History of military contracts?

[Duty Honor Country]

I just got off staff duty. For all you civilians, staff duty is where you work for a 24 hour period, answering the phones and doing odd and end jobs for the company, battalion of who ever you may be working for. During my time, I had to guard 2 soldiers who came off of AWOL (absent with out leave), and I worked with one soldier who absolutely despised the Army. One of their complaints is that they found out the Army is not for them and they could not "quit" like you can in the civilian world. That got me thinking

In America, our military has always had some type of contract binding a man or women to military service when he/she chooses to serve or if they are forced to serve (Civil War, WWII, and Vietnam). So the origins of the military contract go back quite a ways.

Does anyone know when in history did the first military contract appear?

SGT Doody

 

[CABAL]

In answer to your query:

There are many ancient Armies that have historical records of Agreements. However, the most solid concrete evidence of ancient military contracts dates back in Ancient Rome where Roman Legionnares sign their names onto contracts to agree upon service period, looted goods, and benefits from the government.....or you can say the United States Military has the basic structure of the Roman Army.

Or it can be the Assyrians, Ancient Qin Dynasty Warriors, Ancient Egyptians that has signs of earlier military contracts. However, Ancient History can not be immediately judged because it is based on the stories and observations upon an Artifact. The more discoveries made, the more different history becomes.

I'm not going to go deep into Ancient Warriors/Battles/tactics, however it'll be a great topic to start from the Military History Catalog.

 

[Anya1982]

Didn't contracts start up with the Romans? That they had to serve X amount of years?? Can't rememebr much though.

Uk is the same you have to serve a min. amount of years. Navy is 3yrs and 3 months if you joined at 18.....but if you joined at 16 or 17 that 3 yrs and 3months don't start til you turn 18 so its a con really lol. But then theres the return of service for your trade course etc which start at 6 months................so its a long process lol

 

[Darcia]

I know we had them in America back during the WFI, however I think the Egyptians may have used them during the 1st dynesty. Or maybe it was the 3rd dynesty...

 

[Damien435]

Well, do Mercenaries count? They were payed to fight even though they did not really belong to a country. If Mercenaries count then this goes back quite a long ways, Nubia payed the Israelites and Pheneocians to resist Assyrian expansions and the Nubians were in turn payed by Carthage to fight against Roman expansion hundreds of years later. I believe that the earliest and best documented use of contracts were indeed used in Rome, Egypt and India used them to. But these were hit and miss, the elite of the military and most physically abled. In the Roman Republic a majority of the Army was indeed conscripted but the Centurions, the elite of the elite, were life long soldiers who might have started as conscripts but had survived, and worked their way through the Roman rank structure to become underpayed but highly respected soldiers.