Brice Cossart

Marie Skłodowska Curie fellowship (H2020 MSCA IF 2018 n°845675)

This project studies the historical relationship between military technology, globalization and the rise of European overseas empires by focusing on the provisioning system of cannons in the first political entity which ever connected the four parts of the world: the Iberian Union (1580-1640). If cannons have become a symbol of early modern European expansion, no study has tackled their contribution in sustaining overseas conquests. In defence of dozens of sea-fortresses and on board of hundreds of ships spread around the globe, cannons played a crucial role in the first globalization as key infrastructures of the Iberian empires. The project aims to shed light on this world-wide deployment of artillery technology by revealing the emergence of a system combining gun-manufactures in Europe, America and Asia, all connected through circulations of weapons, raw material and technical experts. The special attention granted to the actors of the system intends to highlight the importance of human capital in the imperial state-building and globalizing processes. The project implements a twofold interdisciplinary methodology: while computer software is used in order to quantify and map the system, archival sources are crossed with material evidence coming from the wide collections of cannons hold in museums so as to reveal circulations and hybridizations of knowledge. Complemented by thorough archival work on case studies about the gun-foundries in Mexico, Cuba, Manila and Macau, this research addresses the issue of technological asymmetries between centres and peripheries inside the Iberian empires and questions the role of European colonial spaces in the globalization of the military revolution

Through the case of the Spanish monarchy, which pioneered many of the military transformations of the sixteenth century, this book studies the little-known profession of the gunner and the many dimensions of its relationship with the construction of the state, colonial expansion, and the mathematization of techniques.

With a preface by Bernard Vincent.

Available in open access on the website of Classiques Garnier : https://classiques-garnier.com/les-artilleurs-et-la-monarchie-hispanique-1560-1610-guerre-savoirs-techniques-etat-en.html

This article reflects on the dynamics that underlay the circulation of military technology during the early modern phase of globalization. The debate on the development and transfer of gunpowder weaponry has been dominated by a grid of analysis which implicitly puts value on sovereign production and direct state control over the resources used for war. Focusing on the transfer of naval artillery between Europe and Asia, the article argues for the need to expand the scope of analysis of the contractor state, so far centred on Europe, and study the potential world-scale of the market for naval resources and services in the period between 1500 and 1750. It also highlights the need to replace the reading of technological transfers centred on nation-states by a more fluid and transnational vision which articulates the demand stemming from both states and non-state actors and the rise of regional clusters specialized in providing naval technology with competitive levels of prices, in an age of increasingly interconnected maritime economies. Therefore, the article aims to show why naval artillery, despite being a protagonist of old imperialistic narratives, is still a relevant object of study for the agenda of global history.

This paper studies how the annexation of Portugal by the Spanish Habsburgs between 1580 and 1640 impacted its military technology, and especially artillery. By focusing on the documentation from the Spanish artillery administration, it highlights the strategic role that Portugal, and especially Lisbon, came to play in the military organisation of the Spanish monarchy. Soon after the annexation, the royal Council of War in Madrid took over the leadership of artillery matters regarding Portugal and integrated it into the wide administrative network of the Habsburg monarchy. By entering the orbit of a state which, according to Parker, was a pioneer actor of the military revolution, Portugal gained new institutional structures and benefitted from a widely transnational circulation of knowledge and experts. The artillery personnel of Portugal soon included seasoned Castilian officers, Italian engineers, as well as gunners and gun-makers coming from the four corners of Europe, while some Portuguese technicians got involved in Spanish imperial dynamics, being sent to Cuba with the mission to create a new gun-foundry. The transfer of technology and knowledge was strengthen by the implementation of artillery lessons taught by Italian and Castilian masters, on the model of the schools of the gunners that the Spanish monarchy opened in other artillery hubs such as Milan, Palermo, Burgos and Seville.

