The Nonmartial Origins of the ‘‘Martial Races’’: Ethnicity and Military Service in Ex-British Colonies (original) (raw)

Did colonial rule ‘‘construct’’ the ‘‘martial races’’ or do these groups have an innate cultural disposition toward military service? Despite the centrality of this question for evaluating different military manpower recruitment strategies in postcolonial settings, no study has subjected these hypotheses to systematic empirical testing. This article fills this gap using an original data set on the colonial status of 181 ethnic groupsacross twenty-nine ex-British colonies to examine the origins of colonial ‘‘martialness.’’ The empirical analysis provides robust evidence in support of the constructivist argument.