Astanding army is a permanent, often professional,army. It is composed of full-timesoldiers who may be either career soldiers orconscripts. It differs fromarmy reserves, who are enrolled for the long term, but activated only duringwars ornatural disasters, and temporary armies, which are raised from the civilian population only during a war or threat of war, and disbanded once the war or threat is over. Standing armies tend to be better equipped, better trained, and better prepared for emergencies, defensive deterrence, and particularly, wars.^[1] The term dates from approximately 1600, although the phenomenon it describes is much older.^[2]

Sargon of Akkad, the founder of the Akkadian Empire, is believed to have formed the first standing professional army.^[3][4]Tiglath-Pileser III ofAssyria (ruled 745–727 BC) created Assyria's first standing army.^[5][6] Tiglath-Pileser III disbanded militias and instead paid professional soldiers for their services. His army was composed largely of Assyrian soldiers but was supplemented with foreign mercenaries and vassal states. The standing army he created was the most sophisticated administrative and economic institution of its time, and was the engine of Assyrian economy which capitalized on warfare.^[7]

Cyrus the Great formed the first professional army of Persia. The composition of the army varied and developed in the course of time.^[8] The empire's great armies were, like the empire itself, very diverse. Its standing army was composed of Persians (the bravest people of empire according to Herodotus) and Medes. This standing army, which may have been reviewed every year by the king or his representative, is called kāra in the inscriptions.^[9] At the heart of this army was its elite guard, The 10,000Immortals. Herodotus describes that if any of these guardsmen drops out owing to death or disease, a substitute is immediately supplied and the number again filled.^[10] Thousands of these 10,000 guardsmen composed the royal bodyguards in the palace, their insignia were golden apples or pomegranates at the butts of their spears (accordingly they are named “apple-bearers” byHeraclides Cumaeus).^[9]

Inancient Greece, the city-states' (poleis) armies were essentially drafted citizen militias.^[11] The exception was in ancientSparta, which had a standing army that trained year-round (and not only in summertime). Through the 5th century BC, they comprised the only professional soldiers in ancient Greece, aside from hired mercenaries. However, the Spartan army commonly consisted ofhelots (serfs), who considerably outnumbered theSpartiates, as well as numerous allies of Sparta.^[12]

Philip II of Macedon instituted the first true professional Hellenic army, with soldiers and cavalrymen paid for their service year-round, rather than a militia of men who mostly farmed the land for subsistence and occasionally mustered for campaigns.^[11]

TheWestern Zhou maintained a standing army, enabling them to effectively control other city states and spread their influence.^[13] Unlike the Western Zhou, theEastern Zhou initially did not have a standing army. Instead they drafted militias from around 150 city states. While the Eastern Zhao did not initially maintain a standing army, the state ofJin became the first to do so in 678 BCE.^[13] The first professional army in China was established by theQin dynasty in 221 BCE, which ushered Imperial China.^[14] Under the Qin dynasty, wars were fought by trained vocational soldiers instead of relying on temporary soldiers.^[15]

InAncient India, warfare was first attested during the Vedic period. However, warfare was primarily waged between various clans and kingdoms solely by the kshatriya class during times of conflict.^[15] True standing armies in India developed under theMahajanapadas, which relied on paid professional soldiers year round.^[16] The most prominent of the Mahajanapadas was the Kingdom ofMagadha. It is accepted that the first standing army of India was created in Maghada by the rulerBimbisara.^[17]

Under the reign ofAugustus, the firstRoman emperor, a standing professional army of theRoman Empire was gradually instituted, with regularized pay. This professional force oflegionaries was expensive to maintain, but supported the authority of the empire, not only as combat troops but also as provincial police forces,engineers, and guards.^[18] Legionaries were citizen volunteers entitled to a discharge bounty upon 25 years of honorable service; supplementing the legions were theauxilia, auxiliary forces composed of non-citizens in theprovinces who typically earned citizenship as a reward for service.^[18]

The first modern standing armies on European soil during the Middle Ages were theJanissaries of theOttoman Empire, which were formed in the 14th century under SultanMurad I.^[19][20]

The first Christian standing army since the fall of theWestern Roman Empire to be paid with regular wages, instead of feudal levies, was established by KingCharles VII of France in the 1430s while theHundred Years' War was still raging. As he realized that France needed professional reliable troops for ongoing and future conflicts, units were raised by issuing "ordonnances" to govern their length of service, composition and payment. Thesecompagnies d'ordonnance formed the core of the Frenchgendarmes that dominated European battlefields in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. They were stationed throughout France and summoned into larger armies when needed. Provisions were also made forfranc-archers and foot soldiers raised from the non-noble classes, but those units were disbanded at the end of theHundred Years' War.^[21]

The bulk of the infantry for warfare was still provided by urban or provincial militias, raised from an area or city to fight locally and named for their recruiting grounds. Gradually these units became more permanent, and in the 1480s, Swiss instructors were recruited and some of the 'bandes' (militia) were combined to form temporary 'legions' of up to 9,000 men. The men would be paid and contracted and would receive training.

Henry II further regularised the French army by forming standing infantry regiments to replace the militia structure. The first, the Régiments de Picardie, Piémont, Navarre and Champagne, were calledLes Vieux Corps (The Old Corps). It was normal policy to disband regiments after a war was over to save costs. TheVieux Corps and the king's own household troops (theMaison militaire du roi de France) were the only survivors.

