#536 | A Brief History of Mercenaries
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Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds by Leonardo English, the show where you can listen to fascinating stories and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English. I'm Alistair Budge, and today we are going to be talking about the history of mercenaries. It's a fascinating story.

and will take us from the Italian Renaissance to the Iraq War to modern-day Ukraine. We will explore how the nature of mercenaries has evolved over time, the changing reasons to use or not to use mercenary forces, and what this means for the grim business of warfare in the 21st century.

But before we get right into all of that bellicose stuff, I want to remind you that you can become a member of Leonardo English and follow along with the interactive transcript and subtitles over on the website, which is leonardoenglish.com. Membership of Leonardo English gives you access to more than double the number of episodes, plus all of our learning materials, including instant translations in 12 languages, study packs, and much, much more.

So, if you are ready to take the next step on your English learning journey, the place to go is LeonardoEnglish.com. Alright then, let's get cracking and talk about the history of mercenaries. In 2016, Forbes magazine published an article titled "The Rise of the Freelancer Economy". In it, the author wrote, and I'm quoting directly,

Who says you can't drive an Uber in the morning, design websites all afternoon, and cater your own food company at night? He went on to claim that by the year 2020, 50% of the US workforce would be freelance. Now, this hasn't happened. The true number is around 38%.

And, in fact, the idea of this being "new" or "on the rise" is also somewhat problematic. Even the word "freelance" in English gives us a clue about the age of the idea of not being tied to one boss or master.

it was coined in the early nineteenth century but to refer to european knights in the medieval era who were not ideologically or politically aligned with any one ruler and who would fight for money

They often carried lances, which are the long, pointy spears that they would hold out in front of their galloping horses. And these lances were free, or at least freely available to the highest bidder, the person who was prepared to pay the most money. These free lances are what we might today call mercenaries, professional soldiers who fight on behalf of whoever will pay.

Now, the term 'mercenary' is also a little problematic, and we will come to discuss the different types of mercenaries as we move through the episode. And of course, the idea of someone being a mercenary did not start in the medieval era or in Europe. There is evidence of mercenary fighters all over the world and throughout history: ancient Persia, Carthage, Qin Dynasty China and ancient Egypt.

It made sense back then, just as it does in some cases now. Keeping a fully trained army was, and still is, a very expensive thing to do, especially for a small state.

And before the idea of nationhood that we have today, before this notion of nationality and belonging to a country, it was understandably harder to convince someone to fight and die on a battlefield. For what? For glory? For loyalty to a ruler they would almost certainly never meet?

The Roman poet Horace famously wrote "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" – "It is sweet and right to die for one's homeland". This might make for a nice line in a poem, but the reality of convincing someone to risk their life for an abstract ideal like glory or loyalty, especially before the modern idea of nationhood, well, it was difficult.

But how about fighting for money? Money was universal. It talked then, just as it talks now. Throughout history, there have been people willing to lay their lives on the line. For a fee, of course.

Now, to explore the idea of mercenaries, we are going to focus on three particular groups of mercenaries. One hundreds of years old, another three decades old, and another where the story is unfortunately still unfolding. Our first stop on this mercenary tour is Renaissance Italy.

Renaissance Italy was a chaotic place. It was not the unified country we know today, but a collection of city-states: Venice, Florence, Milan, the Papal States, Naples, each one with its own ruler, ambitions and often enemies. These city-states were frequently at war with each other, whether over trade, territory or sheer political rivalry. But there was one big problem:

Maintaining a standing army was expensive, and these city-states, wealthy as they were, preferred to spend their money on art, architecture and trade. So, instead of building their own armies, they turned to mercenaries. These mercenaries were organised into companies led by people called condottieri. The word condottieri comes from the Italian word condotta,

which means conduct or behaviour in modern Italian, but in the Renaissance era meant contract or agreement. These condottieri were leaders of mercenary bands, hired through a formal contract to fight on behalf of a city-state. They were professional soldiers who would hire out their services to the highest bidder.

They didn't fight for loyalty, honour or patriotism. They fought for money. And for the rulers of Renaissance Italy, this arrangement worked well, at least in theory. But there was a catch. These condottieri weren't exactly loyal. If one city-state offered them a better deal, they might abandon their current employer, or worse, turn against them.

One example of this was a man called Francesco Sforza, who was one of the most famous condottieri of the 15th century. In the 1440s, Sforza was hired by the city of Milan to defend it against its rivals. But rather than simply doing his job, Sforza saw an opportunity.

He betrayed Milan's rulers, used his mercenary army to seize control of the city and declared himself Duke of Milan. As you might imagine, for the condottieri, their primary driver was maximising their profit. So, unlike modern armies, the condottieri didn't necessarily aim to win battles quickly or decisively.

There was little advantage to be had in slaughtering your enemy and completely eliminating the threat, as is often the goal in modern combat scenarios. Doing this could well mean that you'd be out of your job, because your master might well say, "Okay then, great job, you can go now, your services are no longer required." So, many of them preferred to drag out conflicts because it meant longer contracts and more money.

And battles were often avoided altogether. Instead, the condottieri would rely on sieges, ambushes and psychological tactics to wear down their opponents. This style of warfare was pragmatic and cost-effective for the mercenaries, but often frustrating for the rulers who hired them. And when there were battles, they often weren't battles as you might think of them.

One famous example of this came from a place called Anghiari. Anghiari is a wonderful Tuscan hill town, but it is a sleepy place. There are more residents who are over the age of 75 than are under 18, and not an awful lot happens there. It is perhaps most famous for the Battle of Anghiari, which took place in 1440.

It was fought between forces loyal to the Duchy of Milan and a consortium of fighters loyal to Florence, the Papal States and Venice. The battle involved thousands of soldiers, lasted an entire day and was commemorated in a painting by Leonardo da Vinci in which fearsome warriors tussle with each other on top of magnificent horses. The reality though

is that there was about as much blood spilt in the Battle of Anghiari as there is on a typical day in Anghiari in 2025. None. So the legend goes, despite the thousands of soldiers, there was only one death, and this was from someone who accidentally fell off their horse. The battle was fought by condottieri, and they simply had little interest in killing each other.

Everyone would be far better off if they pretended to fight a little and they could return to their masters with a large invoice and the prospect of more work to come. Now, this was an extreme example, but it is reflective of the often misalignment of interests between the mercenary and his master. And by the late 15th century, the golden age of the condottieri was coming to an end.

There were several reasons for this decline. First, the rise of more centralised states like France and Spain. This brought larger, more disciplined armies to Italy. These national armies didn't rely on mercenaries. They had received better training, were loyal to the states, and often more effective in battle.

Second, the unpredictable and self-serving nature of the condottieri made them a liability. While they've been useful in the fragmented world of Renaissance Italy, they were no match for the organised, professional forces that began to dominate European warfare.

Finally, the development of new military technologies, such as firearms and cannons, required specialised training and coordination. It was something that mercenary bands were not equipped to handle. Despite their decline, the Condottieri left a lasting mark on the history of warfare.

They were some of the first to formalise the idea of a professional fighting force, complete with contracts and structured payment systems. Now, for our second mercenary group, we're going to move forward almost to the present day.

Our next stop takes us to the late 20th and early 21st centuries, where we find a new type of mercenary emerging. Not roaming soldiers with lances, but organised corporate entities offering military services for a profit. Among these, one name stands out – Blackwater.

Blackwater was founded in 1997 by a man named Eric Prince, a former US Navy SEAL. He had spent two years in the SEALs before dropping out to start a company that he initially thought would focus on training for special operations.

Helped, in no small part, by the fact that his father sold a company for over a billion dollars, the young prince bought 24 square kilometres of swampland in North Carolina. The idea was simple: he had this massive swathe of land, and his company would train law enforcement officers in key special operations techniques. And, initially, this is what Blackwater did.

But in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks in 2001, Blackwater's business transformed almost overnight. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq created an enormous demand for private contractors, and Blackwater was quick to position itself as a key player. The company didn't just provide training anymore.

It started offering security services, logistical support, and even armed combat capabilities. Soldiers, essentially. At the height of the Iraq War, Blackwater became one of the most prominent private military companies in the world, securing lucrative contracts from the US government. At one point, it was reported that Blackwater personnel outnumbered American troops in some regions of Iraq.

This was a new kind of mercenary force: corporate, professional and deeply tied to modern warfare's complex logistics. However, with this rise to prominence came controversy. In 2007, Blackwater contractors were involved in an incident that became infamous: the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad.

During a security mission, Blackwater guards opened fire on a crowded intersection, killing 17 Iraqi civilians and injuring many more. The event sparked international outrage and led to accusations that private contractors like Blackwater lacked the accountability of regular armed forces, operated with impunity, and existed outside the bounds of military law.

And this is an interesting point: mercenaries are considered differently from ordinary soldiers when it comes to international law. Under the Geneva Convention, they are not considered lawful combatants, so they don't receive the same protections. Now, there are all sorts of loopholes here about who is and who isn't a mercenary, and the definition isn't always so clear.

To give you an example, let's just take the same person. Bill is a United States citizen. He signs up for the regular army, he receives a salary, and he is sent to war. Bill is a regular soldier, not a mercenary. But let's say that Bill leaves the regular army and joins a company like Blackwater.

