Army
From Encyclopædia
An army is a large, organized land force trained to fight wars under military discipline. Usually an army is in the service of a national government or some other political group. In a more limited sense, an army is a tactical and administrative unit within the land forces of a country, capable of independent employment and generally made up of two or more corps--for example, the U.S. Army,
Europe, which has its headquarters in
Heidelberg, Germany.ARMIES OF THE PASTArmies of some sort appear to have existed as long ago as 3500 BC. Pictures and other artifacts from prehistoric times show organized fighting groups, or at least groups that were armed, uniformly dressed, and moving in an ordered manner to confront an enemy.Ancient ArmiesBefore 600 BC, highly disciplined and well-equipped armies existed in China,
Egypt, Assyria, and Persia. Compact formations of foot soldiers, armed with swords and spears and protected by shields of hide, formed the basic unit, the
infantry. Horsemen and CHARIOTS complemented the
infantry. By the 4th century BC, siege machines were in existence. Together, these corresponded to the principal forces of modern armies:
infantry,
cavalry, and ARTILLERY. The Greek army of ALEXANDER THE GREAT was able to conquer the known
world in an 11-year campaign (334-23 BC). After Alexander's death, Carthaginian and then Roman armies replaced the Greek forces as the most formidable armed organizations in the Western
world. A Carthaginian general, HANNIBAL, led his army of nearly 30,000 men together with horses and elephants through Spain and over the European Alps into
Italy to attack Rome in the Second PUNIC WAR (218-201 BC). The Roman army captured Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War (149-146 BC), destroyed the
city, and annexed its
territory as the province of
Africa. The strength of the Roman army was in its flexible and disciplined formations, called legions, and in its ability to construct
fortifications quickly and to defend them. Julius
caesar's reputation as a brilliant general was largely derived from his army's feats of military engineering.In the millennium after the decline of Rome, the armies of the Western
world relied upon the horse, the bow, and ill-disciplined masses of foot soldiers. Commanders such as ATTILA THE HUN (5th century), BELISARIUS (6th century), CHARLEMAGNE (8th and 9th centuries), and the MONGOL khans (12th and 13th centuries), with large armies that at times consisted of 100,000 to 200,000 men, conquered extensive areas by defeating smaller and less-disciplined armed forces that opposed them.Medieval and Early Modern ArmiesIn the period from the 12th to the 18th century, armies were slowly transformed through an increase in discipline, the introduction of gunpowder, and the emergence of the modern state. The horse, which had been the principal force of the armies of the great barbarian conquerors, was used in the 12th century by
knightS, who served their feudal lords both by engaging in individual combat and by combining with other
knights in feudal armies. The individual
knights were generally well trained, but when formed into small armies they lacked cohesiveness and organization. This weakness was capitalized upon by the Swiss, who discovered in the 13th and 14th centuries that a highly compact, well-trained, disciplined formation of infantrymen could defeat the mounted warrior. The Swiss armed their foot soldiers with the pike (a long spear) and the halberd (an ax head with added points and barbs, mounted on a shaft).Another dimension was added to warfare in the 14th and 15th centuries with the spread of GUNPOWDER. CANNONS, capable of destroying walled
fortifications, were used with considerable success by King CHARLES VIII of France in his invasion of
Italy in 1494. Handguns, called arquebuses, helped the Spanish under Gonzalo FERNANDEZ DE CORDOBA defeat the French in 1503. (see
firearms.)The French and Spanish military successes in
Italy led Niccolo MACHIAVELLI to advocate the creation of a
militia for
Florence that would replace undisciplined and unreliable
mercenaries with soldiers drawn from the populace. He had seen
militias elsewhere and concluded that soldiers who had a cause other than material gain would provide
Florence with a more reliable and effective army. Organization, discipline, the use of technological innovations, and the affiliation of soldiers with the state for which they were fighting were effectively combined by King GUSTAV II ADOLF of Sweden to create the most formidable army of the early 17th century. Later in the 17th century, standing armies were created to serve states and monarchs throughout
Europe; none, however, could compare in discipline and training with the Prussian army that later won victories for
Frederick II (Frederick the Great).Conscripted ArmiesThe
French Revolution (1789) brought dramatic changes, not only in the government and society of France but in the armies of Western
civilization. The fundamental idea of the equality of all men and the compelling need to raise armies large enough to stop the combined forces of
Europe that were arrayed against the new French republic led the revolutionary government to call for nationwide CONSCRIPTION. The result was a
nation at arms and a return to the idea that every male citizen has the obligation to serve in the armed forces of his country. Since then, all the major powers have employed citizen armies to fight their great wars. The Industrial
revolution that began late in the 18th century made it possible to equip these
Mass conscript armies with
weapons and other military necessities.Mechanized ArmiesChanges in
technology have had profound effects on armies in the era since the
French Revolution. Steam power increased the speed and ease with which armies could be transported--first by
railroad and later in the 19th century by steamship. The development of rifling, breechloading, and smokeless powder made possible the creation of
weapons of greater range, accuracy, and rapidity of fire than ever before (see
machine gun;
rifle). The
telegraph, telephone, and radio made it possible for commanders to communicate almost instantly with their troops and governments.The internal-
combustion engine brought greater mobility to armies both on and off the battlefield, and the development of the airplane added another dimension to land warfare. Improved battle
wagons, or TANKS as they were named when the British introduced them?during
world War I, led to the creation of fully mechanized armored forces, capable of rapid advance and a new style of fighting called blitzkrieg, or "
lightning war," by the Germans. Jet
engines, long-range rockets, and detection systems such as
radar and sonar were introduced during
world War II, extending the range, destructiveness, and surveillance of the modern army. The invention of the ATOMIC
bomb, with its capability of massive destruction, stimulated development of other devices in the decades since--and also changed essential aspects of defense planning (see DEFENSE, NATIONAL).Space satellite tracking stations,
laser detection and guidance devices, intercontinental ballistic missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and complex electronic information systems are some of the tools that armies must now be able to use and manage in an organized and disciplined way (see
BALLISTIC MISSILE;
ROCKETS AND MISSILES.)THE
United States ARMYThe U.S. Army traces its origins to June 14, 1775, when the Second Continental Congress authorized the formation of an American Continental Army and appointed George Washington commander of the Troops of the United Provinces of North
America. Since that day, the army has been frequently and pervasively reorganized. The one exception has been in the position of commander in
chief of the armed forces, the title given to the
president of the
United States by the Constitution. The National Security Act of July 16, 1947, as amended in 1949, established a Department of the Army along with a Department of the
navy and a Department of the
air force, within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The Department of the Army is headed by a civilian, the secretary of the army; his principal military advisor is the
chief of staff of the army, a four-
star general who is the army's senior military officer. The army
chief of staff is also a member of the Joint
chiefs of Staff, along with his counterparts from the
navy and
air force; the Joint
chiefs of Staff is the principal military advisory body to the secretary of defense and the
president.The U.S. Army is organized into nine major commands plus others that belong to unified land, sea, and air commands. The first and largest of the commands is the Forces Command; it is responsible for all army forces, including reserve forces, within the territorial
United States. The Forces Command is composed of three areas. The First U.S. Army Area, encompassing the eastern
United States, has its headquarters at Fort George G. Meade, Md. The Fifth U.S. Army Area includes the
Central portion of the
United States, with headquarters at Fort Sam
Houston, Tex., and the Sixth U.S. Army Area includes the western states, with headquarters at the Presidio of San Francisco, Calif.
