In this incisive study, Jeremy Black presents a wide-ranging analysis of European land and naval warfare from the time of the military revolution of the mid-seventeenth century to the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Focusing not only on warfare in Europe but also on the complex conflicts that involved European states outside Europe (such as the British victories over the French in North America and India), Black assesses the conduct, cost, and consequences of European wars for major and minor powers.