![]() Troops tend to be deployed in battalions (commanded by a lieutenant colonel) as a more convenient size of military unit and, as such, colonels have tended to have a higher profile in specialist and command roles than as actual commanders of regiments. In many modern armies, the regiment has more importance as a ceremonial unit or a focus of members' loyalty than as an actual battle formation. ĭuring the 20th century, with the rise of communism, some of the large communist militaries saw fit to expand the colonel rank into several grades, resulting, for example, in the unique senior colonel rank, which was found and is still used in such nations as China and North Korea. Īs European military influence expanded throughout the world, the rank of colonel became adopted by nearly every nation (albeit under a variety of names). Along with other ranks, it has become progressively more a matter of ranked duties, qualifications, and experience, as well as of corresponding titles and pay scale, than of functional office in a particular organization. īy the late 19th century, colonel had evolved to a professional military rank that was still held typically by an officer in command of a regiment or equivalent unit. The head of a single regiment or demi-brigade would be called a ' mestre de camp' or, after the Revolution, a ' chef de brigade'. The position, however, was primarily contractual and it became progressively more of a functionless sinecure. In French usage of this period, the senior colonel in the army or, in a field force, the senior military contractor, was the colonel general, and, in the absence of the sovereign or his designate, the colonel general might serve as the commander of a force. By extension, the group of companies subject to a colonel's regiment (in the foregoing sense) came to be referred to as his regiment (in the modern sense) as well. This regiment, or governance, was to some extent embodied in a contract and set of written rules, also referred to as the colonel's regiment or standing regulation(s). ![]() Īs the office of colonel became an established practice, the colonel became the senior captain in a group of companies that were all sworn to observe his personal authority-to be ruled or regimented by him. The colonel purchased the regimental contract-the right to hold the regiment-from the previous holder of that right or directly from the sovereign when a new regiment was formed or an incumbent was killed. With the shift from primarily mercenary to primarily national armies in the course of the 17th century, a colonel (normally a member of the aristocracy) became a holder (German Inhaber) or proprietor of a military contract with a sovereign. Colonel is linked to the word column (from Latin: columna Italian: colonna French: colonne) in a similar way that brigadier is linked to brigade, although in English this relationship is not immediately obvious. However, for reasons unknown, the English adopted the Spanish pronunciation of coronel, and after several decades of use shortened it to its current two-syllable pronuciation "kernel". The English then copied the unit and rank from the French. Even so, they simply Gallicized colunela to the French colonel and pronounced it as written. Later, in the 16th century, the French army adopted this organizational structure, renaming colunelas regiments. Evidence of this can be seen when Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, nicknamed "the Great Captain", divided his armies in coronelías, each led by a coronel (colonel), in 1508. Because they were crown units, the units were also confusingly called coronelas, and their commanders coronels. Each colunela was commanded by a cabo de colunela or column head. According to Raymond Oliver, around 1500, the Spanish began explicitly reorganizing part of their army into 20 colunelas or columns of approximately 1000-1250 soldiers. ( April 2012) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)īy the end of the late medieval period, a group of "companies" was referred to as a "column" of an army. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This section needs additional citations for verification. ![]() For other uses, see Colonel (disambiguation). For the equivalent rank in Austria, Switzerland and Germany, see Oberst. For the equivalent rank in Slavophone armed forces, see Colonel (Eastern Europe). This article is about the military rank in Anglophone countries.
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