The more ethnic hierarchy in an army, the worse its battlefield performance since 1800: lopsided casualties, mass desertion and defection, shooting your own soldiers. (Diversity was bad for asabiyyah, so group selection favored unified nations.) Interesting thread:https://twitter.com/jaylyall_red5/status/1227207549482565632 …
Hannibal's infantry were mostly Iberian natives, his cavalry Numidian. Somehow he made it work. Likewise, Wellington's NW Euro coalition held the line well at Waterloo. Unspoken factor is that multi-ethnic armies contain soldiers that suck even when they're on their own.
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They worked amazingly. And still couldn't crush Rome who enacted Soviet level draft and economic measures. The mercenaries inflicted so many casualties that battlefields like Cannae would not be seen until the days of rifles. And still Rome had won
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