The German 'soldier trade'of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: A reassessment

PH Wilson - The International History Review, 1996 - Taylor & Francis
PH Wilson
The International History Review, 1996Taylor & Francis
THE SO-CALLED German'soldier trade'(Soldatenhandel)-the practice of the lesser German
princes of hiring out their soldiers to other states-is one of the most misunderstood aspects of
early modern European international relations. Traditionally, the German princes are
regarded as having bartered their subjects as soldiers for subsidies to'increase their
revenues and satisfy their taste for luxury'. 1 This interpretation, which has profoundly
influenced die view of die lesser German princes and their role within the Holy Roman …
THE SO-CALLED German'soldier trade'(Soldatenhandel)-the practice of the lesser German princes of hiring out their soldiers to other states-is one of the most misunderstood aspects of early modern European international relations. Traditionally, the German princes are regarded as having bartered their subjects as soldiers for subsidies to'increase their revenues and satisfy their taste for luxury'. 1 This interpretation, which has profoundly influenced die view of die lesser German princes and their role within the Holy Roman Empire and the European states system, is the established one in both scholarly and general works written in German. 2 Similarly, many English-language works mention states such as Hesse-Kassel merely as' exporters of soldiers'. 3 Only recendy has this view been challenged, and only to the extent of re-evaluating a single state while leaving intact the general inter pretation. As many of the assumptions that underpin the prevailing view are based on faulty evidence and misconceptions, a reassessment is needed, one that sets the question widiin the contexts of both German princely politics and European international relations. This article will explain die principal features of the established interpretation and how it was arrived at. Next, it will examine die revisionist works, along with a recent study which seeks to take the debate in a slighdy different direction. Lasdy, it will present an alternative argument Uiat politics radier dian profit
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