I.

Introduction

Army, military land forces of a nation, assembled, drilled, disciplined, and equipped for offensive and defensive manoeuvres in warfare. The term may refer to the entire body of military personnel in a nation, or to a specific unit under a military commander. In peacetime an army can sometimes be called upon to provide emergency aid for civilians.

The composition of armies often reflects the attitudes towards war of the civilizations and societies they represent. In ancient Greece, for example, men up to the age of 60 were expected to serve in the army; more importance was attached to military than to civil office. In ancient Rome, the citizen-soldier army of the Republic changed to a professional force as social conditions changed and the Republic gave way to the Empire.

For conquest of territory, an army may invade using tanks, with planes and artillery in support, helicopter forces, and mechanized infantry. Some army units are trained for defence only, as infantry, artillery fortifications, and mobile units. An army can also be used to control or put down civilian unrest in its own or other countries, as when Soviet troops put down the 1956 Hungarian uprising, as when British troops were deployed in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s; and as seen, in a situation of all-out war in the Russian Army’s action against the revolt in Chechnya in 1995.

The world’s biggest army is the Chinese army; in 2002 it comprised 2 million personnel, of whom almost 1.3 million were conscripts, and was supported by a national militia of some 12 million and by a security force of some 800,000. Other significant armies include those of India, Russia, and the United States. However, an army’s striking power is not only dependent on its size, but also on the efficiency of its weapons.

II.

British Army

The British Army has around 100,000 troops. All are volunteers, as are the Australian and New Zealand armies (26,600- and 4,430-strong respectively). The British Army underwent major changes after World War II. Forces were withdrawn from former colonies and re-stationed in Europe. The Territorial Army was reduced and in 1960 conscription was phased out. The modern British Army has been restructured since the ending of the Cold War. Its main defence roles are the protection of the United Kingdom’s civil power (such as operations in Northern Ireland); North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) operations (such as the Gulf War in 1991); and operations elsewhere in the world (“out-of-area” operations) to support international order and lend support to humanitarian aid.

III.

United States Army

The US Army numbers around 500,000 personnel, of which about 70,000 are women. It includes the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard, and administers the civil engineering works of the Army Corps of Engineers. At the time when the US army entered World War II in December 1941, the army had increased from 190,000 to more than 1.6 million, reaching a peak in 1942 of 8,260,000 serving personnel.

The Vietnam War, waged during the 1960s, cost some 56,000 American lives. At its height in 1969, before troop withdrawal, US military strength in South Vietnam had peaked at over 541,000. Since the ending of the Cold War in the late 1980s, there have been substantial cuts in US land forces in Europe. In 1992 the US army was the main conventional force in the United Nations (UN) coalition against Iraq during the Gulf War; it repeated this leading role in 2003 during the War on Iraq.

IV.

Russian Army

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s several of the former Soviet republics formed national armies. The Russian Army, by far the largest, comprised about 960,600 personnel in 2002, of which 330,000 were conscripts.

V.

Other Armies

In 2002 the Indian and Pakistan armies, which are both made up of volunteers only, numbered 1,100,000 and 550,000 personnel respectively. In the same year, the Egyptian army, which conscripts men between the ages of 18 and 30 for up to 36 months of military service, numbered about 320,000, and the Indonesian army comprised about 230,000 personnel. Also in 2002, the Israeli army numbered some 125,000, including 114,700 conscripts, and an additional 365,000 in the reserve forces. Men and women are inducted into the Israeli armed forces at age 18; men serve for a period of 36 months; women serve for 21 months.

VI.

Rise of Ancient Armies

In prehistoric and early historic times, armies as such did not exist; armed forces consisted of groups engaged sporadically in combat for the purpose of defending or acquiring land desired for hunting or pasture. The rise of permanent settlements, however, in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley and along the River Nile was paralleled by the employment of citizen-soldiers to protect them.

A.

Ancient Middle East

In Mesopotamia standing armies using spears and bows were created as early as 3200 bc, and in about 2500 bc warfare was revolutionized with the introduction of chariots drawn by donkeys and horses. In Egypt in the 2nd century bc, Senusret I maintained a regular army—well equipped, disciplined, and salaried. He divided his kingdom into 36 military provinces, established a national militia, allocated land for the support of the military, and used this army both offensively and defensively. In the mid-6th century bc, the Persians, under Cyrus the Great, refined the concept of the standing army by promoting the deployment of both infantry and cavalry and establishing a system of discipline.

B.

Greece

The Greek city-states maintained bodies of militia capable of being united into one great army. The superior organization and strict discipline of these citizen-soldiers, or hoplites, helped achieve the great victories won at such battles as Marathon and Plataea during the Persian Wars of the 5th century bc.

