MODERN ARMIES.
The evolution of the modern army has been along the lines of national and mechanical de velopment; national needs and aspirations dic tating its origin, organization, and strength, and the progress of mechanical invention its tactics and equipment. Medireval armies, whose or ganization and characteristics will be found discussed under FEUDALISM, were made up chiefly of the retainers, dependents. and follow ers of the nobility; and were usually employed in the petty struggles of their leaders, or in as sisting the King to make war on a larger scale. The success of the King invariably meant gifts of land to the victorious nobles fighting under his banner: who. in turn, rewarded their knights and squires by smaller gifts of land, or land privileges, thus building up the feudal system. The holding of lands implied service due to the giver, and as a consequence many of the nobility vied with their king in power and prestige. The Crusades did much to develop the idea of cooperation; but at the best the different armies participating were practically independent of each other. It was an age when science was unknown, and the want of intellectual occupa tion made war the favorite occupation of the higher classes. Individual prowess and bravery were the standards by which battles were fought and won, the fate of a battle frequently depend ing on a personal combat between two knights. Under such circumstances, the science of war could never attain a high degree of efficiency; nor could any general organization be effected.
It was not until the reign of Charles VII. of France that any regular attempt at organizing a standing army was made, although the Turk ish janizaries (q.v.) had been in existence for almost a century before. The Swiss mercen aries, bodies of professional soldiery, were in groat demand during the Middle Ages, their military qualities often successfully deciding the issue of a battle. The employment of mer cenaries consequently soon became general; so much so, that voluntary patriotic service ceased altogether. Widespread dissatisfaction. how ever, soon developed. owing to the heavy ex pense involved, and the danger of entrusting the safety of the State to hired foreigners, who, recruited from the very dregs of society, had to be kept under the strictest discipline and surveillance. It followed as a natural result that organization and the consequent sinking of the individual in the mass eradicated the older forms of knighthood, with their attendant feats of arms and examples of personal skill and daring.
In the reaction from the burden and expense of mercenary armies the present European Con tinental military system had its inception. The use of firearms by this time had become more general; the proportion of musketeers in the various armies between the beginning of the Sixteenth and the end of the Eighteenth cen turies had considerably increased, and the pike was superseded by the bayonet. Changes of weapons naturally influeneed and brought about a change in tactics. In the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), Gustavus Adolphus and Wallen stein employed directly opposite infantry for mations. (See INFANTRY.) The former arranged his men six ranks in depth. and gained corre sponding length of line. Wallenstein, on the other hand, used a narrower front by placing his men in from twenty to thirty ranks. The gradual thinning down to the famous "thin red line" made historic by the English, who have always used the line in preference to the mass of columns of their opponents, and from that to the widely extended front rendered neceisary by modern rapid and long-range firearms, is a matter of comparatively recent military history. In the reign of Louis X1V. of France (1643-1715) the grouping of brigades and divisions was first introduced, and in the next century Frederick the Great of Prussia (1740-1786) reduced his infantry formation to three ranks, and introduced a most rigid and exact system of drill and discipline. He was also the originator of horse artillery (1759). (See ARTILLERY.) The contest waged by France against Europe from 1792 to 1797, together with her terrible internal warfare, had largely ex hausted the tremendous levies which had hitherto supplied her armies, and in 1798 a law was passed establishing compulsory military service. (See CONSCRIPTION.) This compelled all Con tinental Europe to follow Napoleon's example, so that to-day voluntary enlistment in Europe sur vives in England alone.
A summary of the strength, composition, and general characteristics of the armies of the world at the beginning of the Twentieth Cen tury, so far as can be ascertained, is given below: