Standing army

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Standing army

A standing army is an army

Army

An army , in the broadest sense, is the land-based armed forces of a nation. It may also include other branches of the military such as an air force....
composed of full-time career soldiers who 'stand over', in other words, who do not disband during times of peace. They differ from army reserves who are activated only during such times as war

War

...
or natural disasters. Standing armies tend to be better equipped, better trained, and better prepared for emergencies, defensive deterrence and particularly wars.

The army of ancient Rome is considered to have been a standing army during some of the republic period and especially towards the end of the republic following the Marian Reforms

Marian reforms

The Marian reforms of 107 BC were a group of military reforms initiated by Gaius Marius, a statesman and general of the Roman republic....
in 107BC.

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A standing army is an army

Army

War

Marian reforms

The Marian reforms of 107 BC were a group of military reforms initiated by Gaius Marius, a statesman and general of the Roman republic....
in 107BC. Here Marius abolished the old system of raising a citizen army based on property and replaced it with a professional army based on a period of service. This continued into the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
.

The Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus had a standing army from the 1460's called the Fekete Sereg

Black Army of Hungary

The Black Army - named after their black armor panoply - is in historigraphy the common name given to the excellent quality of diverse and polyglot military forces serving under the reign of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary....
, which was an unusually big army in its age, accomplishing a series of victories and capturing parts of Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
, Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the Capital of Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million...
(1485) and parts of Bohemia

Bohemia

History...
. The first 'modern' standing armies in Europe were the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
, formed in the fourteenth century AD. In western Europe the first standing army was established by Charles VII of France

Charles VII of France

File:Charles VII Franc a cheval 1422 1423.jpgCharles VII , called the Victorious or the Well-Served , was List of French monarchs from 1422 to his death, though he was initially opposed by Henry VI of England, whose Regent ruled much of France from Paris....
in the fifteenth century. The establishment of a standing army in Britain

Early Modern Britain

Early Modern Britain is the history of Great Britain, roughly corresponding to the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Major historical events in Early Modern British history include the English Renaissance, the English Reformation and Scottish Reformation, the English Civil War, the Restoration of Charles II of England, the Glorious Revolution,...
in 1685 by King James II

James II of England

James II and VII was List of English monarchs, List of Scottish monarchs, and King of Ireland from 6 February 1685. He was the last Roman Catholic Church monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland....
and the later assumption of control over the British Colonies in America by the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the Army branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707....
were controversial, leading to distrust of peacetime armies too much under the power of the head of state

Head of State

Head of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchic or republican nation-state, federation, commonwealth or any other political state....
, versus civilian control of the military

Civilian control of the military

Civilian control of the military is a doctrine in military science and political science that places ultimate command responsibility for a Country military strategy Group decision making in the hands of the civilian politics leadership, rather than professional military Officer ....
, resulting in tyranny

Tyrant

This article is about the political ruler. For other uses see Tyrant and Tyranny In modern usage, a tyrant is a single ruler holding absolute political power over a state or within an organization....
.

In his influential work The Wealth of Nations

The Wealth of Nations

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of the Scotland economist Adam Smith. It is a clearly written account of economics at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, as well as a rhetorical piece written for the generally educated individual of the 18th century - advocating a free market econom...
(published 1776), economist Adam Smith

Adam Smith

Adam Smith was a Scotland Ethics and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations....
comments that standing armies are a sign of modernizing society as modern warfare requires increased skill and discipline of regularly trained standing armies. Since the eighteenth century standing armies have been an integral part of the defense of the majority of more economically developed countries.

In Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the List of islands by area, and the largest in Europe. With a population of 58.9 million people it is List of islands by population....
, and the British Colonies in America

Thirteen Colonies

The Thirteen Colonies were part of what became known as British America, a name that was used by Great Britain until the Treaty of Paris recognized the independence of the original thirteen United States of America in 1783....
, there was a sentiment of distrust of a standing army not in civilian control. In Great Britain, this led to the British Bill of Rights

British Bill of Rights

The British Bill of Rights can refer to:* The Bill of Rights 1689 - An Act of the Parliament of England made following the Glorious Revolution, considered one of the fundamental parts of the Constitution of the United Kingdom....
which reserves authority over a standing army to the Parliament, not the King, and more nuanced in the United States, led to the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 8

Article One of the United States Constitution

Article One of the United States Constitution describes the powers of the legislature of the Federal government of the United States, known as United States Congress, which includes the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate....
) which reserves by virtue of "power of the purse

Power of the purse

The power of the purse is the ability of one group to manipulate and control the actions of another group by withholding funding, or putting stipulations on the use of funds....
" similar authority to Congress, instead of to the President. The President, however, retains command of the armed forces when they are raised, as commander-in-chief

Commander-in-Chief

A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function....
.

One critique of standing armies is that they tend to create more opportunities for corruption to become institutionalized in law, persistent organizations, or ongoing practice.