Military drivers Notes

What Are Military Drivers?

1. Military power rarely depends on battlefield skill alone.
2. Empires rise, expand, and survive when they solve practical military problems:
   1. how to recruit and organize fighters, how to supply them, how to move them quickly, how to maintain control over conquered populations, and how to combine strength with others when necessary.
   2. These underlying factors are military drivers, the conditions and systems that make sustained military success possible.

How Do Military Drivers Explain How Empires Turn Force Into Control?

1. A useful way to think about military drivers is to separate winning battles from winning empires.
   1. Winning battles requires tactics, leadership, morale, and sometimes luck.
   2. Winning empires requires systems that keep armies ready, supplied, and politically effective over long distances and long time periods
2. A military driver is powerful when it improves one or more of the following:
   1. Speed (moving troops, messages, and supplies faster)
   2. Force Concentration (bringing enough soldiers to the right place)
   3. Sustainability (keeping armies active for years, not weeks)
   4. Internal Control (policing territory and preventing rebellion)

Why Do Standing Armies Increase Readiness, Stability, And Imperial Reach?

1. A standing army changes the basic timing of war.
2. Instead of raising troops only when a threat appears, the state maintains trained forces that can respond immediately.
3. This matters most for empires with many borders, many provinces, and frequent internal security challenges.

Case study

Rome: Professional Service, Standard Organization, And Border Security

• Rome developed a standing army system in 108 BCE.
  • Under this system, male citizens under 45 were eligible for service, and equipment was provided by the government.
  • Soldiers could serve full time for up to 25 years, earning a regular wage.
• A key driver here is not only the size of the force, but its standardized organization:
  • A legion was about 5,000 (including soldiers and support staff)
  • Legions were divided into cohorts (about 500) and centuries (about 100)
  • Each legion was commanded by a general, often responsible to a provincial governor
• At its peak, Rome had about 450,000 soldiers across 33 legions. These forces were distributed across the empire to defend provinces and also to act as a police force.
• Rome also rewarded veterans with farm land after service. Importantly, this land was often near borders, which meant:
  • Veterans could be recalled in emergencies
  • Border regions became more culturally "Roman" over time (through settlement and local influence)

Case study

The Mongols: Full-Time Cavalry Forces And Scalable Command

• The Mongol military driver was a combination of professional full-time soldiers and an extremely scalable system of command.
  • Core units were organized in a base-10 structure (10, 100, 1,000)
  • Armies of 10,000 were called a tumen (mainly cavalry)
  • Each tumen was led by a general selected by the Great Khan
• If a threat was too large for a single tumen, the Great Khan could appoint an orlok, a general placed over other generals to coordinate multiple tumen for a campaign.
• During the time of Genghis Khan, the Mongol army numbered roughly 100,000 to 130,000 full-time professional soldiers.
• All Mongol males were required to serve, with limited exceptions (such as some religious leaders and officials).
• This large standing force contributed to both external security and internal stability, supporting a period of relative peace often called the Pax Mongolica.

How Do Logistics And Infrastructure Turn Distance Into An Advantage?

1. In many empires, the most important military question is not "How strong is our army?" but "Can our army arrive on time and stay supplied?" "Can our army arrive on time and stay supplied?"
2. Infrastructure (especially roads and bridges) is a major military driver because it supports both warfare and governance.

Case study

Roman Roads Support Movement, Trade, And State Control

• The Roman Empire built roads and bridges on an enormous scale, estimated at about 400,000 km across 113 provinces.
• The government treated road building and maintenance as an official responsibility, with specific officials tasked with keeping routes functional.
• Roman roads included features that are easy to overlook but crucial to imperial power:
  • Way stations and inns for travelers (including officials and soldiers)
  • Distance markers to calculate travel and give directions
• In Britain, road construction sometimes used an embankment (agger).
  • This design increased visibility and could give Roman users a height advantage during attacks.
  • Roads through wooded areas also involved clearing land on both sides for security.

Case study

Inca Roads Support Messaging, Redistribution, And Central Control

• The Inca Empire depended on a vast road network linking its territory. By the end of the empire, there were about 40,000 km of roads in use.
• Roads were built and used for religious and government purposes, and the public needed permission to use them, reflecting strong state control.
• A central route, the Qhapaq Ñan (Great Inca road), stretched about 6,000 km, linking north and south to the capital Cusco.
• The Inca used roads for rapid communication and transport:
  • Chasqui (human runners) carried messages and goods
  • Pack animals such as llamas and alpacas carried supplies (but were not used for riders)
  • The wheel was not used for transport, so there were no wagons or carts
• A major logistical driver was state redistribution supported by large storage facilities along roads, allowing supplies to be moved to areas in need.

How Do Technology And Innovation Reshape Costs, Training, And Social Structure?

1. Military innovations are not just "better weapons." They often change:
   1. the economics of war (who can afford the system)
   2. the training demands (who can use it effectively)
   3. the social structure (new elite warrior groups)

Chariot warfare: high cost, high skill, and a warrior class

1. Chariot warfare in the second millennium BCE illustrates how innovations can drive state expansion.
2. Chariotry was extremely expensive because it required:
   1. skilled craft specialists (wheelwrights, joiners, tanners, smiths) with workshops
   2. extensive horse support systems (trainers, grooms, stable-boys, veterinarians)
   3. large resource bases (pasture and grain fields)
   4. highly trained crews (driver and archer)
3. The skill demands were so high that some scholars have questioned whether an archer could shoot effectively from a moving chariot.
   1. Yet historical evidence indicates that trained warriors learned to do this through long practice.
4. A key interpretation is that an empire may have been needed to economically support the cost of chariot warfare, along with the specialist production and training that came with it.
   1. This can produce a new warrior class supported by the state.

Why Do Alliances Multiply Strength But Also Shape Outcomes And Risks?

1. Alliances are a military driver because they change the balance of power without requiring one state to immediately increase its own army size.
2. Alliances can provide:
   1. additional troops and resources
   2. strategic positioning and access to territory
   3. legitimacy and shared cause
3. They also introduce risks, such as dependence on partners and being drawn into wars you did not choose.

Case study

The Medes–Babylon Alliance And The Fall Of The Neo-Assyrian Empire

• As the Neo-Assyrian Empire weakened, rebellions occurred.
• The Medes (based in today's Iran) and the Babylonians (in today's southern Iraq) formed an alliance in 616 BCE to fight the Assyrians.
• In response, the Neo-Assyrian Empire formed an alliance with Egypt.
• Over the next 12 years, these coalitions fought all-out war.
• Key events show how alliances can accelerate imperial collapse:
  • 614 BCE: the Assyrian capital Assur was destroyed by the Medes
  • 612 BCE: Nineveh (a major global city at the time) was captured after a three-month siege and destroyed, with people killed or sent into forced labor
  • 609 BCE: an Egyptian army moved to help its Assyrian ally, defeating an army from the Kingdom of Judah (a Babylonian ally) at the Battle of Megiddo
  • 609 BCE: the Assyrian capital Harran was destroyed by Median and Babylonian armies, ending the Neo-Assyrian Empire

What Is A Simple Framework You Can Use For Analysis?

1. The most effective imperial militaries combine drivers into a reinforcing system:
2. Standing armies provide readiness and internal control.
   1. Infrastructure and logistics allow movement, supply, and communication over distance.
   2. Innovation can provide an advantage, but also creates new costs and demands.
   3. Alliances can shift the balance of power quickly, for both expansion and resistance.