{{short description|Limited wars among European monarchies, 1648 to 1789}} [[File:HGM L Allemand Gideon von Laudon Kunersdorf.jpg|thumb|The Battle of Kunersdorf, which was part of the Seven Years' War, one of the most notable cabinet wars]]
'''Cabinet wars''', derived from the German expression ''Kabinettskriege'' ({{IPA|de|kabiˈnɛtsˌkʁiːɡə|lang}}, singular ''Kabinettskrieg''), is a historical term used to describe the regular, limited, aristocratic conflicts of eighteenth-century Europe, before the shift to total war that followed the French Revolution.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hewitson |first1=Mark |title=Princes' Wars, Wars of the People, or Total War? Mass Armies and the Question of a Military Revolution in Germany, 1792–1815 |journal=War in History |date=2013 |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=452–490|doi=10.1177/0968344513483071 |url=http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1415769/1/War_In_History-2013-Hewitson-452-90.pdf }}</ref> Historians define cabinet wars as a period of small conflicts not involving standing armies, but with a growing military class arising to advise monarchs.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hewitson |first1=Mark |title=The People's Wars: Histories of Violence in the German Lands |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press.}}</ref> The term derived from the counsel these cabinets provided during the period of absolute monarchies from the 1648 Peace of Westphalia to the 1789 French Revolution. These cabinets were marked by diplomacy and a self-serving nobility.<ref>{{cite book |last1=James |first1=Leighton |title=Witnessing the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in German Central Europe |date=2013 |publisher=Springer}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Förster |first1=Stig |title=Facing 'people's war': Moltke the elder and Germany's military options after 1871 |journal=The Journal of Strategic Studies |date=1982 |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=209–230|doi=10.1080/01402398708437297 }}</ref>
== History ==
Cabinet wars marked the period of limited conflicts between monarchs from 1648 to 1789. These conflicts define a transition from princely wars ({{lang|de|Fürstenkriege}}) to state wars ({{lang|de|Staatenkriege}}) and {{lang|de|Volkskriege}}, or wars of the people or nation in the mid-nineteenth century such as the French Revolution.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hewitson |first1=Mark |title=Princes' Wars, Wars of the People, or Total War? Mass Armies and the Question of a Military Revolution in Germany, 1792–1815 |journal=War in History |date=2013 |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=452–490|doi=10.1177/0968344513483071 |url=http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1415769/1/War_In_History-2013-Hewitson-452-90.pdf }}</ref> Cabinet wars were often more regulated, fought over lesser stakes, and revolved around noble territorial disputes and emerging state borders.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lacey |first1=James |title=The Return of the Cabinet Wars |url=https://unum.nsin.us/mcu-research/customObject/viewCustomObject/3440bb6ecffc |website=MCU Research |publisher=Open Hive}}</ref> Power was centralized in the capitals, where the highest institutions{{mdash}}for example, the {{lang|de|Hofkriegsrat}} in the Habsburg monarchy, and the Department of War in the Kingdom of France—directed military operations in every detail; hence the term "cabinet warfare." Only such outstanding figures as Eugene of Savoy and Raimondo Montecuccoli dared to occasionally deviate from the instructions of the {{lang|de|Hofkriegsrat}}. None of this existed in Russia, where Emperor Peter I himself, for example, was commander-in-chief.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Novitsky |first=Vasily |author-link=Vasily Fedorovich Novitsky |url=https://archive.org/details/bmk-brz-11/page/80 |encyclopedia=Военная энциклопедия |publisher=Типография Т-ва И. Д. Сытина |volume=11: Инкерман – Кальмар |location=Moscow |year=1913 |page=91 |language=ru |title=Исторiя военнаго искусства |trans-title=History of military art |access-date=26 November 2025}}</ref>
