The Italian Campaign of 1703. Struggle for Control over the Po River Basin

The research aims to identify characteristic features of the Western European art of war, using the Italian campaign of 1703 during the War of the Spanish Succession of 1701-1714 as an example. The article shows the command’s efforts on decision-making, planning, support and conduct of the operation, as well as combat activity in the Po River valley in summer of 1703. Scientific novelty lies in studying an important stage of the European military history, which has not been properly reflected in the Russian historiography yet. The research findings have shown that the Italian campaign of 1703 revealed such features of this era’s military strategy as rejection of decisive forms in favour of the manoeuvrable strategy, positional nature of the war, increasing role of logistical factors.