In the mid-6th century bc, the Spartans introduced the concept of the phalanx, the first important tactical formation. Primarily defensive in its original form, it consisted of eight rows of heavily armoured spearmen standing shoulder to shoulder in rectangular ranks with overlapping shields. Although capable of withstanding cavalry charges, it was slow in attack and awkward in traversing difficult terrain. In contrast, the Athenians developed the use of cavalry to provide a cover in front of the army and to harass the enemy’s rear.

In the 4th century bc, Philip II of Macedonia established a large standing army in which he added cavalry forces to the phalanx and introduced the use of the long pike. His son, Alexander the Great, who destroyed the Persian Empire, organized the first army supply system and established light infantry as a link between phalanx and cavalry. The use of archers, light catapults, siege engines, a tactical smoke- and sound-signal system, and a medical service were important contributions to a more sophisticated army organization.

C.

Rome

The genius of the Carthaginian general Hannibal enabled his army to cross the Alps from France into Italy by means of masterly feats of logistics. In his march on Rome during the Second Punic War, Hannibal transported 30,000 men, horses, and elephants, and inflicted a stunning defeat on the Romans at the Battle of Cannae in 216 bc by enveloping and destroying their army.

By about 200 bc, Rome had instituted for the first time a conscription of all men between 17 and 46 years of age. A rigid physical training programme for those selected in early childhood to become soldiers ensured a superior state of readiness, especially for men chosen to serve in the legions. The campaigns of these celebrated units of foot soldiers and cavalry—organized in three lines of small phalanxes called maniples or cohorts—were expedited by the great Roman military engineering skills that provided the necessary roads, bridges, and forts.

The relaxation of army discipline and the drafting of slaves and criminals into the service, together with problems caused by incursions of Teutonic tribes and by internal social dissent, necessitated far-reaching military reforms, which were achieved under the consul Gaius Marius. In 104 bc wealthy and part-time soldiers were replaced by a professional army, recruited for a 20-year period. The manoeuvrability of the legions was balanced by a system of fixed fortifications, which were the key defences of the far-flung Roman provinces.

D.

East Asia

The legendary Chinese general Sunzi wrote the earliest military treatise, The Art of War (c. 500 bc). In it he described Chinese weapons, command systems, communications, discipline, grade distinctions, strategy, and logistics. Although in later centuries Chinese and Japanese military organization was comparable to that of their Middle Eastern and European contemporaries, the Asian invention of stirrups (by or before the 2nd century bc) had revolutionized mounted warfare by making chariots obsolete. The Battle of Adrianapole (ad 378), in which Huns, Alans, Goths, and Spartans annihilated the Romans, demonstrated the superiority of cavalry to infantry forces.

The Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan in 1190 spearheaded Mongolian advances from the Gobi Desert into the heart of Europe. Their conquests, accomplished with relatively small armies but with innovative military skill, relied on a basic formation of 10,000 mounted warriors, the touman. Around 60 per cent of this force was lightly protected; 40 per cent was armoured. It waged war with hurled missiles, fire, and explosives. Communication was by signal flags and drumbeats. The Mongolian hordes lived off the country, and their tactical deployment relied on surprise attacks—thrusts at the enemy’s flank and rear that preceded heavy cavalry assaults.

VII.

Rise of Modern Armies

The fall of Rome in the 5th century and the invasion by northern Europeans that followed formed the background to the development of the feudal system and the disappearance for several centuries of large standing armies in Europe.

A.

Middle Ages

Feudalism was based on a concept of local defence, each baron or landowner governing land that had been given to him by the king, and each lord having his own personal protective forces recruited from among men who worked for him. In return, each lord and his men were pledged to annual service to the monarch and could be called on in special instances, as in the defence of Christendom during the Crusades. National armies thus began to appear again.

The Crusades emphasized the need for organization and discipline in opposing a common enemy; as a result, large forces of foot soldiers were constituted. Until the introduction of gunpowder in Europe—supported by the use of crossbows and other weapons—changed the character of war, the ambition of the individual knight engaging in personal combat with his sword diminished the effective use of the army as a unified force.

Throughout Europe during the 14th century, when firearms were introduced, mercenary professional soldiers were recruited by the highest bidder. Such companies, varying in strength from tens to thousands, were the forerunners of modern professional armies. The present Swiss Guard of the Vatican is a direct successor to a 15th-century mercenary company. Among other extant survivors of the mercenary army, one of the most renowned is the French Foreign Legion, organized in 1831 for service outside France and composed of diverse ethnic groups. It has seen service in combat all over the world.

Modern counterparts of the mercenary armies of former centuries are the 20th-century international armies such as the 15-nation UN force that fought in Korea from 1950 to 1953, and the many UN peacekeeping forces that have been called to serve in many parts of the world, particularly in Africa and central Europe.

B.

Armies in the 16th to 18th Centuries

B.1.

Spain

Spain is considered the first modern European country to have established a standing army. The nucleus of this 16th-century force was four infantry regiments of 7,000 men bearing pikes and firearms.