Article available in OPENACCESS : https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9780429346965-11/transformation-military-technology-portugal-brice-cossart

Cet article vise à mettre en évidence un cas relativement précoce d’institutionnalisation des relations entre guerre, sciences et techniques. Du fait de son vaste empire s’étendant des péninsules italienne et ibérique à l’Amérique, la Monarchie hispanique joua un rôle pionnier dans le changement d’échelle qui bouleversa les armées européennes à partir du XVIe siècle. Or, si l’avènement du canon moderne ainsi que la croissance des effectifs des armées ont été l’objet de nombreuses publications, peu d’études se sont intéressées à saisir l’impact de ces transformations sur le personnel technique qualifié, et en particulier sur les individus en charge de l’artillerie. Le nombre de ces « artilleurs » (artilleros en espagnol) au service de la Monarchie hispanique passa ainsi de quelques dizaines à la fin du XVe siècle à plusieurs milliers à l’époque de la Grande Armada de 1588. La présentation propose donc d’explorer le système qui, de Madrid aux quatre coins de l’empire, fut mis en place à partir des années 1560 afin de relever ce formidable défi en termes de gestion des compétences techniques et des ressources humaines. Il s’agira notamment de mettre en évidence l’émergence d’institutions monarchiques, les écoles d’artilleurs, où des centaines de marins, de soldats et d’artisans apprirent les aspects théoriques et pratiques de l’usage du canon. En outre, l'abondance de matériel conservé par l'administration militaire des Habsbourg permet un questionnement en profondeur quant à la nature des savoirs transmis et discutés au sein de ces écoles. Elle autorise enfin un examen, rare pour le XVIe siècle, des multiples liens entre les milieux d'enseignement technique et la publication de traités militaires qui proposèrent alors une réduction en art de l'artillerie à l'aide de savoirs mathématiques hybrides.

El océano Atlántico es indisociable de la imagen del cañón. Sin embargo, el siglo XVI representa un periodo de transición entre la supremacía del abordaje y el dominio del combate a distancia característico del navío de línea. Entonces conviene entender cuál fue el papel de la artillería en el ámbito atlántico y en qué medida se transformó con la multiplicación de barcos de guerra de alto bordo.

This article offers a general view on the number of gunners employed by the Spanish Monarchy in its fortresses and ships during the 16th century. The methodology combines data from inventories of artillery and payrolls of gunners found in the archives of Simancas and Seville in order to provide statistics per type of ships and fortresses. Therefore, the article highlights the huge quantitative increase in the use of artillery which occured during the 16th century : while at the end of 15th century, the Catholic Kings employed a few dozens of gunners for their artillery, the empire inherited by Philipp III in 1598 needed several thousands of such technicians. More specifically, this quantitative research pinpoints the significant role played by the Atlantic fleets in this general increase. The oceanic fleets mainly composed of broadside ships such as galleons, naos, filibotes and pataches required vast amounts of gunners insofar as naval tactics increasingly relied on the use of artillery.

Comme l'ingénieur militaire, l'artilleur fut l'une des principales figures professionnelles surgies des grands bouleversements de la "révolution militaire". Technicien de statut inférieur à celui de l'ingénieur, l'artilleur était responsable de l'usage des pièces d'artillerie qui commencèrent à proliférer, à partir du milieu du XVIe siècle, du fait de l'essor des fortifications bastionnées et des flottes de guerre. Etat pionnier de ces transformations, le vaste empire de Philippe II d'Espagne employait, à la fin du XVIe siècle, plusieurs milliers de ces professionnels du canon. Or, constituer cet important corps de techniciens représenta un véritable défi en termes d'apprentissage technique. Les agents du Roi Catholique mirent en place des solutions extrêmement novatrices par rapport aux systèmes traditionnels d'apprentissage décrits par l'historiographie à propos de la plupart des professions artisanales de l'époque. Des écoles, c'est-à-dire des lieux spécifiquement dédiés à l'enseignement, virent le jour sous le patronage de la Monarchie afin de former des marins, soldats et artisans à l'usage des pièces d'artillerie. Ces institutions transformaient l'échelle du transfert de compétences, permettant à un maître d'instruire des dizaines d'apprentis chaque année. Elles étaient le siège de pratiques - leçons théoriques, examen oral - qui accordaient une importance grandissante aux savoirs formalisés et théoriques sur l'artillerie, stimulant de la sorte la production d'une littérature technique spécialisée s'insérant dans le phénomène plus large de "réduction en art". Ce nouveau paradigme de l'apprentissage technique contribua à la construction d'une culture mathématique renaissante parmi les divers acteurs impliqués dans le fonctionnement des écoles - artilleurs, ingénieurs, hauts officiers - à l'aube des grandes transformations scientifiques du XVIIe siècle.

Cet article a pour but de mettre en relation deux phénomènes historiques importants pour l'histoire des sciences et des techniques de la première modernité. D'une part, la production de traités d'artillerie et la création d'un véritable champ de savoir sur l'artillerie, formalisant la pratique du tir au canon à l'aide des mathématiques et de la philosophie naturelle, s'est constitué comme un objet d'étude incontournable de l'histoire des sciences. D'autre part, l'émergence d'écoles d'artilleurs, proposant une formation sous le patronage de la Monarchie à destination des soldats, marins et artisans souhaitant apprendre le maniement du canon, demeure un phénomène peu connu de l'histoire des techniques. En révélant les multiples liens entre les milieux de production des traités et ceux de l'enseignement de l'artillerie, cet article entend démontrer l'imbrication des processus de formalisation et d'enseignement des savoirs et propose ainsi de questionner, pour le XVIe siècle, la barrière artificiellement établie entre le savant et le technicien.

Through the case study of the school of gunners created in Seville in 1576, this paper aims to shed light on the emergence of teaching practices which were not only essential to the development of seaborne empires but also allow us to question the relationship between technology and science in the late Renaissance. The Seville school of gunners was established by the Spanish monarchy in the last quarter of the sixteenth century with the purpose of providing the Carrera de Indias - the transatlantic fleets - with technicians capable of using cannons. Changing the scale of apprenticeship, this innovative institution trained every year dozens of seamen, soldiers and craftsmen in the art of gunnery. Intertwining theoretical lessons and training sessions on a practice ground, the teaching program was completed by a formal "examination" of the candidates in the form of questions. The study of this school, one of the many which existed not only in the territories of the Spanish monarchy but also in England and in Venice, reveals how, at the dawn of the "scientific revolution", skills of technicians could progressively merge with more formalized knowledge.

The rise of global history has certainly been one of the strongest tendencies in the development of historiography in the last two decades. As Francesca Trivellato formulates, “the adjective ‘global’ is everywhere.” It is however quite difficult to define precisely what global history is insofar as it covers a relatively wide diversity of themes and approaches. As an inheritor of world history, global history tends to analyze historical processes on a large scale - a macro-scale - in terms of time and space: in that sense, by “combining local histories,” it produces metanarratives dealing with “world-systems” and continents over time. Besides this “big history”, global history has also developed in a slightly different direction by focusing on the history of globalization: its perspective is to study - mainly economically but not exclusively - longdistance connections and interactions, to uncover the existence, or not, of an early globalization and, if it can be found, to identify its characteristics. Nevertheless, some studies (self-)identified as “global history” or “world history” do not fit into this large-scale pattern. It is especially the case of what I call “global lives”, using Miles Ogborn’s expression to refer to the biographies of individuals who were particularly involved in the globalization process.

Workshop organized at the Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain, 14-15th November 2022.

For the early modern period, the study of the dynamics of innovation in military technology has been dominated by the framework of the nation-state. This workshop proposes to reassess the duality of the relationship between states and military technology by inviting the participants to consider the contribution of a third element: the transnational private economic networks which supplied states in technological resources for war. The purpose is to look beyond state-owned infrastructures for the production of military technology and question the role played by private agents in developing and supplying states with key military technology. The focus on naval technology, understood in a broad sense which encompasses the material elements (ships, weaponry) and all the skills and human capital necessary for their functioning, is motivated by the conviction that the important mobility of ships allowed the development of supply chains for state navies with a remarkable transnational character. The first aim will be to discuss how early modern states interacted with the private economic sphere in order to obtain specific elements of naval technology from abroad. The second aim is related to the spaces of circulation of naval technology and their evolution throughout the early modern period, through the examination of the complex geography which articulated production centres and consumers of technological resources across political boundaries. The participants are encouraged to look beyond the European scope in order to bring comparative elements and wonder about the potential world scale of the markets for naval technology in the early modern period.

