Militarized sports refer to sports that are managed in a militarized mode and ultimately serve military activities, and this type of sports system is widely present in the military systems of modern countries. And not only modern, but also ancient times have many similar systems.
For example, a similar system existed in the training of "off-the-job soldiers" in ancient China. However, only Sparta has really taken the militarized sports to the extreme to maintain the strength of the country.
First, militarized sports not only made Spartan men into tools of war, but also Made Spartan women into reproductive tools, and its existence allowed Sparta to go further and further down the road of militarism
Sparta's militarized system of sports continued throughout the life of spartans. From birth, Spartan babies were washed by their mothers with spirits. If they show some kind of discomfort in the process, they are identified as disabled and then abandoned.
At a very young age, Spartan parents consciously train their children to adapt to fear. They are usually placed in a dark room or confronted with dangerous animals such as snakes and wolfhounds. From the age of seven, Spartan children began to enter the barracks and receive training. During this time, they will experience cruel survival tests and harsh environmental tests until the age of 30.
The Spartan army in a tight position
Even at the end of their training period, they were incorporated into the army, charged again and again with the Spartan flag, struggling to survive between killing and being killed, and could not retire until they were 60 years old. And even if it is retired, it is still a reserve source, as long as the country needs, it will be recalled to the battlefield at any time.
Moreover, the militarized sports system completely penetrated into the bone marrow of the Spartans. Even though they knew that their children were likely to be trained to death or killed in battle, Spartan parents would still firmly support their children to train or enter the war.
There is such a tradition in Sparta. When her son was about to go on a campaign, his mother would give him a shield. He also told him to either return gloriously with a shield, or die on the battlefield, lying on the shield and being carried back with honor, so as to inspire his son's courage.
In addition to men, Spartan women also undergo rigorous training from an early age. Unlike men, however, spartan women's training goals were not to become tools of war, but to become tools of fertility.
Because of rigorous training and frequent wars, the mortality rate among male citizens in Sparta was extremely high. So in order to maintain the rulers and fighting power of the Spartans, encouraging women to have healthy boys became a major national event.
Spartan girls are subjected to a series of physical exercises from birth to maintain their physical health. Because the Spartans believed that only healthy parents could have healthy children. In addition, Spartan girls are exposed to fertility knowledge at an early age, laying the foundation for them to become qualified mothers in the future.
The popularity of militarized sports turned the whole of Sparta into a cold camp, where the value and meaning of the individual was compressed to the extreme, and everything was in the service of a few oligarchs. However, we have to admit that in that era, this system that violated human nature was surprisingly successful.
Second, Spartan militarized sports was a deformed system spawned by Sparta in the context of its long-term foreign expansion wars, but it did strongly support Sparta's military activities
The Spartans were natural invaders, and from the 11th century BC, when they were Dorians, they continued to invade other forces around them, acting like a group of nomadic peoples who had no place to live.
But after they conquered Laconia, they grew tired of their nomadic life. On the ruins of Laconia, they built the city of Sparta, a city with neither walls nor decent streets. Thereafter, they enslaved the Laconians and established a highly militarized social system of slave farming and Spartan wars.
Spartan Foreign War
Although this cruel and dark social system was built on the bones of countless slaves, it was particularly stable in that era of recklessness and backwardness. Under this social system, the Spartans' desire for aggression and war was released to the greatest extent. From the beginning of the founding of Sparta, they continued to invade the surrounding countries, plundering wealth, land, and slaves.
The most famous of these was the War of Messegna, a neighbor of Sparta that was founded almost at the same time as Sparta. However, the social system of Messegna was similar to that of farming, and was completely different from the system of plunder in Sparta. The reason for this distinction is that Messegna is rich in land and resources, and it does not need to plunder to feed itself.
In the beginning, Sparta had no intention of invading Messenia, because Messegna was also a relatively powerful country, not to mention Sparta. However, with the emergence of the immature abuses of early Spartan slavery, the Spartan rulers urgently needed to divert internal contradictions, so the plan to invade Messegna was put on the agenda.
Map of the situation in the Second Messenian War
The Messenian War was fought three times. In the first time, although Messenians resisted the Spartan attack with strong walls in the early stages, the Spartans turned to plundering the villages and destroying the agricultural economy on which Messenia depended. Messeña's national strength was greatly depleted, and eventually the war was lost, the king committed suicide, and Messegna was destroyed.
