Говори и наслаждайся (Speak and Enjoy). Колодина Н.И - 37 стр.

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During the Middle Ages, societies were based on military relationships, as landowners formed their own foot

armies into which they drafted their tenants and hired hands. The infantry that fought its way forward against

the opposition engaged in heavy ground battles that proved costly in the ratio of losses to wins. These sol-

diers carried darts, javelins, and slings to be used before closing ranks with the enemy, although their swords

and halberds delivered crushing blows on contact. Such armed forces were active for limited periods of time

and had a predominantly defensive function, displayed in hand-to-hand combat.

Because this sporadic and untrained organization was ineffective, the ruling classes began to hire mercenar-

ies who were generously compensated for their tasks and subject to contractual terms of agreement. The

greatest idiosyncrasy of a hired military force was that the troops sometimes deserted their employers if they

could bank on a higher remuneration from the opposition. The Swiss pikemen became the best-known mer-

cenaries of the late Middle Ages. In the 1300s, they practically invented a crude body armor of leather and

quilted layered head gear with nose and skull plates, ornamented with crests. Their tower shields proved in-

dispensable against a shower of arrows, and their helmets progressed from cone cups to visors hinged at the

temples. As their notoriety increased, so did their wages, and eventually they were rounded into military

companies that later grew into the basic units in almost all armies. During the same period, the first full-size

army of professional soldiers emerged in the Ottoman Empire. What set these troops apart from other con-

temporary armies was that these soldiers remained on duty in peacetime.

Companies of mercenaries were employed on a permanent basis in 1445, when King Charles VII created a

regular military organization, complete with a designated hierarchy. Gunpowder accelerated the emergence

of military tactics and strategy that ultimately affected the conceptualization of war on a broad scale. Can-

nons further widened the gap between the attacking and the defending lineups, and undermined the exclusiv-

ity of contact battles.