There are facts in the history of European wars that people try to keep silent about. This is, in particular, the trade in soldiers.
It all began in the era of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), when individual rulers in Europe, not having their own army, bought mercenaries. The practice has become ubiquitous. In 1675, the Venetian Doges needed to seize some territories in Greece, and they turned to the warlike Saxons for help. Elector Johann George III of Saxony sold 3000 trained recruits for 120 thousand thalers.
In German history, the initiator of the new Gescheft was the bishop of Münster, Christoph Bernhard von Galen, who maintained his own army of many thousands, drawn from mercenaries. Von Galen was a militant Catholic bishop. With sword and fire, he destroyed all heresy, especially attacked the Protestants expelled from France. His mercenary army actively participated in the battles of the Thirty Years War.
Maintaining a mercenary army is an expensive task, even many electors cannot afford it. The bishop succeeded in this matter, they turned to him with requests to sell the brave military men with ammunition, and his treasury was replenished.
The bishop's experience was not in vain. He was succeeded by the German Landgrave Karl von Hesse-Kassel. He, like von Galen, took great care of his army and multiplied it in every possible way. The Landgrave took part in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), as he believed that he was worthy to take the throne of the Spanish king along a distant family line. He also traded in soldiers, offering them for good sums to the rulers of other countries.
The price depended on many factors: age, experience, availability of weapons and was approximately 400 thalers. It is quite natural that the landgrave never asked about the desire of the soldiers themselves to serve a foreign king and die for him. Therefore, the recruitment of recruits for the army was accompanied by lamentation and crying in German families - they lost their breadwinners.
However, the largest trade in soldiers was recorded during the Revolutionary War in North America, called the American Revolution in the United States (1775-1783). The war arose between Great Britain and adherents of the British crown, on the one hand, and revolutionaries, patriots, representatives of 13 English colonies, on the other, who proclaimed independence from Great Britain and created their union state.
Soldiers were required to wage war. And the British King George III was to send his soldiers from England to distant America. There were no volunteers. Then the idea arose to send mercenaries to suppress the revolutionaries. Landgraves and electors of the German lands, mainly from Hesse-Kassel, the Duchy of Nassau, Waldeck, the County of Ansbach-Bayreuth, the Duchy of Braunschweig and the Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst, expressed a desire to recruit and sell them. In total, they have collected 30 thousand young guys. It was estimated that the principality of Hesse-Kassel contributed more than 16,000 soldiers to the war in America, which is why Americans sometimes referred to all German units as "Hessians". George III paid £ 8 million for this army.
The officers of the Hessian army most often graduated from the Karolinum College at the University of Hesse-Kassel. They approached studies there (especially from 1771) very thoroughly. So, the officers - the Hessians, it turned out to be impossible to surprise on the battlefield with innovations, they were aware of almost all the latest tactical doctrines. Competition among the commanders of battalions and regiments, knowledge of languages, the ability to read maps and knowledge of sapper business were encouraged.
Hessian soldiers first landed on Staten Island on 15 August 1776. The most famous officer from Hesse-Kassel was General Wilhelm von Kniphausen, who commanded German forces in several major battles. Other notable officers were Colonel Karl von Donop (mortally wounded at the Battle of Red Bank in 1777) and Colonel Johann Roll, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Trenton in 1776.
A detachment of Hessian mercenaries led by Johann Roll was defeated by American rebels on December 25, 1776 near Trenton. An experienced warrior, Roll was confident that he would be able to defeat the rebellious American colonists. Therefore, when on the evening of December 25, 1776, a dispatch was delivered to him with the news that an enemy detachment was crossing the Delaware River a few miles from Trenton, he did not even interrupt the chess game, but casually shoved the dispatch into his jacket pocket. He was opposed by a detachment of a certain George Washington, who was going to swim across the Delaware River in winter. Isn't it funny? The British advanced everywhere, the colonists suffered one defeat after another. In the fall of 1776, fortune smiled at the British. The Americans were driven out of New York, and British General Howe drove the colonists further south. If the British had crossed Delaware, the fall of Philadelphia - the capital of a confederation of rebellious states - would have been inevitable. Members of Congress have already begun to flee from there. In England they looked forward to a quick victory over the rebels. Washington understood that it would not be able to stop the British offensive, so the only way to raise the army's morale remained was to strike a sudden blow and prevent collapse, and then a turning point in the course of the war would come, or …
The Hessians were smashed to smithereens, many were taken prisoner. By the way, Roll is from Hesse, earlier fought in the ranks of the Russian army as a volunteer under the command of Alexei Orlov against the Turks for the freedom of Greece. In the battle against Washington, he was killed. Roll was not at all afraid of the colonists, although they gave him trouble with their attacks. He arrogantly ignored all orders to strengthen the defense. Roll was convinced that Washington would not dare to leave Pennsylvania, and if it did, the brave Hessians would easily raise the "redneck" with bayonets. In addition, Roll did not want to spoil Christmas for his soldiers and arrange for them to alarm in such a terrible bad weather.
The American victory at Trenton marked the beginning of a strategic turning point in the Revolutionary War. The inhabitants of the 13 rebellious British colonies perked up and drove the British, who from that moment on were only defensive battles. But it is not known how events would have developed if Johann Roll had nevertheless postponed the chess game and prepared for a meeting with the Washington detachment.
After the failed British experience in the war on the American continent, the trade in soldiers began to decline.
After the end of the American Revolution, only 17,000 mercenaries returned to their homeland in Germany, 1,000 died in the fighting, and 7,000 died from illness and accidents. Another 5 thousand remained in America and became part of the American nation.
