Quote Originally Posted by The General View Post
Post-roman-empire standing armies started appearing in Western Europe in the 15th/16th Centuries as new systems started replacing the feudal armies of knights, men-at-arms and peasants, largely as an effort by rulers to strenghten the authority of the ruler/state over that of nobility/landowners.
And that was mainly to quell the large numbers of disbanded mercenary bands (100 years war) who resorted to robbery, pillaging and ravaging the country side for a living. Only in the 17th century become such armies something much more than the military equivalent of a fire fighting corps; and even then it should be remembered that large portions of the various standing armies were still simply a bunch of enlisted mercenaries.