I am a professor of world history at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, USA, who grew up in Japan, worked in Germany, France, the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mexico and Japan, and now specializes in matters relating to military manpower in world history. I hope that this blog will serve as a forum for book reviews, research notes, short papers, comments, discusssion about matters relating to military manpower. In particular, I hope to stimulate serious research on, discussion about, and theoretical consideration of soldiers who have been called, could be called, or might be called ‘mercenaries.’ There is a great deal of disagreement over how to define mercenaries but almost every agrees that mercenaries, by one definition or another, have existed for a very long time. Mercenaries, by almost any definition, have played a far more important role in world history than is usually realized. They traveled far and wide and often settled in places where their employers lived, sometimes in groups as military colonists. They were crucial to the rise and fall of innumerable states and often formed the core of the standing armies of emerging states. It was often mercenaries who helped their employers monopolize the use of force in a region. Mercenaries often introduced new techniques, new customs, and new religions. Their presence often encouraged the use and spread of coins and money. Some wrote memoirs which have been of great service to scholars of numerous disciplines. Please join in the discussion and do try to maintain a calm, dispassionate tone when disagreeing with contributors whose views are very different from your own.
