This chapter explores the origins of technology and the war–state relationship. Although I recognize that each of these domains has a long history, the starting point of this chapter focuses on the transition from the late medieval world into the early modern period of European history and then extends into the late 18th century. The selection of this timeframe is dictated, in part, by the existing literature on this subject, which sees this as a definitive period in the relationship between these three domains. Thus, there is a consensus that war played an instrumental role in the creation of all forms of states throughout history, both within and outside of Europe (Tilly, 1992, 10–14; Tin-Bor Hui, 2005; Fukuyama, 2011, 86–112). However, this resulted in the creation of a range of types of states. As Tilly observed, the term state is frequently applied to various polities, including city states, empires and even theocracies. Thus, he defines states in general as ‘a distinct organization that controls the principal concentrated means of coercion within a well-defined territory, and in some respects exercises priority over all other organizations operating within the same territory’ (1992, 2). However, as I have explained, the principal interest of this study is in what he defines as national states. This is different from its predecessors because ‘a national state or modern state then extends the territory in question to multiple continuous regions, and maintains a relatively centralized, differentiated, and autonomous structure of its own’ (1992, 131). This conforms closely with Max Weber's definition of the state: ‘is a human community that claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory’ (Gerth and Mills, 1946, 77).

In the case of the modern state, the connection between war and the state was complicated by the intervention of a new variable in the form of technology. In broad terms, it is claimed that technological and organizational innovation in early modern European warfare, both on land and at sea, precipitated a military revolution which, in turn, created a political revolution represented by the emergence of the modern state (McNeill, 1982; Downing, 1992; Roberts, 1995; Knox and Murray, 2001). This has been the dominant narrative in discussions about early modern war and state formation in Europe.