The ways of war are changing. Artificial intelligence is used to bomb families in Gaza. Flying drones are deployed to track down refugees on the US-Mexico bo...
To figure that out you'd first have to decide how you want to define "mercenary". Depending on how you define the word, either almost everyone was a mercenary or, if you use the current Geneva Convention definition, almost no one was.
The truth, as usual, is probably somewhere in that murky, uncomfortable middle ground that no one likes to look at or acknowledge.
How much were they used in the World Wars? I'm familiar with Nepali mercenaries, but I think it was a pretty small percent.
To figure that out you'd first have to decide how you want to define "mercenary". Depending on how you define the word, either almost everyone was a mercenary or, if you use the current Geneva Convention definition, almost no one was.
The truth, as usual, is probably somewhere in that murky, uncomfortable middle ground that no one likes to look at or acknowledge.