The workshop can be followed in direct through a zoom meeting :
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83478427734
ID meeting : 834 7842 7734

This dissertation studies the gunners, a socio-professional group who played a key role in the political and military expansion of early modern states. During the sixteenth century, new designs of fortresses and warships resulted in the proliferation of heavy guns. This transformation has been well described by the historiography of the "Military Revolution", but its impact in terms of skills and knowledge has been largely neglected. Cannons were quite complex technical objects which could only be handled by specialists called "gunners". Before the end of the seventeenth century, all main military powers needed to resort to hundreds or even thousands of them. The dissertation shows the quantitative and qualitative aspects of this change by focusing on the Catholic Monarchy and its vast network of strongholds and war fleets spread between the western Mediterranean (mainly in Spain and Italy), Flanders and America. Thus, it aims to make a valuable contribution to military history as well as to the history of the Spanish empire. Furthermore, this study also tackles many issues at the core of the historiography of science and technology. As a result of this massive increase in the need for artillery specialists, new systems of technical learning emerged. In contrast with the traditional system of apprenticeship involving a small-scale transfer of skills from master to disciple, schools of gunners were created under the patronage of the Monarchy where one master taught to a large audience of apprentices. This new system of technical learning articulated theory and practice, training gunners in the use of cannons on a practice ground but also providing them with theoretical lessons validated by an oral examination. At the dawn of seventeenth century scientific transformations, these schools stimulated the publication of mathematical treatises, thus establishing the scientific and technological grounds of early modern seaborne empires.

La ponencia presenta los resultados de un estudio llevado a cabo en los archivos españoles acerca del personal técnico encargado de manejar cañones. Con la transformación de la tecnología militar en el siglo XVI, estos artilleros ganaron en importancia, especialmente en el ámbito naval. Sin embargo, la historia militar suele enfocarse únicamente sobre los cañones, sin mirar a los hombres detrás de estos objetos. Entonces se trata de entender quienes fueron los individuos que permitieron el uso de estas armas con un alto nivel tecnológico para la época. Con un enfoque sobre las flotas transatlánticas de la Carrera de Indias, la ponencia quiere proveer información sobre su estatuto socio-económico, sus trayectorias profesionales, su movilidad internacional y sus conocimientos técnicos. Se tratara también de vincular esta temática global con historia local y subrayar el papel decisivo de Sevilla como lugar de convergencia de expertos y como centro de organización y transmisión de conocimientos técnicos.

Charla abierta al publico en el ambito de la semana de la Historia, organizada por la UPO
Lugar : Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Sede centro, Calle Laraña, 4.
Fecha : 04/03/2020
Hora : 18h

Abstract : Aprovechando la salida de un número especial de la revista Desperta Ferro dedicado a las armadas españolas en el Atlántico (siglo XVI), esta charla se enfoca sobre un aspecto fundamental del combate naval : la artillería. Brice Cossart propone presentar los resultados de su investigación en los archivos españoles para dar a entender la magnitud de los cambios técnicos y tácticos que transformaron las armadas de la Monarquía Hispánica durante el siglo XVI. En particular, ofrece destacar el papel de Sevilla como centro abastecedor de armamento y de competencias técnicas para la defensa del trafico transatlántico de la carrera de Indias. La charla se entiende como un momento de intercambio favoreciendo la participación activa del publico con preguntas sobre el tema presentado y el artículo publicado en el número especial de Desperta Ferro.

