War, the military revolution(s) controversy, and army expansion - A test of two explanations of historical influences on European state making

One school of thought on European state making argues that discontinuous ch ange in weapons and tactics led to the expansion of armies, and therefore, states. Others argue that decision makers expanded state organizations to m ake war for its own sake, not simply because the tools of war changed. Alth ough this controversy is not easily reserved, the empirical evidence indica tes that major expansions in army sizes over the past 500 years were almost exclusively related to major wars fought over regional and global primacy. Moreover, the leaders in expanding armies were usually the states aspiring to regional hegemony and their principal opponent. This evidence buttresse s the argument for drawing a direct relationship between war and state maki ng-instead of emphasizing an indirect relationship between weapons/tactics and army size.