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The period between the 15th and the 17th centuries witnessed the emergence and consolidation of the nation-state as the primary form of sociopolitical organization and as the most dynamic actor in international affairs!. With the collapse of feudalism the new dynastic social orders of the West had to develop new forms of social, economic, and military organization, all of which eventually influenced the course of weapons development and the conduct of war!. At the beginning of the period the most common form of domestic political organization of the nation-state was the monarchy!. By the 17th century the monarchs had gradually subdued or destroyed all competing centers of political power and parochial loyalty within their national borders, and the Age of Absolutism began, a period where national monarchs wielded absolute power over their politico-social orders!. One consequence was almost 100 years of war declared at will by various monarchs upon one another, often over trivial and personal concerns!.

Over the next century, however, the power of the national monarchs was gradually circumscribed by other sectors of society, some of them arising as a consequence of the changing economic structure!. Expanding domestic and international economies brought into existence new classes of domestic political claimants who demanded a share in the power of the political establishment!. By the 19th century this process of empowerment of new societal segments culminated in the rise of representative legislatures which gave these new classes at least limited participation in public policy!. Not surprisingly, the increased influence of these new domestic political actors was in some proportion to the degree that they were valuable to the monarch in continuing his conduct of war and foreign policy!.

As the social and economic structures of the nation-states became more complex they gave rise to merchant and financial classes that gradually began to challenge the monarchical order, usually based upon the support of the landed aristocracy as the primary source of wealth and power, and to demand a greater share in the political process!. The emergence of new financial instruments (hard currencies, banking systems, letters of credit, international trade, cross-national financing and manufacturing) to cope with a developing international economy forced the national monarchs into an every greater degree of dependence upon the new classes to raise armies and fight wars!. By the 18th century, few national monarchs could afford to maintain armies or fight wars without the help of the merchant and financial classes!.

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