standing army

Examples of standing army in the following topics:

• Centralization in the Maurya Empire

  • These were ruled by powerful regional chieftains with small armies that engaged in internecine warfare.
  • The Mauryan Army eliminated regional chieftains, private armies, and even gangs of bandits, who sought to impose their own supremacy in small areas.
  • The Mauryan Army, the largest standing military force of its time, supported the expansion and defense of the empire.
  • Although Emperor Ashoka renounced offensive warfare and expansionism, he maintained this standing army to protect the empire from external threats and maintain stability and peace across Western and Southern Asia.

• The Qin Dynasty

  • The nation's first standing army, possibly consisting of millions, guarded the wall from northern invaders.
  • This terracotta army was rediscovered in the twentieth century.
  • A close-up of two soldiers in the terracotta army.

• The Mongols in Eastern Europe

  • The Mongols continued to invade Central Europe with three armies.
  • One army defeated the fragmented Poland at the Battle of Legnica in 1241.
  • Two days later the armies regrouped and crushed the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohi, killing up to a quarter of the population and destroying as much as half of the habitable dwellings.
  • This decisive victory was partially due to the fact that Hungary was unprepared for an invasion and did not having a standing army ready to fight.
  • This particular city defeated the Mongol army in 1242.

• Rise of the Ming Dynasty

  • Ming rule saw the construction of a vast navy and a standing army of one million troops.
  • The monastery where Zhu lived was eventually destroyed by an army that was suppressing a local rebellion.
  • After the dynastic head of the Red Turbans suspiciously died in 1367 while a guest of Zhu, Zhu made his imperial ambitions known by sending an army toward the Yuan capital in 1368.
  • Born a poor peasant, he later rose through the ranks of a rebel army and eventually overthrew the Yuan leaders and established the Ming dynasty.

• Ivan the Terrible

  • Revised the law code, the Sudebnik of 1550, which initiated a standing army, known as the streltsy.
  • This army would help him in future military conquests.
  • A faction of Russian supporters were already rising up in the region but Ivan IV led his army of 150,000 to battle in June of 1552.

• The Hundred Years' War

  • By its end, feudal armies had been largely replaced by professional troops, and aristocratic dominance had yielded to a democratization of the manpower and weapons of armies.
  • The wider introduction of weapons and tactics supplanted the feudal armies where heavy cavalry had dominated.
  • The war precipitated the creation of the first standing armies in Western Europe since the time of the Western Roman Empire, composed largely of commoners and thus helping to change their role in warfare.
  • Edward III and his son the Black Prince led their armies on a largely successful campaign across France.

• Military Achievements of the Flavians

  • The triumphal Arch of Titus, which stands at one entrance to the Forum, memorializes the victory of Titus.
  • In the summer of 84, Agricola faced the armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius.
  • Although the Romans inflicted heavy losses on the Calidonians, two thirds of their army managed to escape and hide in the Scottish marshes and Highlands, ultimately preventing Agricola from bringing the entire British island under his control.
  • Again, the Roman army sustained heavy losses, but Trajan succeeded in capturing Sarmizegetusa and, importantly, annexed the gold and silver mines of Dacia.

• The English Protectorate

  • Richard sought to expand the basis for the Protectorate beyond the army to civilians.
  • Richard was unable to manage the Parliament and control the army.
  • By May 1652, Cromwell's Parliamentarian army had defeated the Confederate and Royalist coalition in Ireland and occupied the country—bringing to an end the Irish Confederate Wars (or Eleven Years' War).
  • 'Oliver P,' standing for Oliver Protector, similar in style to English monarchs who signed their names as, for example, 'Elizabeth R' standing for Elizabeth Regina.

• Japanese Expansion

  • The extreme right became influential throughout the Japanese government and society, notably within the Kwantung Army, a Japanese army stationed in China along the Japanese-owned South Manchuria Railroad.
  • During the Manchurian Incident of 1931, radical army officers bombed a small portion of the South Manchuria Railroad and, falsely attributing the attack to the Chinese, invaded Manchuria.
  • The corpses of massacred victims from the Nanking Massacre on the shore of the Qinhuai River with a Japanese soldier standing nearby.

• The Spanish Conquest

  • Between 1529 and 1532 the two brothers' armies waged warfare, with one or the other gaining a stronger foothold for a time.
  • By 1532, Atahualpa had overpowered his brother's forces via intrigue and merciless violence, scaring many local populations away from standing up to his power.
  • Even though the Inca Civl War made it easier for the Spanish armies to gain control initially, many other contributing factors brought about the demise of Inca rule and the crumbling of local populations.