The Origins of Small Wars: From Special Operations to Ideological Insurgencies

25 March 2013, 9.30am - 5.30pm

This is a rare opportunity to hear acclaimed academic speakers from the UK, Germany, France and the USA discussing how small wars, or 'la petite guerre', were conducted in early modern Europe and during the era of the Atlantic Revolution.

Examining the techniques of both repression and resistance, this specialist conference will also explore how, as the ancient regime gave way to the upheavals of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the resisters and proponents of absolutism were succeeded by nationalists - inspired by the example of insurgents before them - throwing off the repression of Bonapartist totalitarianism.

Programme:

• 9.30am - 10.00am
  Registration and tea/coffee
• 10.00am - 10.40am
  Benjamin Deruelle (Lille):
  'The 16th Century Roots of Small Wars and Special Unit "Parties"'
• 10.40am - 11.20am
  Hervé Drévillon (Paris I):
  'Small War and the Issue of Territorial Control in 17th and 18th Century France'

• TEA/COFFEE

• 11.40am - 12.20pm
  Bertrand Fonck (Archives de Vincennes) & George Satterfield (Naval War College, Newport, RI):
  'Partisans in the Franco-Spanish War in the Netherlands, 1672-97'
• 12.20pm - 1.00pm
  Keynote Speaker Christopher Duffy (formerly RMA Sandhurst and Cranfield):
  'The Jacobite '45 – Rebellion, Rising or War of Dynastic Succession?'

• LUNCH (included in price)

• 2.00pm - 2.40pm
  Beatrice Heuser (Reading):
  'Lessons Learnt? Cultural Transfer and Revolutionary Wars, 1775-1815'
• 2.40pm - 3.20pm
  Alan Forrest (York):
  'The Insurgency of the Vendée'

• TEA/COFFEE

• 3.40pm - 4.20pm
  Charles Esdaile (Liverpool):
  'Guerrillas and Bandits in the Serrania de Ronda, 1810-12'
• 4.20pm - 5.00pm
  Martin Rink (MGFA, Potsdam):
  'The German Wars of Liberation 1813-15: The Restrained Insurgency'
• 5.00pm - 5.30pm
  Alastair Massie (NAM):
  A National Army Museum Response to the Proceedings and General Discussion

Tickets can be purchased in the following ways:

• Telephone: 020 7881 6600
• Online: Use the booking form on this page or visit the Museum Shop
• At the Museum