He still receives a salary, and he is sent to war. Or, probably more accurately, he is sent to provide security services in a war zone. It's still the same bill. He's still in the same place, fighting for the same United States. Is he now a mercenary, just because his contract is with a private company rather than with the United States government? And therefore, should he be treated differently when it comes to international law?

As you can see, the lines aren't always so clear. But back to Blackwater. After the controversy of the Nisour Square massacre and growing criticism about how much money it was making from the US government, it rebranded itself several times and has been sold and repackaged on numerous occasions.

Today, it operates as part of a holding group called Constellis, and it is perhaps the most prominent example of the privatisation and commercialisation of war. But Blackwater is far from the only example of modern mercenaries, or private military contractors, PMCs for short.

Our final stop takes us to the modern day and one of the most controversial mercenary groups in the world, the Wagner Group. If Blackwater represented the corporate face of modern mercenaries, Wagner is something altogether different. A shadowy organisation that blends private military operations with state interests, operating in a legal and ethical grey zone.

The Wagner Group emerged in 2014 during Russia's annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine. It was founded by a man named Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close ties to Vladimir Putin, and Dmitry Utkin, a former officer in Russia's military intelligence service.

Officially, Wagner is a private military company, a PMC, but in practice it operates as an unofficial arm of the Russian government, carrying out missions that Moscow cannot officially acknowledge. It first gained international attention for its role in Ukraine, where its fighters were involved in key battles in the Donbas region. These mercenaries were well-equipped and well-trained,

They were often recruited from Russian special forces, or veterans of elite military units. Unlike regular soldiers, Wagner's troops operated with plausible deniability, allowing Russia to maintain a degree of separation from their actions.

The use of Wagner troops also meant that Putin could delay his partial mobilisation, the calling up of reservist troops from the general population, and thus continue his claim that this was not a war that would affect the regular Russian population. As you may know, that didn't last particularly long, just seven months after the invasion. But Wagner's activities extend far beyond Ukraine.

The group has been involved in conflicts across the Middle East and Africa, often aligning itself with regimes that Russia seeks to support. In Syria, Wagner fought alongside forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, securing oil fields and other strategic assets.

In Africa, Wagner has operated in countries like Libya, Sudan and the Central African Republic, providing security for unstable governments in exchange for access to valuable resources such as gold and diamonds. And while Wagner's fighters are technically private contractors, their close ties to the Kremlin make them much more than just a mercenary force.

They function as a tool of Russian foreign policy, extending Moscow's influence in regions where it has strategic or economic interests. This dual role, as both a profit-driven organisation and a geopolitical instrument, sets Wagner apart from other PMCs like Blackwater. But it is not the only difference.

The level of violence Wagner seems prepared to use puts it in another category altogether. Yes, Blackwater contractors clearly did awful things in Iraq, but the ongoing conduct of Wagner soldiers is in another league. The group has been accused of committing war crimes, including targeting civilians, extrajudicial killings and torture.

One of the most infamous incidents involves a video of Wagner operatives allegedly using a sledgehammer to execute a Syrian prisoner. It is grim stuff indeed. And while it might have been more distance, at an arm's length from the Russian state, Wagner is reportedly now even more closely tied to the Kremlin.

As you may remember, in June 2023, the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, launched a rebellion and marched towards Moscow, before backing down and apparently solving his issues with Putin.

Clearly, these issues were not solved, as Prigozhin died in a plane crash a few months later. And what this has meant, according to many Russia watchers, is that Wagner has more closely integrated with the regular Russian forces. They are still in Ukraine, they are still in Africa, they are still in the Middle East, and still often operate in this grey zone.

part private military company, part state actor, and able to shift between the two when the need arises. Now, to wrap things up, from Renaissance Italy to modern paramilitaries, one thing is clear: the idea of soldiers for hire is anything but new. Money, as they say, talks, and it speaks loudly on the battlefield.

Renaissance condottieri, corporate PMCs and modern-day groups like Wagner all show us different faces of the same truth: war, for some, is just another business. As long as there is money to be made, there will always be someone willing to fight.

Okay then, that is it for today's episode on mercenaries. I hope it's been an interesting one and that you've learned something new. As always, I would love to know what you thought about this episode. Are there any linguistic influences from the world of mercenaries that have entered your language? How do you think mercenaries should be treated in the eyes of the law? I would love to know, so let's get this discussion started.

For the members among you, you can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds. And as a final reminder, if you enjoyed this episode and you are wondering how to more than double the number of episodes you can get, plus learn with our interactive transcripts, subtitles and key vocabulary, then the place to go for that is leonardoenglish.com.au.

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