, with but small modification, gave us. during the See also:Boer War 8o,000 reservists, of whom 96 or 97 % were found efficient, and has enabled. us to keep an army of 150,000 regulars in the field for 1.5 months" (Rt. Hon. St See also:John Brodrick, See also:House of See also:Commons, 8th of March 1901). The localization of the army, subsequently completed by the territorial system of 1882, was commenced under Card-well's regime, and a measure which encountered much. powerful opposition at the time, the abolition of the See also:purchase of commissions, was also effected by him (1871). The machinery of administration was improved, and autumn manoeuvres were practised on. a See also:scale hitherto unknown in England. In 1871 certain powers over the militia, formerly held by lords-See also:lieutenant, were transferred to the crown, and the See also:auxiliary forces were placed directly under the generals commanding districts. In 1881 came an important See also:change in the infantry of the See also:line, which was entirely remodelled in two-See also:battalion regiments bearing territorial titles.

This measure (the " linked battalion " system) aroused great opposition; it was dictated chiefly by the See also:

necessity of maintaining the Indian and colonial garrisons at full strength, and was begun during Lord Cardwell's See also:tenure of office, the principle being that each See also:regiment should have one battalion at home and one abroad, the latter being fed by the former, which in its turn See also:drew upon the reserve to complete it for war. The working of the system is to be considered as belonging to See also:present practice rather than to history, and the reader is there-fore referred to the See also:article See also:UNITED See also:KINGDOM. On these general lines the army progressed up to 1899, when the Boer War called into the field on a distant See also:theatre of war all the resources of the regular army, and in addition drew largely upon the existing auxiliary forces, and even upon wholly untrained civilians, for the See also:numbers required to make war in an See also:area which comprised nearly all See also:Africa See also:south of the See also:Zambezi. As the result of this war (see See also:TRANSVAAL) successive schemes of reform were undertaken by the various war ministers, leading up to Mr See also:Haldane's " territorial " See also:scheme (1908), which put the organization of the forces in the United Kingdom (q.v.) on a new basis. Innovations had not been unknown in the period immediately preceding the war; as a single example we may take the development of the mounted infantry (q.v.) It was natural that the war itself, and especially a war of so See also:peculiar a See also:character, should intensify the spirit of innovation. The corresponding period in the German army lasted from 1871 to 1888, and such a period of unsettlement is indeed the See also:common, practically the universal, result of a war on a large scale. Much that was of value in the Prussian methods, faithfully and even slavishly copied by Great See also:Britain as by others after 187o, was temporarily forgotten, but the pendulum swung back again, and the Russo-See also:Japanese War led to the disappearance, so far as See also:Europe was concerned, of many products of the period of doubt and controversy which followed the struggle in South Africa. See also:Side by side with continuous discussions of the greater questions of military policy, amongst these being many well-reasoned proposals for universal service, the technical and administrative efficiency of the service has undergone great improvement, and this appears to be of more real and permanent value than the greater part of the solutions given for the larger problems. The changes in the organization of the artillery afford the best See also:evidence of this spirit of See also:practical and technical reform. In the first See also:place the old " royal regiment " was divided into two branches. The officers for the field and horse artillery stand now on one seniority list for promotion, the See also:garrison, heavy and See also:mountain batteries on another. In each branch important changes of organization have been also made.

In the field branch, both for Royal Field and Royal Horse Artillery, the See also:

battery is no longer the one unit for all purposes. A lieutenant-See also:colonel's command, the " See also:brigade," has been created. It consists of a See also:group, in the horse artillery of two, in the field artillery of three batteries. For the practical training of the horse and field artillery a large area of ground on the See also:wild open See also:country of See also:Dartmoor, near See also:Okehampton, has for some years been utilized. A similar school has been started at Glen Imaal in See also:Ireland, and a new training ground has been opened on See also:Salisbury See also:Plain. Similarly, with the Royal Garrison Artillery a more perfect system has been devised for the regulation and practice of the See also:fire of each fortress, in accordance with the varying circumstances of its position, &c. A practice school for the garrison artillery has been established at Lydd, but the various See also:coast fortresses themselves carry out regular practice with service See also:ammunition.

End of Article: PEACE

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