B.2.

Sweden

Sweden under King Gustav II Adolph conscripted an army to serve in the Thirty Years’ War. The King improved military efficiency by organizing six or more 150-man companies into regiments and combat brigades and by enforcing strict discipline, which in turn made possible increased mobility. Artillery was integrated into the cavalry and infantry formations.

B.3.

France

Under Louis XIV, the French army organized a quartermaster department to perform supply functions, and training and inspection of the troops were standardized. By 1678 France’s standing forces numbered more than 200,000 soldiers. Marshal Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban designed a system for attacking fortified places, improved a system of defensive fortification, and created the first modern corps of engineers, specifically employed for military engineering.

B.4.

Britain

Britain’s first regular army, established by Oliver Cromwell in 1645, consisted of 14,000 infantry and 7,600 mounted men and heavy artillery. The use of the bayonet (invented in France in about 1689), attached by tight-fitting rings to the muzzle of a flintlock musket, enabled John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, to dispense with pikemen and increase the number of musketeers. Infantrymen thus became self-sufficient.

B.5.

Prussia

The techniques of modern warfare were greatly advanced in the 18th century by the theories and stratagems of the great military leader Frederick (II) the Great of Prussia. Under his guidance, the Prussian army was formed into one of the most efficient and mobile forces known up to that time. By striking suddenly, he attacked the enemy army before it could unite with others.

C.

Napoleonic Army

The army of the French Revolution possessed a mobile, well-equipped artillery branch and an infantry with a high degree of morale. The military engineer Lazare Carnot in 1792 instituted a nationwide conscription of citizens into the first all-arms divisions (infantry, artillery, and cavalry) whose aim was the total destruction of the enemy.

In 1798, under Napoleon I, military conscription was made compulsory. Every male between 21 and 25 years of age was liable to four years of service. Napoleon’s initial contribution to the citizen army of France was in the area of artillery improvements. Subsequently, he established himself as perhaps the world’s foremost military strategist, able to muster an army of 200,000 to 500,000 men and to demonstrate that this massive force could move speedily, along separate roads, live off the land without fixed depots, and in concentrated units take an enemy by surprise. Napoleonic campaigns are classics of warfare that are still studied.

With the growth of armies, organization from a distance became essential. The Prussians moved armies across new railway networks, paving the way for long-range planning, and the Prussian General von Scharnhorst developed the modern general staff for directing military operations. During the 19th century there evolved the mass production of weapons and ammunition, with the subsequent development of the aeroplane, motorized vehicles, and communication by radio in the 20th century.

D.

World War I

By 1914 the machine-gun had become the main battlefield weapon, making free movement impossible and forcing infantry to adopt trench warfare. Assault by shelling and bombing enemy lines and mass bayonet attacks failed to break through enemy lines. The first military tank eventually replaced cavalry troops but was developed too late in World War I to be decisive.

E.

World War II

In World War II mobility returned to warfare; tanks and bombers broke through defences in the German blitzkrieg invasion of Poland, enabling infantry to carry fighting deep into enemy territory. Armies were transported great distances and used in vast airborne (paratroop) operations, the first of which was the German conquest of Crete, and the largest of which was the landing of three Allied paratroop divisions behind German lines to capture bridges across the River Rhine.

The Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944 was the largest amphibious invasion in history. The setting up of extensive supply and service networks providing ammunition, food, and other supplies to armies marked the rapid development of modern military industrial production and engineering.

The importance of guerrilla warfare was demonstrated on many fronts during World War II. The subsequent spread of nationalistic or ideological “brushfire” wars further promoted the use of guerrilla tactics and strategy. Mountain warfare was employed on a wide front between Italy and Austria-Hungary in World War I, involving specially trained alpine troops using skis. In World War II the Germans used mountain divisions in their campaign in Norway, and Soviet troops trained in winter warfare played a vital role during that war, which, after a seemingly endless struggle, reversed its course.

F.

The Nuclear Age and Beyond

Although nuclear weapons changed the nature of warfare, their value on the battlefield was at first held in doubt. By the 1960s short-range missiles and nuclear cannons had been developed that could be used against troops and supply targets. Efforts to make armies less vulnerable to nuclear attacks turned them into small, highly mobile battlefield forces. Only conventional weapons and tactics have been used in battles of the nuclear age, such as the Vietnam War, as a means of combating guerrilla forces.

Technical demands made of individual soldiers nowadays must often require that a small elite of well-trained volunteers exists to operate under conditions of peace or limited war. This corps tends to be reinforced by large numbers of conscripted soldiers performing traditional functions during large-scale operations. Women are increasingly assigned to infantry, cavalry, armoured, and engineering units in the field, and the technical skills of the military are increasingly used in meeting civilian needs for disaster relief, civic action in war-torn nations, and nation-building projects.