The Greek War of Independence secured the independence of the Greeks, but it also created a serious problem: after eight years of war, the country was ruined and overrun by unemployed irregular soldiers who had no career alternatives. The government could ill afford to pay them, so the Regency dismissed them from service. The new Greek army would be made up of the 3500 Bavarian soldiers who had accompanied King Otto. However, if not hostile, Greece was alien to these hapless Germans. The climate was harsh, the food bland and not all that salubrious (lamb seemed to be the staple), while the country seemed governed not by the Regents or the Greeks but by blood-thirsty mosquitoes that proliferated in marshes and towns without proper sanitation.