Popular Arming and National Sovereignty: The Origin of Armed Militias Since the American War of Independence and their Role in Prussia and France Following the Threshold of 1814/1815

The threshold of 1814/1815 in France and Prussia was marked by the return of the traditional monarchy after the experience of the American and French Revolutions. The Crown relied on the armed forces to maintain public order and establish the monopoly of the state. However, the Revolutions had led to the creation of citizen militias that played a crucial role in the independence of the free nation. The present article focuses on the American colonists’ troops, the French National Guard and the Prussian Landwehr and Landsturm in order to investigate how a new form of popular arming emerged during the Sattelzeit , which significantly changed the military institutions of the ancien régime . This study emphasizes the aspect of military discipline and analyses the complex incorporation of popular arming into the state. The concept of loyalty was instructive for the understanding of social relationships within society, and the Revolution deeply changed the commitment of the militiamen. This reveals the conflicting interpretation of the sacrifice that citizens made for the establishment of a free nation. During the Restoration, exclusive obedience to the sovereign still existed, but the attachment to liberal institutions had become an integral part of the identity of the modern citizen-soldier, as the example of German liberals and members of the French National Guard show.