What was the significance of the mercenary?

mercenary, hired professional soldier who fights for any state or nation without regard to political interests or issues. From the earliest days of organized warfare until the development of political standing armies in the mid-17th century, governments frequently supplemented their military forces with mercenaries.

What were German mercenaries called?

Hessians
The term “Hessians” refers to the approximately 30,000 German troops hired by the British to help fight during the American Revolution. They were principally drawn from the German state of Hesse-Cassel, although soldiers from other German states also saw action in America.

Why were colonists angry that Great Britain had hired German mercenaries?

Why were colonists angry that Great Britain had hired German mercenaries? German mercenaries had a reputation for being particularly brutal in battle.

Why were mercenaries important in the Renaissance?

This made it possible for rulers to borrow and to hire mercenaries to fight their battles. Mercenaries could take the field for as long as they were paid, allowing kings and princes to mount long campaigns against their rivals and undertake sieges of enemy fortresses.

What is a war mercenary?

A “mercenary” is a person who takes a direct part in hostilities motivated essentially by the desire for private gain. ⇒ A captured mercenary is not a prisoner of war.

What did a mercenary do during the Renaissance?

A mercenary was a solider hired by ruling families or monarch to fight their wars for wealth and territory.

What were medieval mercenaries called?

Routiers
Routiers (French: [ʁutje]) were mercenary soldiers of the Middle Ages. Their particular distinction from other paid soldiers of the time was that they were organised into bands (rutta or routes).

What was the role of foreign mercenaries in the Revolutionary War?

The colonists’ anger toward their mother country using “foreign mercenaries” to subdue them was infuriating and increased military enlistments for the Continental Army. They would then be used as a source of labor while they were prisoners of war, often working on farms.

What happened after the Revolutionary War ended in 1781?

Revolutionary War Draws to a Close (1781-83) By the fall of 1781, Greene’s American forces had managed to force Cornwallis and his men to withdraw to Virginia’s Yorktown peninsula, near where the York River empties into Chesapeake Bay.

What were mercenaries used for in the 12th century?

In the twelfth century mercenaries were mostly used for colonial expansion and for maintaining foreign domination in colonized countries. The Crusades gave rise to a more anarchic form of mercenarism, including postconflict exploits following the emergence of mercenary groups.

Were mercenaries the backbone of the Roman army?

For more than one thousand years mercenaries were the backbone of the army of the Eastern Roman Empire. The rulers of Byzantium and Carthage also relied on the military expertise of foreign soldiers in defending their respective empires.