Military recruitment and employment in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, 1500-2000

Erik-Jan ZURCHER, Military recruitment and employment in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, 1500-2000 This paper features an occupational group which was traditionally never studied by labor historians. It is argued that army activities are also a type of work, and therefore that the military ought to be regarded as workers albeit a special category of workers. Based on the research project "Fighting for a Living", the paper tries to discover regularities in the different systems of recruiting and employing soldiers which were practised across the last five centuries by state-directed land armies in Europe, the Middle East, India and China. The broad spectrum of possible labor relations is sketched, and the most important determinants of military employment are explored.