5 ms·
> We can fill our stomachs in 5 minutes That is not at all now it has gone for most of human history. Feudalism and its ancient world precursors, an entire rel
by DubiousPusher 3y ago
> We can fill our stomachs in 5 minutes
That is not at all now it has gone for most of human history. Feudalism and its ancient world precursors, an entire religious-social-economic system of vassalage, was necessary concentrate the tiny bits of surplus food into long standing specialized military forces.
- byby 3y agoYeah but this was definitely achieve well before 200 years. Armies existed since the dawn of civilization. We are talking B.C. dates.
- bluGill 3y agoMost armies where farmers who did a little bit of training in their village in the off season. They would be called up for specific battles, given a couple weeks training and then off to battle, those who survived went back home. Very few societies could afford a large standing army. There would be one or two village watchmen to keep watch over night. The king might have a dozen guards that were well trained. The bulk of the army was farmers conscripted a few weeks before at need, and sent back home when done. The economies just couldn't support more when 95% of the total human population had to be a farmer just to grow enough food. There were exceptions. The Romans did manage to hold large standing armies, but they were exceptions.
- Balero 3y agoSo people can fill in 5 mins, whilst the others work to do this. Elephants can't digest enough calorie rich food to be able to do this. They individually have to spend longer eating.
- ant6n 3y agoYet war elephants are a thing.
- gibspaulding 3y agoApparently specifically because of the food issue they weren't generally worth the trouble. ACOUP has a good post about it [1]. TL/DR: For the amount of fodder and manpower you need for one elephant, you can have a lot of traditional horse calvary. [1] https://acoup.blog/2019/08/02/collections-war-elephants-part-ii-elephants-against-wolves/ https://acoup.blog/2019/08/02/collections-war-elephants-part...
- Ensorceled 3y agoWe've had standing armies for almost 3000 years. So, for most of "history".
- DubiousPusher 3y ago> standing armies Armies yes. Standing, not so much no. Human history is 100,000-200,000 years. That would be < 3% of human history. To do this, humans had to invent pre-feudal client/vassal networks of specialized food producer and warrior classes. This for the very reason that most humans had to spend most of their time in the act of producing food.
- numtel 3y agoHistory is considered to be since the invention of writing. (<10000 years) Anything before that is pre-history.
- starbase 3y agoWe've always been able to eat that quickly. If you're suggesting there wouldn't be enough food to feed an army of humans, need I remind you that elephants are made of meat?