military, naval, and air academies
military, naval, and air academies, schools for the education and training of officers for the armed forces. Their origins date from the late 17th century, when European countries began developing permanent national armies and navies and needed trained officers for them—though the founding of academies themselves did not begin until the mid-18th century and later. Until the 20th century, training emphasized the handling of weapons, the drilling and management of men, tactics and strategy, and ceremonial; for naval cadets, navigation was included. In the 20th century, separate air force academies were founded in some countries. To accommodate the increasing part played by science, technology, and organization in modern warfare, the content of the instruction has broadened to include more scientific, technical, and general subjects. At the same time, cadets began to be drawn from much wider social strata than hitherto.
Perhaps the first country to develop a comprehensive and modernly efficient scheme of military education was Prussia, which had such early brilliant reformers as Gerhard von Scharnhorst, August von Gneisenau, and Carl von Clausewitz and whose complex of military institutions in the 19th century would elicit the respect (and often the imitation) of other military powers. At the base of the officer-training system were eventually 8 cadet schools, more or less for the upper class or elite, and 10 war schools for the less select—both training men for commissions. At the apex of the system was the venerable War Academy, or Kriegs Akademie, at Berlin, founded in 1810 and offering the highest advanced education for commissioned officers. A great complex of technical and auxiliary schools, such as for cavalry and engineering, filled in the system. After World War I the entire complex was disrupted, though the military tradition persisted.
Among the countries that closely imitated the Prussian system were Austria-Hungary, tsarist Russia, and Japan. The first real military academies in Russia were established in the mid-19th century. Immediately after the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917, a new centralized Soviet military academy was founded in Moscow, followed by the founding of naval, air, engineering, and military political academies. In Japan, the principal schools for the training of officers were the Army Academy (founded 1868) and the Naval Academy (founded 1869), both of which were disbanded after World War II. Perhaps the most famous military academy in East Asia, however, was the Whampoa Academy, an army academy set up by the Chinese Kuomintang (Nationalist) leader Sun Yat-sen near Canton in 1924 with Chiang Kai-shek as its first commandant.
In France the system developed in simpler form, with two traditional channels for men seeking commissions. Military engineers, artillerymen, and other technical officers were trained at the École Polytechnique, an engineering school that was founded in 1794. Staff and other officers for the infantry and cavalry were trained at the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, founded by Napoleon in 1803. Advanced training for selected colonels is also offered at the École Supérieure de Guerre. The École Navale at Brest trains officers for the navy, and the École de l’Air at Salon-de-Provence is the air force academy.
Until 1939 potential officers for the British army were trained at either the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich (founded 1741), offering training in artillery, engineering, and communications, or the Royal Military College at Sandhurst (founded 1802), offering cavalry and infantry training. From 1940 the functions of these schools were combined at Sandhurst, which in 1947 was officially designated the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. British naval cadets are enrolled at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth; and air force cadets train at the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell (founded 1920). Selected commissioned officers are educated in higher strategy and policy at the Imperial Defence College.
The United States has four major academies: the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. (founded 1802); the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. (founded 1845); the United States Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colo. (founded 1954); and the United States Coast Guard Academy at New London, Conn. (founded 1876). There is also the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y. (founded 1943), whose graduates may apply for commissions in the naval reserve. At the apex of the system, for training commissioned officers of the three basic services in higher strategy and policy, are the National War College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, the latter for study of economic aspects of mobilization. Advanced training is also offered at the several academies and at nonmilitary universities.