For the past thirty years there has been an ongoing debate regarding the nature of the Early Modern European Military Revolution. Much of this debate centers around whether the military and technological changes which are at the heart of the military revolution created the conditions for the bureaucratic systems of the modern nation state, or if those bureaucratic systems made possible the creation of larger, state sponsored armies and navies, as well as when these changes took place. Instead of focusing on what came first, the chicken or the egg, this thesis explores one aspect of the Military Revolution, focusing on the works of Sebastian le Prestre de Vauban who invented the socket bayonet, refined and systematized the practice of siege warfare, and emphasized the importance of the lives of his men. These changes are fundamental to understanding not only how wars were fought, but also how war affected those that fought them during this pivotal period of European history. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS