The Development of Military Medicine in the Era of the «Military Revolution in Europe» in France

Abstract

The subject of the study is the main aspects of the formation of the military medical service of the French Kingdom of the epoch of the Great Century. The purpose of the review is to demonstrate the integration of the Institute of military Medicine into the ideological machine of the Sun King. The author pays attention to the political, economic and socio-cultural aspects of this process, which took place against the background of the formation of absolutism as a military-political concept. The author demonstrates the transformation of military medicine as a specific sociocultural practice into an integral part of the life of the French army of the era of the military revolution, which was primarily an element of propaganda, which was associated with the regular actualization of the thesis that the actions of doctors are an act of goodwill on the part of the crown, as well as the supply of units, clothing provisions and ammunition. This increased the morale of the troops, despite the removal from the camps of the baggage women, who had already received the idyllic name "Aphrodite's army" at that time. The characterized phenomenon is presented in the article as an example of the instrumentalization of the ancient (in particular, the Ro- man heritage), which is an integral part of the transformation of the military and political mechanisms of European political states. In many ways, an unobvious manifestation of this process is the widespread introduction of the simplest sanitary and hygienic standards into army use, such as, for example, the use of a block system for the location of the main components of the camp, which made its structure more orderly and efficient.