Armies of the War of the Triple Alliance

Those of you who read Richard Marcinko’s Rogue Warrior are probably familiar with the problem of third world armies; peasant soldiers and playboy officers. Whether you’re in Latin America, Africa, or the Middle East, you’ll see that the officers get their jobs through patronage and are treated like princes, while the soldiers are from poor families and they get treated like slaves. In this book, the writers and illustrators pull no punches; they don’t attempt to flatter.

Armies of the War of the Triple Alliance is all about the uniforms of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil during Latin America’s wars of the mid-1800’s. As with all Osprey books, the illustrations are perfect and well-researched, but in this one they’re comical. They make the officers look like an overdressed parade crew, while the soldiers look like a biker gang. The “troopers,” if you prefer, were probably from the Indian classes, and their uniforms are really peasant clothes, and I’d wager they were better for the climate and the terrane. Some of the lower-ranking troops had fancy uniforms, like the French Zuaves, with baggy red trousers and green jackets. You wonder how the army paid for fancy uniforms, but it doesn’t say.

Another issue covered in the book is the regular soldier versus the tribal fighter. The Gauchos, for instance, came into the service already trained in horsemanship, so they’d be in demand for an army that can’t afford the time and money to train cavalry. Here we have a funny illustration of a Gaucho splashing two grandly-attired men as he rides through the mud, rightly oblivious to the men shaking their fists at him. I say, why wouldn’t he be oblivious? Cavalry are in big demand, so the lazy officers probably have to give him whatever he wants.

This book says that more soldiers died of disease than in combat, thanks to malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, food poisoning, typhoid, dysentery, and a host of other diseases. They’d be dead from the filthy water before they could fire a shot, and unless they’d lived in the swamps all their lives, they’d have no immunity to mosquito-borne diseases. The uniforms also reflect some of the incompetence surrounding the armies’ failure, with regard to practicality. If the clothing followed the fancy Spanish styles, what use would they be in the tropics? If they were not meant for rugged work, wouldn’t they wear out quickly? Who would pay for them to be replaced?

I would have high school students read Armies of the Triple Alliance if they’re studying Global History. Along with this book, they should read Modern African Wars and The Chaco War (also from Osprey Publishing) to get a good feel for the military problems of non-western nations. The problem of having soldiers trained to march in parades versus soldiers who are trained to fight would factor again when Pancho Villa fought the Mexican army, and again when Israel fought her Arab neighbors.