Recruitment in the Themiclesian forces

Recruitment in the Themiclesian forces historically was practiced through a range of systems, directed by the civilian government.  

Terminology

There are two words that roughly mean "recruitment" as applicable to armed forces in Shinasthana. The word trjeng (徵) generally meant a non-voluntary sort of recruitment, while magh (募) usually indicated voluntary ones. However, not all instances of trjeng can be translated as "conscript" or "impress", as it was also used with the mandatory purchase of land and goods by the government; in this sense, the preferred translation is "expropriate" or "exact". In other cases, it may also mean "appoint" or "establish" as in officialdom.

18th century and before

During the early modern period, Themiclesia raised forces that varied by terms of service, specialization, theatre, stationing, ethnicity, and even professional background.

Globally, Themiclesia divided its foreign policy into two large regions—the continent and overseas. The continent encompassed Themiclesia-proper, the Themiclesian desert and steppe, the northeastern plains, the part of Nukkumaa east of the mountain range, Dzhungestan, and Maverica. "Overseas", so named because most of the following regions were accessed by sea, included Nukkumaa west of the mountain range, the Columbian sub-continent, and Meridia. For the longest time, the two regions were thought unrelated, as few states between them had contact, and still less often did alliances or military activity cross this border. As such, the continent was part of the jurisdiction of the Secretary of State for War, and "overseas", that of the Secretary of State for Finance. Both recruited, fielded, and supplied terrestrial and maritime units independently of each other.

During the 18th century, as in many previous ones, men in the Demesne Land aged from 16 to 60 were, as a rule, obliged to perform military and corvée service. Most of them would have been part of the militia system from age 20 to 56, when they would be on duty with others from their home counties for about a month a year. After rudimentary familiarity with weapons, duties ranged policing the neighbourhood, manning checkpoints, protecting local magistrates, executing searches and arrests, or guarding prisons. It was possible to opt-out of the local militia for the payment of a small fine, but participation was incentivized by an allotment of public land to farm and access to forests. There was a marshal appointed in every prefecture and county that oversaw the operation of the local militia. In wartime, the marshals would assemble militia units into an army led by a general appointed for the occasion.

However, as Themiclesia's interests extended into Columbia and Meridia, this model proved inadequate. Militiamen could not be away from their farms for more than a few months at a time, or their land may go to waste; additionally, a fighting militiaman could not produce grains for the government, which hampered the supply of food at the front. While professional soldiers existed as early as the Hexarchy (4th c. BCE to 3rd CE), they were very few and worked as bodyguards or retainers for royalty and aristocracy. In the 6th century, the Capital Defence Force was augmented with about 1,600 soldiers who were provided with a salary for two years of service, in which soldiers could re-enlist indefinitely; however, this force was regarded as a defensive one and rarely saw use in the field. The first standing army, the Colonial Army, was raised in 1323 and fielded in Columbia against the Hallians, who also fielded professional troops and may have inspired the Themiclesians to do likewise.  

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Themiclesian raised more professional troops in krawh (校), usually translated as "regiments", that numbered between 800 and 1200 men each. This was generally held to be a response to the introduction of firearms, which required though new regiments were not all equipped with them.

19th century

Numerous scholars have written about the lack of a national army in Themiclesia until the 1920s at the latest, until the consensus to establish one disseminated from educational institutions to the ranks of the political élite in the second half of the 19th century. The establishment of one was considered politically taboo and dangerous to civil supremacy, and for a time it was associated with political radicalism and revisionist imperialism, which elicited memories of extreme pressure to fund costly and widely-criticized wars.

Aside from sharp reductions across the forces that ended by 1810, reforms of the century concentrated on adjusting the military to suit the new geography and foreign policy, on a strictly limited budget. Experiences of the Second Maverican War led Conservative politicians to identify the large quantity of poorly-led militiamen, which overburdened the treasury, as the primary cause of defeat; secondarily, the government's investment there inhibited the rebuilding of the navy and deprived resources from the Solevent and Camian fronts, which were competently defended compared to the Maverican one. The Army Academy was therefore founded to provide bureaucrats with military knowledge for when they were ordered to lead militiamen into battle. The regular forces were reduced to around 25,000 men, but their training schemes retained. The dual objectives of improving militia leadership and maintaining a small number of regulars formed the military policy of the early 19th century.

In 1850, the Lord of Rjai-lang passed the Commissions Act which restricted new regimental commissions to graduates of the Army Academy. While bureaucrats appointed to militia positions were subject to the same since 1835, the new law required the regular forces to immerse its officers from a new demographic. Conservatives opposed this reform as a deviation from the early policy, but the Liberals argued that the new ideas explored in the Academy should be introduced to the regular forces