Like in those memes, people often say East Asia easily mobilized 100,000 while Europe could barely scrape together 10,000, but the numbers for Western wars on sites like Namuwiki are actually estimates by modern historians.
Do you really think Westerners didn't lie through their teeth and claim millions back then?
If we believe contemporary records, Persia mobilized 4.7 million against Greece.
The Kingdom of England supposedly mobilized 1.2 million against William the Conqueror.
The First Crusade's total strength comes out to about 800,000.
The funny thing is, according to the records, East Asian countries on the verge of collapse seem to mobilize tens of thousands like itโs a joke.
But once cross-verification became possible after contact with the West during the Opium War, those mobilization numbers suddenly became strangely 'realistic.'
Thatโs why Western scholars start by cutting East Asian records down to 1/10th when they estimate troop sizes.
"Users are debating whether historical East Asian troop numbers are just 'record inflation' or the result of 'Rice Power' populations, while joking that 10k troops is basically just a scouting party."
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