The first military academies were established in the 17th century to provide future officers for technically specialized corps, such as
military engineers and
artillery, with scientific training. The
Royal Military and Mathematics Academy of Brussels (
La Academia Militar de Bruselas), also known as the
Academia Militar del Ejército de los Países Bajos, was the first modern military academy in Europe, established in 1675 at the capital of the
Habsburg Netherlands,
Brussels, at the request of
Carlos de Aragón de Gurrea, 9th Duke of Villahermosa, Governor and Captain General of the Spanish Netherlands, by its sole-director,
Sebastián Fernández de Medrano, with the authority and royal order of
Charles II of Spain. The Academy was founded to codify and enact Medrano's military scientific doctrine, successfully addressing the critical shortage of artillerymen and military engineers in the
Spanish Tercio. It is recognized as the first formal project of general military training in Europe and served as the institutional forerunner to later Royal Military Academies in Barcelona, Ceuta, Oran, and the
General Military Academy. The
Royal Danish Naval Academy was set up in 1701. The
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich was set up in 1741, after a false start in 1720 because of a lack of funds, as the earliest military academy in Britain. Its original purpose was to train cadets entering the
Royal Artillery and
Royal Engineers. In France, the École Royale du Génie at
Mézières was founded in 1748, followed by a non-technical academy in 1751, the
École Royale Militaire offering a general military education to the nobility. French military academies were widely copied in
Prussia,
Austria,
Russia. The
Norwegian Military Academy in Oslo, educates officers of the
Norwegian Army. The academy was established in 1750, and is the oldest institution for higher education in Norway. By the turn of the century, under the impetus of the
Napoleonic Wars and the strain that the armies of Europe subsequently came under, military academies for the training of commissioned officers of the army were set up in most of the combatant nations. These military schools had two functions: to provide instruction for serving officers in the functions of the efficient staff-officer, and to school youngsters before they gained an officer's commission. The
Kriegsakademie in Prussia was founded in 1801 and the
École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr was created by order of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 as a replacement for the École Royale Militaire of the
Ancien Régime (the institution that Napoleon himself had graduated from). The
Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in England was the brainchild of
John Le Marchant in 1801, who established schools for the military instruction of officers at
High Wycombe and
Great Marlow, with a grant of £30,000 from
Parliament. The two original departments were later combined and moved to Sandhurst. In the United States, the
United States Military Academy (USMA) in West Point, New York was founded on March 16, 1802, and is one of five
service academies in the nation. ==Types==