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Looking at some old historical pictures of different military dress uniforms, I noticed that certain design features like an enclosed collar such as this changed into shirt and tie forms like this. My question is, which army was the first to make the change from enclosed collar to shirt and tie, and what the rationale for it?

The enclosed collar, still present in some uniforms, is a relic of a time when it was composed of heavy material designed to soften or otherwise mitigate blows to the neck. That said it wasn't anywhere near universal and uniforms of the same era even within the same nation might have variation on this subject.

In addition, the necktie as it is now comes from the mid-to-late 1800s. It didn't gain widespread acceptance until sometime later, and sometime between the world wars a lot of militaries seem to have changed their dress uniforms (the Americans, British, and Germans, for instance). Style certainly has a part to play in dress uniforms as well.

EDIT: Also, the relegation of dress uniforms for mostly ceremonial and such purposes had to do with it per Wilkens' post. Up until WWI, the British even were still using full dress uniforms for some non-ceremonial purposes. Since the blazer-and-tie combo doesn't offer much neck protection, that is probably a big part of it as well.

montypython wrote:My question is, which army was the first to make the change from enclosed collar to shirt and tie, and what the rationale for it?

Ghetto edit - it seems like the British did it first, for purposes of identifying regiments.