Armies Index
Hub
Land armies — the organised, sustained force of armed men a state can put into the field — are one of the oldest and most universal institutions in history. The subdomain covers armies as a research domain across every era and civilisation: the chariot-and-spear hosts of the Bronze Age Near East; the Greek hoplite phalanx and Macedonian pike formations; the Roman legion across Republic, Principate, and Late Empire; the cataphract cavalry of Sasanian Persia and Byzantium; the steppe horse-archer armies of the Xiongnu, Huns, Turks, and Mongols; the Han, Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing Chinese imperial armies; the Islamic caliphate armies and their mamluk and janissary successors; medieval European feudal levies, mercenary companies, and the gunpowder-era condottieri; the early-modern infantry revolutions associated with the Spanish tercio, Dutch and Swedish reforms, and the French line; the mass conscript armies that the French levée en masse pioneered and the nineteenth century industrialised; and the twentieth- and twenty-first-century armies of total war, decolonisation, and counter-insurgency. Notes treat recruitment, organisation, training, doctrine, logistics, and the social composition of armies on their own terms. The Georgian-era British Army and French Grande Armée that the current vault focus encounters are two cases within a much larger comparative field. Adjacent to MOC_Conflicts, MOC_Weapons_Technology, MOC_States_Empires, and MOC_Era_Context.
Primary Notes
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Roadmap
(planned notes as red-links — add as research identifies gaps)
Methodology
- Armies as Institutions — Recruitment, Organisation, and Sustainment Across History
- Military Revolutions — Roberts, Parker, and the Long Debate
Ancient
- The Bronze Age Chariot Armies — Hittites, Egyptians, and the Battle of Kadesh
- The Greek Hoplite Phalanx — Citizen-Soldier and the Polis at War
- The Macedonian Pike Phalanx and Combined Arms Under Alexander
- The Roman Legion — Manipular, Marian, and Imperial Phases
- Han Chinese Armies — Infantry, Crossbows, and the Steppe Frontier
Medieval and Steppe
- Byzantine Themata and Cataphract Cavalry
- Mongol Steppe Armies — Decimal Organisation and Manoeuvre Warfare
- Mamluk Sultanate Military Slavery and Cavalry Elites
- Ottoman Janissary Corps — Devshirme, Discipline, and Decline
- Feudal Levies and Mercenary Companies in Latin Christendom
Early Modern Gunpowder Era
- The Spanish Tercio and the Pike-and-Shot Revolution
- Dutch and Swedish Reforms — Maurice of Nassau and Gustavus Adolphus
- Ming and Qing Imperial Armies — Banners, Green Standard, and Frontier War
- Mughal Military System — Mansabdari and the Hindustani Style of War
Age of Sail (current vault focus)
- French Grande Armée — Organisation and Corps System
- British Army 1793–1815 — Purchase System and Reform
- Prussian Military Reform after Jena 1807
- Russian Imperial Army — Strengths and Logistics
- Austrian Army — Reforms and Performance 1805–1813
Modern
- Mass Conscript Armies — Prussian Model and the Nineteenth-Century Diffusion
- Industrial Warfare — The Civil War, Franco-Prussian, and Boer Armies
- Total War Armies of the World Wars
- Wars of Decolonisation and Counter-Insurgency Armies — From Algeria to Vietnam
Cross-Cutting
- See also: MOC_Military_Forces
- See also: _Home