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    The Financial Incentives of War: Volunteers to Fight Our Wars, #2
    The Financial Incentives of War: Volunteers to Fight Our Wars, #2
    The Financial Incentives of War: Volunteers to Fight Our Wars, #2
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    The Financial Incentives of War: Volunteers to Fight Our Wars, #2

    By Martina Sprague

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    There are essentially two ways to staff the armies of the world: conscription and voluntary service. Military service is a genuinely popular choice for young men in districts afflicted by poverty. Financial incentives, such as enlistment bonuses or promises of an education, may also lure those from slightly more favorable economic backgrounds into the armed forces. Perhaps not as common knowledge is the fact that governments have used similar tactics in their attempts to get foreign governments to commit forces to war for a common objective. Some men also volunteer in foreign armies because of ideological reasons, to flee a life of crime, or to satisfy some personal aim. Well-paid mercenaries, however, are motivated by their personal acquisitions, mostly in the form of money and not in what they can do for the state.

    This book examines poverty and the effects of financial need on voluntary military enlistment; financial incentives such as promises of enlistment bonuses and an education; and mercenaries and private contractors lured into military service by the promise of large sums of money. The material in this book is excerpted from For God, Gold, and Glory: A History of Military Service and Man’s Search for Power, Wealth, and Adventure, also by Martina Sprague. The full series comprises the following books:

    1. The Forces of War: Patriotism, Tradition, and Revenge

    2. The Financial Incentives of War: Poverty Draft, Mercenaries, and Volunteers in Foreign Armies

    3. The Propaganda of War: Personal Transformation and the Search for Adventure

    4. The Glory of War: The Way to Historical Immortality

    5. The Reality of War: Boredom, Disillusion, and Desertion

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMartina Sprague
    Release dateApr 23, 2018
    ISBN9781386533382
    The Financial Incentives of War: Volunteers to Fight Our Wars, #2
    Author

    Martina Sprague

    Martina Sprague grew up in the Stockholm area of Sweden. She has a Master of Arts degree in Military History from Norwich University in Vermont and has studied a variety of combat arts since 1987. As an independent scholar, she writes primarily on subjects pertaining to military and general history, politics, and instructional books on the martial arts. For more information, please visit her website: www.modernfighter.com.

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      Book preview

      The Financial Incentives of War - Martina Sprague

      Table of Contents

      The Financial Incentives of War: Poverty Draft, Mercenaries, and Volunteers in Foreign Armies (Volunteers to Fight Our Wars, #2)

      POVERTY AND MILITARY ENLISTMENT

      FINANCIAL AND MATERIAL INCENTIVES

      MERCENARIES AND VOLUNTEERS IN FOREIGN ARMIES

      The Financial Incentives of War

      Poverty Draft, Mercenaries, and Volunteers in Foreign Armies

      ––––––––

      by Martina Sprague

      Copyright 2013 Martina Sprague

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the author.

      ––––––––

      Acknowledgements:

      Front cover image source: Image source: Davric, reproduced under Wikimedia Commons license.

      Image source for horse logo (slightly adapted) on back cover: CoralieM Photographie, reproduced under Wikimedia Commons license.

      INTRODUCTION

      ––––––––

      Herodotus, the great Greek historian of the Greco-Persian Wars of the fifth century BCE, believed that revenge [sometimes divine], kinship, and obligation were key motivating forces that assisted men in their decisions to go to war.¹ But the idea that man’s enthusiasm for military service is based on a love of country or a hatred of the enemy can prove misleading. Service in the armed forces is also a popular choice for men afflicted by poverty. Indeed, ‘marginalized’ socioeconomic areas have traditionally provided disproportionate numbers of recruits for all conflicts, including quite modern wars.² The inequities of the Selective Service System have allowed well-to-do college students to escape the draft. The Vietnam War was fought largely by working-class or rural youth draftees, many of whom never finished high school.³

      The effect a man’s financial situation has on the likelihood that he will enter military service does not apply only to North America, but was evident long before the war in Southeast Asia. In the Viking Age (c. 793-1066), for example, sailing opened the way to adventure. Some Norsemen saw it as an opportunity to follow their dreams and escape the boredom of everyday life; others viewed it as a necessity when the population had grown too large for the land to support. Still others sailed as a result of being excluded from their family’s inheritance. If a Viking man had older siblings, not much would be left for him at home in terms of inheritance. Piracy was a good alternative and could be used as a possible get-rich-quick scheme. No matter how one viewed it, sailing in the Viking Age gave a man better opportunities to improve his lot in life.⁴

      In mid-nineteenth century America, economic factors often proved foremost in a man’s decision to enlist. Laborers who lost their jobs during economic depressions sometimes turned to the army in desperation, while immigrants were frequently destitute when they arrived at a seaport city.⁵ The Soviet Union experienced similar concerns at the outbreak of World War II, when one of the best routes to a richer life, at least for those of humble origin, was military service.⁶ By contrast, men of wealth and status have historically been exempt from military service in most countries of the world, choosing instead to fulfill their duty to the state by paying a substitute to take their place. For example, as late as the 1890s, Sweden granted a conscript the option to hire a mercenary in his stead, as long as the mercenary was between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-seven. If he had prior military experience, the maximum age was forty. This option did not really prove helpful for calming the discontent among the commoners, because only the financially established elite could afford the hired mercenary.⁷

      The United States resorted to similar enlistment strategies. During the conscription efforts in World War I, the complex quota system that the War Department employed resulted in that an estimated 500,000 of the volunteers could be counted as substitutes for potential draftees.⁸ The prospect of financial gain has also lured those from slightly more favorable economic backgrounds into military service. In the summer of 2007 the U.S. Army offered a twenty thousand dollar Quick Shipper enlistment bonus to those willing to answer the army’s call to duty and ship out for training within thirty days, with possible service in Iraq or Afghanistan. Nineteen year old Willard McCormick admitted that he was bored with life on his family’s South Carolina horse farm, and that the commitment to join the military got a whole lot easier in light of the twenty thousand dollar bonus. Although not necessary for survival in his case, the financial incentive helped solidify the decision.⁹

      In addition to offering recruits financial incentives, such as cash bonuses and the promise of a college education, countries in most parts of the world have relied on mercenary soldiers for centuries, and continue to do so today. The mercenary finds it difficult to turn down an opportunity to make more money in one month than he can hope to make in a full year in a civilian job.¹⁰ The use of mercenaries can also lead to a swelling of armed strength. A wealthy state [can] raise a professional force larger than any citizen army and of equal or superior quality.¹¹ In 2006 Britain employed an estimated twenty-one thousand mercenaries working for British firms in Iraq, compared to seventy-two hundred active duty British troops.¹² With respect to American involvement in the Middle East in 2007, according to Central Command, 137,000 private contractors are working in Iraq under Defense Department contracts. This mercenary force is larger than the number of troops employed by the U.S. Armed Forces.¹³

      Mercenary service has historically allowed men to alleviate both poverty and hunger. Unlike regular volunteer or conscripted armies, mercenaries do not fight from a sense of patriotic duty. While some mercenaries simply see themselves as soldiers, they have historically been motivated by their personal acquisitions, mostly in the form of money and not in what they can do for the state. If the enemy offers more pay or better conditions, a mercenary might switch sides in the

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