Throughout history and in all continents when armies have marched across continents, a crowd roughly 50 to 150 percent their size followed. These civilians reshaped local economies as they provided militaries with a range of commercial services that included repairing weapons, provisioning food, mending clothing, and sex work. Laleh Khalili is a politics professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

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Image courtesy of interviewee