Goose step
[citation needed] It was introduced into German military tradition by Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, a Field Marshal whose close attention to training transformed the Prussian infantry into one of the most formidable armed forces in Europe.
However, armed forces continued to drill recruits in marching techniques for the purposes of team building, military uniformity, and ceremonial functions.
Military modernization and political influence carried the practice to Asia, Africa, and Latin America from its origins in Prussia and Russia.
The first wave of adoption took place in the late 19th century, as the Prussian army became greatly admired for its decisive victory in the Franco-Prussian War.
Goose stepping continued to gain ground even after Germany's defeat in World War I, as many nations still looked to the German model for military organization and training.
The Chilean Army was the first non-European country to adopt the goose step, importing many Prussian military traditions after the War of the Pacific.
After its dissolution, the National Revolutionary Army of the successive Republic of China continued the practice, also because that they were being trained by German advisers in the 1920s; after the Communists won the Chinese Civil War, the People's Liberation Army of People's Republic of China would follow suit and bring the practice into present day, owing to both tradition and its own Soviet influence.
In the most rigorous form of the goose step, often found in guard mounting ceremonies, the pace is done at a slow march, and the leg is nearly horizontal, and sometimes well beyond.
[13] In a standard goose step, found in large military parades, the pace is done at a quick march and the leg is raised only to knee-height, or even to calf height.
[70] During the later stages of World War II, the goose step nearly disappeared because of manpower shortages, accelerated courses in basic training, and a paucity of appropriate occasions.
[74] The Republic of China (Taiwan) Armed Forces continued to use the goose step after the end of the Chinese Civil War.
In 2016, veterans organizations criticized the sloppy marching of military cadets and began holding their own goose-stepping parades, reviewed by Kuomintang politicians on two occasions.
[75] In 2021, the Taiwanese department of defense resumed goose step training, in time for the 2024 centennial celebration of the Republic of China Military Academy.
The goose step was ridiculed by Allied propaganda in the World Wars as a symbol of blind obedience and senseless attachment to military form.
Prior to U.S. entry into World War I, American military observers had remarked favorably on the goose step as a means of building unit cohesion.
[7][8] However, its association with Nazi Germany in World War II proved fatal to the goose step's reputation in English-speaking countries.
It was condemned in George Orwell's essay The Lion and the Unicorn, and proved an easy target for parody in many editorial cartoons and Hollywood films.
This can result in mistaken interpretations due to cultural differences: The older English meaning of goose-step[81] is sometimes found in a humorous context:
