Armed forces

Any general account of democracy in the period 1789-1860 must consider ideologies and practices relating to armed force. Early decades were overshadowed by massive and prolonged warfare, raising questions about the relationship between armies and soldiers, on the one hand, nation and citizenry, on the other. In the subsequent era of peace (or smaller wars), small professional armies were relatively more important-but they nonetheless sometimes incubated reformist political ideologies. They often identified themselves with the interests of the nation, while providing scope for the talented to rise to positions of leadership that they might not otherwise have attained. Napoleon Bonaparte continued to offer a role model-but with political implications that were at best ambiguous. While military coups before 1860 were often staged in defence of liberal or popular governments, a pattern was set by which they might crush these and pave the way for autocracy.