Conferencia presentada en el seminario permanente "Historia de la Globalización" organizado por la Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Sede Centro, Calle Laraña, 4.
Fecha : 04/03/2020
Hora : 10h-13h30
Junto con una conferencia de Carlos Alvarez Nogal sobre "Costes, financiación y política económica en torno a la Gran Armada de 1588"

After the battle of Lepanto in 1571, the "Atlantic shift" which, according to Braudel, moved the geopolitical focus of the Spanish monarchy from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic ocean resulted in a dramatic increase in the demand for gunners, the technicians specialized in the use of cannons. Whereas Mediterranean warfare relied mainly on lightly-gunned galleys (Guilmartin, 1974), naval warfare in high seas involved galleons and other sailing ships with far greater fire power (Martin & Parker, 1988). In the last decades of the sixteenth century, the use of artillery at sea experienced a huge quantitative change when growing fleets of heavily-gunned vessels were assembled by the Spanish crown in order to struggle against the Northern protestant powers for the control of the ocean. Cannons were quite complex weapons to handle, requiring specific skills in gunnery for the efficiency of the shots as well as for the safety of the ship. Finding enough gunners for its fleets soon became a challenge for the monarchy.
Not only will this paper highlight the considerable increase in the number of gunners which resulted from the development of galleon fleets but it will also show how this rising demand fostered the implementation, by the Spanish military administration, of new skill-management solutions. Practices of teaching and examinations of gunners emerged in semi-institutionalized “schools” where seamen, soldiers and craftsmen were trained in the art of gunnery. Moreover, the development of these practices encouraged the production of technical literature on gunnery, preparing the ground for the Scientific revolution of the 17th century (Hall, 1952, Biagioli, 1989). By placing the focus at the intersection between military history and the history of science and technology, the paper will thus propose to pinpoint a few technological elements which played a significant role in major transformations of the early modern period

This paper proposes to shed light on the role of late-sixteenth-century Anglo-Spanish war as a catalyst for transforming the ways in which knowledge and skills in gunnery were transmitted. Whereas Mediterranean warfare relied mainly on lightly-gunned galleys (Guilmartin, 1974), the Atlantic confrontation between Philipp II and Elizabeth I resorted to sailing warships with far greater fire power (Martin & Parker, 1988). Fleets with dozens of such heavily-gunned vessels were established by both Crowns, resulting in a huge quantitative change in the use of artillery at sea. Nevertheless, cannons were quite complex weapons to handle, requiring specific skills in gunnery for the efficiency of the shots as well as for the safety of the ship. Finding enough gunners for their fleets soon became a challenge for these states, especially for the Catholic Monarchy after her terrible losses in the Armada of 1588 (Goodman, 1988).
The paper will argue that this increasing need for gunners induced by the conditions of the Anglo-Spanish war fostered the implementation of new skill-management solutions. More precisely, practices of teaching and examinations of gunners emerged in semi-institutionalized “schools” of gunners where seamen, soldiers and craftsmen were trained in the art of gunnery. Moreover, the development of these practices encouraged the production of technical literature on gunnery, preparing the ground for the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century (Hall, 1952, Biagioli, 1989). By placing the focus at the intersection between military history and the history of science and technology, the paper will thus propose to pinpoint a few technological elements which played a significant role in the transformations of early modern Europe.

By focusing on the gunners serving King Philip II of Spain, this paper aims to question the relationship between printed books and practices of teaching. On the one hand, the production of artillery treatises was stimulated in the last decades of the 16th century by the creation of schools of gunners whose purpose was to train seamen, craftsmen and soldiers in the handling of heavy guns. On the other hand, the strategical issue for the the Spanish Monarchy of institionalizing the teaching of gunnery at a large scale was only made possible by a considerable effort to formalize knowledge and diffuse it through the printing press. By applying various mathematical traditions to the gunner’s activities, these treatises significantly contributed to the construction of norms which controled the access to the profession through the practice of the examination of knowledge. More generally, this article invites us to reassess the interactions between scientific publications and the training of technicians in the 16th century.