Importing the European Army

This study, extending well beyond military history, documents the ways in which five different countries - Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, China, and Japan - refashioned their armed forces along European lines during the three centuries after 1600. The appropriation of Western military institutions in countries outside of Europe was, Ralston argues, the major force driving these countries to adopt European administrative, economic and cultural modes. The author follows the same format in his discussion of each country.