At the eve of the Fantastic War, the army of the kingdom of Portugal was far from being a useful tool neither to keep the peace within the country, nor to counter the Franco-Spanish menace coming from abroad. In the reforming process triggered by this military confrontation, the role played by the Portuguese historical ally, Great Britain, and the person chosen to reform the Portuguese army, the Count of Schaumburg-Lippe, were pivotal not only for the sake of the moment, but also to let the Military Revolution triumph in Portugal like in the rest of Europe. In this paper, Lippe’s action to reform the Portuguese army short before the clash against the Spanish forces approaching Portugal in 1762 will be seen in the light of the Military Revolution’s main principles. On the other hand, the Portuguese triumph over the Franco-Spanish alliance will be investigated as the triumph of the Military Revolution principles in the special context of Portugal, and, in particular, as the triumph of Lippe. Nonetheless, Lippe’s reforms in the Portuguese army demonstrated not to be deeply-rooted, as the departure of the German reformer determined the beginning of another slow, but constant erosion of the Portuguese army military capability, culminated at the eve of the Napoleonic invasion. Furthermore, within the broader framework of Lippe’s reforms and the principles of the Military revolution, this paper will investigate Lippe’s creation of a general staff of the Portuguese army as an outcome of the imposition of a reform based on the principles of the Military Revolution. The hypothesis advanced will focus on the organizational consequences on an army due to the Military Revolution principles as the main cause for the need for a ‘brain of the army’ as a general staff, not only in wartime, but also in peacetime.

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