Hinterland Warriors and Military Dress: European Empires and Exotic Uniforms

Hinterland Warriors and Military Dress: European Empires and Exotic Uniforms. By Thomas S. Abler. Oxford: Berg, 1999. hbk. vii + 200 pp. Illus. 44.99 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 1-85973-201-1

If, as Karl von Clausewitz taught, war is "a continuation of policy carried out by other means," why do it dressed as a Hungarian? This question is raised in Thomas Abler's introduction, in which the Light Brigade advances down the Valley of Death in uniforms modelled on the dress of peoples much closer to the Russians they were fighting than to those of their native shores. The lancers wore the czapka of the Polish uhlans, the hussars wore the dolmans of Hungarian horsemen. From the hills above watched British infantry dressed in the kilts of the Highlanders (whose bonnets may have been inspired by North American Indians), and French zouaves in the turbans of North African Berbers. What purpose did ethnic dress fulfil in these armies of empire?

As the military frontiers of European empires expanded, they encountered ethnic groups with distinct dress codes. Some of these groups, such as Highlanders and Ghurkas, had established military reputations. Most groups with martial traditions were either hunters or pastoralists, and therefore possessed the mobility necessary for light troops. Also, as warrior societies they put a high premium on individual action. They were, therefore, ideal recruits for imperial armies. These auxiliaries wore "modified native" dress as their uniform. Adopting the European concept of uniform was part of disciplining native peoples to imperial rule, but at the same time, armies wanted them to retain something of the "savage." They were valued for the terror they inspired, and this was conveyed by their exotic dress. The Ghurkas were deployed in the Falklands precisely because their reputation, symbolised by the kukri, terrified Argentinians.

Ethnic auxiliaries often achieved elite status within imperial armies, and their uniforms, therefore, became the epitome of martial masculinity. On the military principle that "the uniform makes the soldier," regular regiments, including those of other would-be imperial nations, adopted stylised versions of ethnic dress. Abler cites the Union and Confederate zouaves of the American Civil War. Finally, items of ethnic dress simply became the accepted military style, their origins among hinterland warriors forgotten. How many British staff officers are aware that the elaborate braiding on their uniforms originated among Austrian hussars?

Abler provides several examples that follow part, if not all, of this trajectory. The beads and fringes of North American Indians never made it beyond the regiments of rangers raised locally, but the Highland bagpipe has been adopted throughout the world as the military instrument par excellence. In this review, the example of hussars must stand for all. Hussars were Magyar horsemen originally recruited into the Austrian army. They wore a gaudy uniform (copied in part from their primary enemy, the Turks). In the wars of the eighteenth century, they inspired fear and respect for their speed and aggression. Austria's enemies, therefore, tried to recruit their own hussars from Hungary, but in practice, French and Prussian regiments had to find their soldiers closer to home. As the success of Austrian hussars in combat revealed to all armies the need for light troops, even countries with no connection with Hungary (such as Britain) nonetheless raised hussar regiments and equipped them in a stylised Hungarian fashion. Because of the prestige of the light horse, items of hussar dress were adopted in emulation by other armies--the infantry shako, standard military headgear of all nations in the nineteenth century, being the prime example.

Abler is good at tracking down far-flung influences of ethnic dress, such as the Java Hussars of 1812. Some rare uniforms are illustrated, although one could have wished for more (and in colour). But we hear little from the officers who clothed their troops so exotically. What did they seek to achieve? Abler is strangely reluctant to consider the precise modes of diffusion. When discussing American zouaves, for instance, he admits, "One must concede that in this example ... certain historical factors played an important role." What non-historical factors could one adduce for the spread of ethnic costume? To understand what is going on one needs to listen to soldiers themselves: what difference did exotic dress make to them? There are dozens of military memoirs which dwell on the significance of uniform, but Abler mentions only that of the French hussar, Marbot.

Without considering the intentions of those who wore ethnic uniforms, Abler is led into some errors. He quotes approvingly the argument of the American sociologist Stanislav Andreski that "rude rustics made the best soldiers, and refined, comfort-loving city-dwellers--the worst." This has been military mythology from classical times onwards, but it is not true. French armies, whose numerous battlefield successes inspired other nations to copy their uniforms, were disproportionately recruited in urban areas. It was not, as Abler suggests, Hungarian peasant dress that provided the model for the hussar, but that of Magyar noblemen. Part of its purpose was to overawe their non-Magyar serfs. The haiduk, the Hungarian original of the shako, means "noble" in Hungarian, but "brigand" in other Balkan languages. There is no real contradiction here: soldiers had succeeded to the social function of the nobility and had adopted aristocratic dress and manners. Like nobles, they lived off the peasantry, but felt contempt for them. Non-Hungarians who put on hussar costume were not trying to look like peasants but like aristocrats. Emulation of one's social superiors as much of one's ethnic enemies helps explain the diffusion of exotic dress. European ethnocentrism is not, therefore, the sole culprit. It is true that stereotypes about "noble savages" influenced imperial policies, but such behaviour was never limited to colonising powers. Nineteenth-century Afghan soldiers, for example, took to wearing Highland kilts. Abler needs to expand his model to explain their behaviour too.