Overseas Military Adventurers, 1770–1861

Abstract

This chapter covers largely forgotten overseas military adventurers, who served in private armies between 1815 and 1860. They were mainly contracted as mercenaries by liberal or nationalist revolutionaries in South America and parts of Southern Europe. Given the intense government prosecution of radicalism in the post Waterloo period and the failure of potential or actual insurrection, some ex-soldiers went overseas to avoid persecution. The complex wars of liberation, particularly in South America, enabled these men to pursue their old trade whilst serving a progressive cause. The careers of both officers and rankers are analysed in the Americas, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy, with an assessment of their commitment to political radicalism. A special study is made of the largest group – the British Auxiliary Legion, 1835-8 - raised by the threatened Spanish liberal government.