Cabinet wars, as historically defined, link the evolution of the state with evolution of modern warfare.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leonhard |first1=Jörn |editor1-last=Zürche |editor1-first=Erik-Jan |title=Fighting for a Living: A Comparative Study of Military Labour 1500-2000 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |chapter=Nation-building, war experiences, and European models The rejection of conscription in Britain}}</ref> These conflicts were marked by mercenary forces from different countries who did not identify with an abstract notion of the nation, rather than national standing militaries.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wullschleger |first1=Marion |title=Far from Armageddon: Austria-Hungary's officers and their visions of a general European War before 1914 |journal=War in History |date=2022 |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=563–583|doi=10.1177/09683445211029333 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Leonhard |first1=Jörn |editor1-last=Zürche |editor1-first=Erik-Jan |title=Fighting for a Living: A Comparative Study of Military Labour 1500-2000 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |chapter=Nation-building, war experiences, and European models The rejection of conscription in Britain}}</ref>
The contrast between {{lang|de|Kabinettskriege}}, cabinet wars, and {{lang|de|Staatenkriege}}, or state wars, was popularized by Helmuth von Moltke the Elder<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hubbard |first1=James |title=Warlike Europe. |journal=The North American Review |date=1890 |volume=151 |issue=404 |pages=125–127}}</ref> who oversaw the modernization of the Prussian and Ottoman militaries. This classifications of three types of modern war: cabinet war, people's war and guerrilla war built off of Carl von Clausewitz' two types of war.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nothhaft |first1=Howard |last2=Schölzel |first2=Hagen |chapter=Reading Clausewitz: The Strategy Discourse and its Implications for Strategic Communication |title=The Routledge Handbook of Strategic Communication |pages=42–57}}</ref>
This classification of cabinet wars stems from the analysis of warfare after the Napoleonic Wars by Clausewitz<ref>{{cite web |last1=Eftimova Bellinger |first1=Vanya |title=When Resources Drive Strategy: Understanding Clausewitz/Corbett's War Limited by Contingent |url=https://www.militarystrategymagazine.com/article/when-resources-drive-strategy-understanding-clausewitz-corbetts-war-limited-by-contingent/ |website=Military Strategy Magazine |access-date=2023-05-20}}</ref> and other military writers of the time. Debate centered around the question of whether wars should be all encompassing, or more limited in nature. In ''On War'' (1832) Clausewitz suggested a third type of war of limited strategy. Over time the classification became adopted in the lexicon of military historians.
Historians generally mark the end of the cabinet wars period with the beginning of the use of conscription and the ''levée en masse''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Constitutions and other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789–1901|last= Anderson |first=Frank Maloy|date=1904|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|publisher=H. W. Wilson Co.}}</ref>
==Characteristic == Cabinet wars were not just bracketed by the Thirty Years' War and the French Revolution; they were marked by specific characteristics. Historians note the following features:
* '''Limited in scope''' – The goals of the war often revolved around maintaining a balance of power or small territorial gains amongst noble families.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blanning |first1=Timothy |title=The Pursuit of Glory: Five Revolutions that Made Modern Europe,1648-1815 |date=2007 |publisher=Penguin}}</ref> * '''Limited military''' – Engagements were often with smaller professional armies and the battles fought by commanders limited in decisive commitment of arms. The cabinet wars marked the transition of mercenaries to professional soldiers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mears |first1=John |title=The Thirty Years' War, the "General Crisis," and the Origins of a Standing Professional Army in the Habsburg Monarchy. |journal=Central European History |date=1988 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=122–41|doi=10.1017/S0008938900012711 }}</ref> * '''Limited religious goals''' – The wars before the Thirty Years' War often turned on religious conflict. Until the rise of nationalism, cabinet war battles did not rely on religion, idolatry, or symbolism. * '''Limited outcomes''' – Cabinet wars did not reshuffle the balance of power in Europe nor replace heads of states.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blanning |first1=Timothy |title=The Pursuit of Glory: Five Revolutions that Made Modern Europe,1648-1815 |date=2007 |publisher=Penguin}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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Category:Warfare of the early modern period Category:Wars by type