De la guerre à la police

Abstract

From the reign of King Louis XIV on, the missions associated with Small War were entrusted to new, specialized units, like the dragoons, but Household Cavalry was also used both for war and for high (political) policing. Tactics and procedures used to control occupied territories and extort contibutions from foreign civilians were the same as those used to suppress insurrections in France. The Maréchaussée (constabulary), a military force in charge of policing rural areas in France, was recruiting experienced troopers for staff and using the skills polished in Small War. So Small War asserted itself as a laboratory that allowed defining the use of military forces as a scale about which the authorities were knowing how to move the cursor of coercive action.