Re:For Decades, Southern States Saw Thanksgiving as an Act o...
by thaumasiotes on Sunday November 25, 2018 @03:08AM
(#18525921)
> (In a way, this is an amazing thing about modern democracies. The army, in many cases, remains subservient to the civilian state, even when it sure looks like it has a decisive choice in the matter... But, historically, this is the exception, not the rule.)
For Europe. For China, this was the rule. It did lead to some military disasters -- I understand that the Qing conquest of China relied on northern Chinese generals betraying their country -- but soldiers and the military were held in very low esteem and got not much in the way of power or authority. New dynasties were established by force and in that context generals became emperors, but that happened about every 200 years, and it didn't lead to an improvement in the prestige allocated to the military (except under the Mongols, who didn't really buy in to the Chinese system).
For Europe. For China, this was the rule. It did lead to some military disasters -- I understand that the Qing conquest of China relied on northern Chinese generals betraying their country -- but soldiers and the military were held in very low esteem and got not much in the way of power or authority. New dynasties were established by force and in that context generals became emperors, but that happened about every 200 years, and it didn't lead to an improvement in the prestige allocated to the military (except under the Mongols, who didn't really buy in to the Chinese system).