THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REVOLT AND WAR IN EARLY MODERN WESTERN EUROPE on JSTOR

Abstract

There is currently little theoretical consensus about the relationship between revolt and war. The "conflict-cohesion" argument suggests that war decreases revolt by increasing internal solidarity, but others note that war may increase revolt since it is often contrary to the interests of subjects and it weakens the state. The "diversionary theory of war" posits that revolt may lead states to initiate offensive wars in order to create solidarity, but a balance of power argument suggests that revolts will produce defensive wars since others are more likely to attack a weakened state. Empirical studies of the relationship have been inconclusive, and most of them have been limited to a narrow time period. This paper provides the first test of these arguments in the early modern period (1400-1700), and uses a new method (qualitative comparative analysis) to explore in more detail than previous studies the relationship between particular types of wars and specific types of revolts. We find that there is no general and consistent relationship between revolt and war in this period, but there are some cases in which war weakened states enough to increase the frequency of revolts in peripheral regions.