Mercenaries, soldiers who receive pay for their services, especially as distinguished from soldiers who owe military service to their nation. Historically, mercenaries were often foreigners, rather than citizens or even residents of the nation for which they fought, and the name has now come to mean only foreign auxiliaries. In the American Revolution Great Britain used Hessian mercenaries to fight against the colonists. The use of mercenaries ended in Europe for the most part with the French Revolution, when their place was taken by national standing armies. The Foreign Legion has existed as a mercenary unit in the French army since 1831, and in the late 20th century foreign mercenaries were employed by some governments in the developing world, especially Africa. By the 1990s, individually hired mercenaries began to be replaced by private military firms (PMFs), which were organized along corporate lines.