TheBlack Army, established in 1462 by Hungarian king,Matthias Hunyadi was the first Central/Eastern European standing army.^[22] However, while the Black Army was certainly the first standing field army in that part of Europe, Hungary in fact had maintained a permanent army in the form of garrisons of border fortresses since the 1420s.^[23]

Matthias recognized the importance and key role of earlyfirearms in the infantry, which greatly contributed to his victories.^[24]Every fourth soldier in the Black Army had anarquebus, which was an unusual ratio at the time. The high price of medieval gunpowder prevented them from raising it any further.^[25] The main troops of the army were the infantry, artillery and light and heavy cavalry. The function of the heavy cavalry was to protect the light armoured infantry and artillery, while the other corps delivered sporadic, surprise assaults on the enemy.

In West Africa, theSonghai Empire under theAskia Mohammad I (1493–1528) possessed a full-time corps of 40,000 professional warriors. Al-Sa'di, the chronicler who wrote theTarikh al-Sudan, compared Askia Mohammad I's army to that of his predecessor; "he distinguished between the civilian and the army unlikeSunni Ali [1464–92] when everyone was a soldier." Askia Mohammad I is said to have possessed cynical attitudes towards kingdoms that lacked professional armies like his, notably in reference to the neighboring kingdoms in the land ofBorgu.^[26]

The Majapahitthalassocracy was recorded by a Chinese observer as having 30,000 full-time professional troops, whose soldiers and commanders were paid in gold. This shows the existence of a standing army, an achievement that only a handful of Southeast Asian empires could hope to achieve.^{[27]: 185 [28]: 467} In addition to these professional soldiers, Majapahit was strengthened by troops from subordinate countries and regional leaders.^[29]: 277 As was common in Southeast Asia, Majapahit also used a levy system, in fact, the majority of the Majapahit troops were a levy.^{[30]: 111–113}

Russia was isolated from Central and Western European warfare for centuries as a result of the 13th-centuryMongol conquests.^[31]Ivan the Terrible reformed the state apparatus and centralized his power.^[31] Meanwhile, external pressure from Poland and Sweden in the west, and the Tatarkhanates in the east, led him to reform the army and establish Russia's first permanent standing military force, thestreltsy, in the mid-16th century.^[31]

Thetercios of theSpanish Empire were the first Spanish standing units composed of professional soldiers. Theirpike and shot composition assured predominance in the European battlefields from the 16th century to the first half of the 17th century. Although other powers adopted the tercio formation, their armies fell short of the fearsome reputation of the Spanish, whose core of professional soldiers gave them an edge that was hard for other states to match.^[32]

Prior to the influence ofOliver Cromwell, England lacked a standing army, instead relying on militia organized by local officials, private forces mobilized by the nobility and hired mercenaries from Europe. This changed during theEnglish Civil War, when Cromwell formed hisNew Model Army of 50,000 men. This professional body of soldiers proved more effective than untrained militia, and enabled him to exert control over the country. The army was disbanded byParliament following theRestoration of the Monarchy in 1660, and the Cromwellian model was initially considered a failure due to various logistical and political problems with the force.^[33]

TheMilitia Act 1661 prohibited local authorities from assembling militia without the approval of the king, to prevent such a force being used to oppress local opponents. This weakened the incentive for local officials to draw up their own fighting forces, and King Charles II subsequently assembled four regiments of infantry and cavalry, calling them his guards, at a cost of £122,000 paid out of his regular budget. This became the foundation of the permanent British Army. By 1685 it had grown to 7,500 soldiers in marching regiments, and 1,400 men permanently stationed in garrisons. TheMonmouth Rebellion in 1685 provided James II with a pretext to increase the size of the force to 20,000 men, and there were 37,000 in 1688, when England played a role in the closing stage of the Franco-Dutch War. In 1689, William III expanded the army to 74,000, and then to 94,000 in 1694.

Nervous at the power such a large force afforded the king whilst under his personal command, Parliament reduced the cadre to 7,000 in 1697. Scotland and Ireland had theoretically separate military establishments, but they werede facto merged with the English force. TheBill of Rights 1689 officially reserved authority over a standing army to Parliament, not the king.^[34][35]

In his influential workThe Wealth of Nations (1776), economistAdam Smith comments that standing armies are a sign of modernizing society, as modern warfare requires the increased skill and discipline of regularly trained standing armies.^[36]

In the BritishThirteen Colonies in America, there was a strong distrust of a standing army not under civilian control.^[37][38] The U.S. Constitution in (Article 1, Section 8) limits federal appropriations to two years, and reserves financial control to Congress, instead of to the President. The President, however, retainscommand of the armed forces when they are raised, ascommander-in-chief.^[1] TheFramers' suspicion of a standing army is reflected in the constitutional requirement that the appointment and promotion of high-ranking military officers (like civil officers) beconfirmed by theSenate.^[39] At the1787 Constitutional Convention,Elbridge Gerry argued against a large standing army, comparing it, mischievously, to a standingpenis: "An excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure."^[40] After theBattle of Bladensburg in 1814, duringthe War of 1812, in which the Maryland and Virginia militias were soundly defeated by the British Army, PresidentJames Madison commented, "I could never have believed so great a difference existed between regular troops and a militia force, if I not witnessed the scenes of this day."^[41]

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