HKB
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Often appears with: military discipline and training · forms of government · siege and fortification · warlike passions · trade, markets, and merchants · strategy and the aims of war · state constitutional practice · shift toward monarchy · shift from legislative authority · security vs liberty tradeoff · second punic war · roman conquest of macedon
Usually: argument (6) · detachment (3) · censure (2) · exhortation (2) · indignation (2) · crisis of belief (1) · injustice endured (1) · the fall of the great (1)
“It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.” Alexander Hamilton; John Jay; James Madison, The Federalist Papers · insight
“Militarism dominates and devours Europe. But this militarism has in it the seeds of its own destruction.” Friedrich Engels, Landmarks of Scientific Socialism: "Anti-Duehring" · observation
Hamilton argues that frequent wars and constant threats would drive states to standing armies and strengthen executives, edging republics toward monarchy, with the risk that people trade freedom for safety.
to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free. The institutions chiefly alluded to are STANDING ARMIES and the correspondent appendages of military establishments. Standing armies, it is said, are not provided against in the new Constitution; and it is therefore inferred that they may exist under it…
Hamilton claims that restraining legislative authority on defense comes from an overzealous liberty zeal, argues most states reject it, and maintains that experience shows stronger government is essential to the community’s welfare.
system, we may travel from one chimerical project to another; we may try change after change; but we shall never be likely to make any material change for the better. The idea of restraining the legislative authority, in the means of providing for the national defense, is one of those refinements which owe their origin to a zeal for liberty more ardent than enlightened. We have seen, however, that it has not had thu…
He argues that frequent interstate wars would lead to standing armies, strengthen the executive toward monarchy, and shift the balance from legislative authority, whereas permanent European-style defense structures have kept invasions slower.
to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free. The institutions chiefly alluded to are STANDING ARMIES and the correspondent appendages of military establishments. Standing armies, it is said, are not provided against in the new Constitution; and it is therefore inferred that they may exist under it…
He claims democratic nations desire peace because property and equality weaken warlike passions, yet they still need standing armies, whose officers and soldiers behave differently in democratic versus aristocratic settings.
And Democratic Armies Of War The same interests, the same fears, the same passions which deter democratic nations from revolutions, deter them also from war; the spirit of military glory and the spirit of revolution are weakened at the same time and by the same causes. The ever-increasing numbers of men of property--lovers of peace, the growth of personal wealth which war so rapidly consumes, the mildness of manners…
Smith continues that after the Second Punic War Rome fielded standing armies, conquering Macedon and usually defeating Greek, Syrian, and Egyptian militias, while noting limitations in conquering Parthia and Germany.
joined it, and, at the battle of Zama, composed the greater part of the troops of Annibal. The event of that day determined the fate of the two rival republics. From the end of the second Carthaginian war till the fall of the Roman republic, the armies of Rome were in every respect standing armies. The standing army of Macedon made some resistance to their arms. In the height of their grandeur, it cost them two grea…
Engels argues that the Franco-German War marks a new era: modern weapons close the “progress” in field tactics, militarism burdens states, yet also trains the masses to overthrow standing armies through socialism.
soldier was again cleverer than his officer; he had discovered the only form of fighting formation, and set himself to follow it in spite of the resistance of his leaders. In the Franco-German war there is a point of departure of entirely different significance from all preceding wars. In the first place the weapons are now so complete that a new revolutionary departure in this respect is no longer possible. When yo…