Defense
Oz is mostly a peaceful land and the idea of subversion is largely unknown to its people. Most military positions are only formal. This has caused many problems, such as in The Marvelous Land of Oz when the Emerald City, which was only guarded by an elderly doorman and one soldier who was the entire Army of Oz at the time, was easily conquered by the Army of Revolt led by General Jinjur. This army was in turn overwhelmed by another army of girls, led by Glinda.
Security of Oz is mostly maintained by magic, such as Glinda's spell making Oz completely invisible. Oz also has a natural barrier in the form of a desert that surrounds the land: anyone who touches the desert turns to sand. The Nome King has tried to conquer Oz on several occasions. A nominal army once existed, but it had an extremely large officers/privates ratio; other than its commander the Tin Woodman and one private, the portion of it seen in Ozma of Oz was composed entirely of cowardly officers. In the end of the book it was said that there are three privates all in all, and it is unknown how many—if any—officers were left at home during Ozma's travel to Ev. The private seen in the book, named Omby Amby, is later promoted to Captain General.
In the book Emerald City of Oz, there are 2 towns, Rigmarole Town and Flutterbudgets, that are the defensive settlements of Oz.
In the movie Return to Oz, the mechanical man Tik-Tok is the entire royal army of Oz.
Attempts by outsiders to conquer the Land of Oz are frequent, particularly in the Oz books by Ruth Plumly Thompson. But these attempts are always successfully thwarted in the end, usually by Ozma or by forces sympathetic to her.
Read more about this topic: Land Of Oz
Famous quotes containing the word defense:
“The aims of life are the best defense against death.”
—Primo Levi (1919–1987)
“He said, truly, that the reason why such greatly superior numbers quailed before him was, as one of his prisoners confessed, because they lacked a cause,—a kind of armor which he and his party never lacked. When the time came, few men were found willing to lay down their lives in defense of what they knew to be wrong; they did not like that this should be their last act in this world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“For there is no defense for a man who, in the excess of his wealth, has kicked the great altar of Justice out of sight.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)