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Landsknechte. “Companions of the country.” French: “lansquenets.” Mercenary infantry originally formed in the late 15th century from petty war bands (“Knabenschaften”) of wild youths. These were unemployed older apprentices overflowing from the highly restrictive Guilds, or other surplus young males produced by a time of demographic expansion. Such “lads” (“Knechte”) waged private wars that usually […]

This illustration depicts the first muster of Massachusetts Bay Colony militia in the spring of 1637. In the colonial era, the militia system was linked to fundamental concepts of American citizenship; militias were considered to be one of three pillars of society, along with the church and local government. Militarily, the colonial militia was the […]

Belgian colonial army (Force Publique) uniforms 1942-3. In the beginning the private army King Leopold had decreed into existence in 1886, the Force Publique, was composed largely of African mercenaries recruited outside the Congo. Of the original 2,000 other ranks of the force, only 111 were Congolese. Preference in early recruiting was given to that […]