Recent comments in /f/history

Emotional_Dare5743 t1_j02re62 wrote

Reply to Hurricanes Reveal 19th-Century Shipwreck Hidden Beneath Florida Beach by That-Situation-4262

Florida is festooned with wrecks and buried debris. Many of the folks that lived in Florida during the 1800s and early 1900s built entire houses out of the wreckage of ships and cargo. In the late 1800s the US government even established a series of outposts up the entire East coast of Florida for shipwrecked mariners. They were spaced out in such a way that a sailor wouldn't have to walk more than 5 or 10 miles in any direction without coming to one. The Gulf Stream parallels the East coast of Florida. It was a superhighway of trade during the colonial era and is still a busy body of water.

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War_Hymn t1_j02pdqn wrote

Reply to comment by Regulai in How many knights in Armor would be on a battle field? by autism_guy_69

And even when these peasant-based military forces did exist, the people fielding them eventually realize they were not ideal when fighting had to be done away from the homeland or for an extended time, and start to establish smaller but better trained/equipped forces to replace or supplement them. We see that transition happen in the Heian period of Japan (which saw the rise of the samurai warrior class) and Eastern Han in China.

In the case of early Republican Rome, a free citizen had to have wealth and property amounting to at least 150 drachmae (a silver drachmae at the time amounted to one day's wages for a skilled labourer) to be even considered for military service.

Even with the English archers in the Hundred Years War, most were middle-class gentry/well-to-do peasantry who had the means and income to afford their own military equipment and time to train for war/fight on extended campaign. Or were part of a noble's military retinue who was provided with equipment and income by their liege. With the latter, it'll be rather poor standing for a noble at the time to bring a band of poorly armed, rag-tattered peasants to a fight instead of a loyal/trusted, well-equipped and trained band of retainers.

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