Software Engineering Best Practices from a General of the Thirty Years' War

Abstract

Software engineering lessons can be found in very curious places such as natural wild life or in common objects around us. Object oriented advocates found their model in an architect (Christopher Alexander) but I never thought that the best lesson of software engineering that I could ever find was in the story of an amazing general of the Thirty Years' War.

The (Hi)Story so Far...

Many people do not know very much about the Thirty Years' War. Especially if you are not from Europe, where we study European's history at school, or you did not study European history of the 17th Century in some classes in college, you probably just heard of that war.

The Thirty Years' War shattered Europe for 30 years (1618-1648) and more than a single war; it is to be considered a series of conflicts that took place in the Central Europe involving, at different moments, all the political and military powers of the time: Holy Roman Empire, Austria, Spanish Empire, Swedish Empire, France...

Summarizing to the extreme, it was a war of religion between Protestants and Catholics. The outcome of the war was a rebalance of power across Europe with the division of the Holy Roman Empire, the independence of Portugal, Sweden transformed from Kingdom to Empire and many more.

For a better summary, or for the full story, please go to the local library and pick up a good history book, or just take a look at the Wikepedia page of the Thirty Years' War which provides a good enough summary.

For what concerns this document, we are interested only in one specific period of the Thirty Years' War. We are interested in the so called the Swedish intervention (1630-1635) and, even more specifically, into the Battle of Breitenfeld (September 7th, 1631) and in the general that guided the Sweden army to victory. The name of this general was Gustaf II Adolf, better known with through the Latin version of his name, Gustavus Adolphus, or through the name that his opponents gave him: "The Lion from the North".

Gustavus Adolphus and the Battle of Breitenfeld

Gustavus Adolphus was, and still is, considered the greatest general of his time and his fame comes not only from the large amount of battles and wars that he was able to win, but mainly his innovations to the way war was done in the 17th Century.

Just to name two, both Napoleon Bonaparte and George S. Patton recognize in him the inventor of modern warfare and a model that every general or commander should study and follow.

The battle that permitted Gustavus Adolphus to show to the world his ability as a general and his innovations was the Battle of Breitenfeld.

The Battle of Breitenfeld saw the forces of the Kingdom of Sweden facing the Imperial forces guided by the Count of Tilly. This last one was a very expert general. At the time of the battle, he was 35 years older than Gustavus Adolphus and with a long record of wars and battles: he joined the Spanish army when he was 15 years old and he died in 1632 at the age of 73, of tetanus, 15 days after he was wounded by a cannon ball during the Battle of Rain.

Which innovations did Gustavus Adolphus make in the Battle of Breitenfeld?

The forces of Gustavus Adolphus were very well trained and organised; every infantryman or cavalry soldier was trained in the use of the artillery. The Swedish artillery used only three different calibers and each infantry regiment had a small caliber cannon to shot against troops or cavalry charges.

Everything of the previous list sounds obvious but it did not exist, at least at that level of perfection, before the battle.

It was not only something special with his army, Gustavus Adolphus was able to operate an artillery piece himself and he personally used to guide the cavalry charges guiding his men on the battlefield.

Innovations in the 17th Century Art of War and Modern Software Enginering

Each one of the innovations that Gustavus Adolphus took to the battlefield was as important as the other ones.

Let us analyse each one of them and let us try to draw parallels between those innovations and how we can try to learn something from the software engineering point of view.

Well trained troops — The Swedish army, as reported by the historians of the time, was the best-trained force of the Thirty Years' War. Just as an example, the musketeers were able to reload their muskets three times faster than every other army's musketeers were and they were trained to shot, at the same time, from three ranks. These two facts alone were able to multiply by 9 the effect of the musketeers (which is, more or less, an order of magnitude).