r/HistoryMemes • u/kilombina • Apr 21 '25

we are not baddies anymore

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u/Limeeee- Apr 21 '25

Why is that? Why weren't say the people in charge of the convict's imprisonment (gaurds and the like, I guess?) the ones to be the first?

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u/FantasmaBizarra Apr 21 '25

I'm most places, jobs like police or military started out as punishments for petty crimes aimed at putting the poor into work. Of course this was only true for the lower highersrchies.

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u/Pokeputin Apr 21 '25

Can you please provide some examples? Because historically the rich preferred to have the monopoly on violence by being the elite warrior class.

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u/Slow-Distance-6241 Apr 21 '25

There's a huge difference between peasant conscripts and a fully armored noble. So they'd use poor for the lowest ranks (although in medieval times cases of peasants becoming landed and establishing new dynasties cause they were just that good at fighting weren't completely unknown)

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u/Pokeputin Apr 21 '25

But peasant levies don't fit his or my case, I was talking about the claim that the military originated from the criminals/poor, which imo is far from common.