What is it about?
The development of historic events was driven by the aims, needs and beliefs (either wise or misguided) of the involved people/actors; therefore, to analyze them by means of mathematical tools it is necessary to use methods that can include some reasoning. Linear programming is a very versatile tool for system modelling and optimization. The objective of this text is to check the use of this tool to the analysis of a historic event: the allocation of the artillery during a siege in the 19th century.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Despite the simplification in the modelling, the results show very interesting hints about the dynamics involved during the processes and are able to highlight some critical issues that significantly conditioned the final results. Besides, the modelling process itself proved to be an opportunity for collaboration between historians and computer scientists.
Perspectives
This technique can also be applied to past scenarios to simulate dynamics and cross-check sources. In this text, two models regarding the distribution and the allocation of supplies during the siege of Bilbao, in the framework of the Third Carlist War (1872-1876), from both parties (beleaguerer and besieged) were established based on the war front textual reports. In these models, the scenario is recreated through the system variables (which define the alternatives that can be or could have been taken) and the constraints (which limit the range of action); moreover, the actors’ goals that guided the course of events are defined by the objective.
Alvaro Rodriguez Miranda
Universidad del Pais Vasco
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Linear programming for the analysis and virtual recreation of historical events: the allocation of the artillery during the Siege of Bilbao in 1874, Virtual Archaeology Review, July 2021, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia,
DOI: 10.4995/var.2021.15278.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