But the Spartisans directly transferred the policy of treating slaves to the Messenians, provoking a revolt among the Messenians. Under the leadership of the outstanding young leader Aristomenis, the Messenians erupted in a formidable fighting force that for a time inflicted heavy casualties on Sparta and did not dare to fight.
Soon, however, Sparta adjusted its strategy, turning to other Greek city-states for help and using diplomacy to divide the rebel army, and eventually the Messenian rebel army was defeated by the betrayal of its allies. Thereafter, the Spartans' oppression of the Messenians became even more severe, not only insulting them in terms of personality, but also formulating a special hunting policy to control their numbers.
Messegna War
In the Third Messenian War, the Messenians learned the lessons of the first two, minimized head-to-head confrontation with the Spartans, and slowly maneuvered with the Spartans in a dangerous position.
This strategy was indeed useful, and eventually Sparta had to request an armistice, but the Messenians did not take advantage, and due to the power gap, the Messenians, although they won the war, left the Peloponnese.
Sparta had many foreign wars, and the Messegna War was only part of it. It was in support of this constant war that Sparta established a system of militarized sports. For from the moment of its birth this system was destined to serve the war, the system that was best suited to a military state like Sparta.
In order to prevent the division between the rich and the poor in the country, the Spartan ruling class forbade spartans to engage in industry and commerce and did not allow them to cultivate, and in this case militarized sports became the best means of maintaining the social order of Sparta
In addition to supporting the military, militarized sports were an important system for maintaining social order in Sparta. At the beginning of the establishment of Sparta, in order to unite the forces of all Spartans, the rulers stipulated that Spartans could not engage in industry and commerce, nor could they engage in agriculture. All the necessities they need are supplied by the state.
In Sparta, there was no industry or commerce at all, and agriculture was carried out by slaves. It can be said that slaves are the economic basis of Sparta, which is why Sparta is crazy to expand and plunder slaves.
However, although slaves were the basis of Sparta's economy, the Spartans treated slaves rather unfriendly. Not only did they force their slaves to wear insulting clothing, but they also whipped them indiscriminately every day, and ordinary Spartans, though they could not buy and sell slaves, could inflict arbitrary harm on them.
In addition, the Spartans would send a large number of slaves as cannon fodder during the war. Most of these slaves who went out with the army would die on the battlefield, and even if they were lucky not to die, they might be regarded as worthless by the Spartans due to disability, illness and other reasons, and slaughtered on the spot.
Spartan slave revolt
Such a repressive slave policy naturally led to the outbreak of slave revolts, which had arisen since the founding of Sparta. Although most slave revolts were suppressed, each one dealt a heavy blow to Spartan society.
Taking the Third Messenian War as an example, the rebellious Messenian slaves not only almost broke through the Spartan capital, but also finally retreated to the key areas and constantly attacked the Spartan territory, causing great damage to the foundation of Sparta and the agricultural economy. At the same time, the activity of the rebel army also aroused the resistance of the slaves, leaving Spartan society in a state of instability for a long time.
Logically, in this case, Sparta should have "exhausted its gas count", but history did not develop in this way. Despite the constant slave revolts, Sparta remained one of the most powerful states in the Greek world, and eventually became the dominant force in Greek society.
The reason for all this is the militarization of the sports system. As mentioned earlier, spartans could not engage in agriculture and industry and commerce. But this is not to say that the Spartans had nothing to do, on the contrary, they were busy, busy with militarized training. This was both to prevent spartan citizens from doing nothing and to strengthen the Spartan dominance over slaves.
Relief of the spartans' rigorous training
It was precisely because of the rigorous training that all Spartans became excellent warriors, so that they could still easily win against rebels several times their size. It was also the long period of military life that saved Spartan children from the slave revolt, and although the economic losses were great, the vitality of the country was not hurt.
From our point of view of militarized sports, of course, we feel that this system is very inhumane. But everything must be viewed dialectically in conjunction with a specific historical environment. From the spartan standpoint, this system may be the one that suits them best.
bibliography:
History of Greece
History of the Peloponnesian War