Abstract
The article investigates how military history was taught as part of the Danish higher officer education from 1830 to 1920 and how the subject was affected by developments in academic history and the science of war. It argues that military history, as it was taught in the formal officer education, could not be seen solely as a historic subject but also as a subject under the influence of the discipline of military science. Three very different understandings of how military history can contribute to higher officer education are shown through the analysis of textbooks. In the 1830s military history was used to establish national and organisational identity. In the 1880s, military history was used as a means to find, explain and apply universal principles of war and, in the 1910s, military history should be used as a means to gain general insight that could potentially lead to a better understanding of war and warfare.