Okay, why did militaries move from kaki/OG for their fatigues to camouflage for their field uniforms? What’s the reasoning for that?
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Strictly speaking both khaki and olive uniforms are camouflage uniforms as well. But what we now know as military camouflage is usually using disruptive camouflage. This was adopted after extensive research into camouflage during WWI. This research found that color was not as important as shape. So by using multiple colors to disrupt the shape it made you harder to spot. So this is when the first disruptive camouflages were issued.
It should be noted though that the disruptive camouflages are situational and depend on the terrain. It is also seen as less pretty and not suited for dress uniforms. Even today soldiers are often issued with non-disruptive uniforms, either for things like parading and standing guard in public, or for certain types of snow or desert terrain where disruptive camouflage does not work as well.
As technology regarding cameras, radars, nightvision, thermals, binocs etc advanced, so did the field uniforms in terms of (non)-detectibility.
Another aspect is, that how warfares are fought have changed. Take for example the WW1/2. It didnt matter what kind of uniform or color the respective militaries had to have, as long as one another could identifiy as friendlies(or enemies).
Nowadays with covert ops and special operations needing just a few squads ore even just a few soldiers, it is more important to stay covered and invisible in enemy territory, therefore different camos got developed and existing camos got more advanced for different territories (for example digital camo for urban warfare, special camos for marksmen, jungle territory, desert warfare etc)
in essence, the “Dull, one colour” kakis/feldgrau/olive greens are a transitional stage between the bright uniforms of the 19th century towards the modern highly camouflaged uniforms of today.
in the 1850s and before, uniforms were brightly coloured, for a few reasons:
Firstly, it looked good, which helped recruit people and improved morale (even today, you will see the fancy dress uniforms in recruitment videos, etc).
Secondly, given the range and accuracy of firearms of that time, thier was not pressing need to be hidden, because anyone close enough to be a threat was too close to effectively hide form.
Thirdly, and related to the previous point, close order formations were still needed as it was not possible to stop a sufficiently determined attacker from pushing into melee range, so you needed to be stood shoulder to shoulder to repel them, again negating any possible camouflage.
Fourthly, the black powder weapons of the time created huge clouds of smoke. “The Fog of War” was as much a literal thing as a mental thing in these times.
all these basically meant their was no reason to NOT wear a nice, snazzy uniform, so everyone did. the English wore bright red, the Americans wore a dark blue, the french blue coats with red trousers, etc.
however, several inventions in the late 19th century change this, the two most important being Smokeless powder and metallic cartridges. these two both massively increased the effectiveness of firearms. smokeless powder both increased the power of the rifle and removed a lot of the obscuring smoke, while cratridges allowed for first breechloading and then magazine fed rifles, then fully automatic machine guns like the maxim, all of which increased the rate of fire.
the net result of all of this was if you could see it, you could shoot at it, so being seen suddenly became a lot less desirable. Armies therefore moved towards duller colours. The English went and Americans went to kaki brown (and the US later moved to olive green), the Germans to “field gray”, and the french to a pale blue during ww1, then kaki. Uniform elements like buttons or leather went form shiny to dull.
As automatic weapons proliferated form “half a dozen per battalion” in 1914 to “one per squad” in WW2, the drive to be harder to see became more and more pressing, and advances in cloth manufacture, combined with a better understanding of camoflage and disruptive patterns, allowed for modern camo patterns to become the standard.
You can see the inital rollout of these during WW2, with stuff like german Splinter pattern, or american Frog Skin/ Duck Hunter pattern, or the orignal Gillie suits. Post ww2, their was a reduction in need, and the cheaper one tone uniforms remained in sevice for a long time as they were “good enough”, with camo being limited issue to special forces, recon units, etc.
it was only in the 70s and 80s that camo pattern kit became univeral issue.
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