#97
Post
by Galahad » 11 Sep 2004, 12:24
Here's my list of the 20 most decisive battles up to 1800.
1. Salamis/480 BC--It ensured that Greece would be allowed to develop its civilization, rather than become Persianized. Which ensured the development of Philip's Macedonia and Macedonian Army.....which led to the destruction of Persia and the Hellenizing of the entire Middle East.
2. Granicus/334 BC--If Alexander had lost here, there would have been no Issus or Gaugamela. He HAD to win in order for his conquest to truly get going; any check or loss would have wrecked his plans and probably his political control over Greece to boot.....assuming he survived the battle.
3. Mylae/260 BC--It made the Romans into a naval power, which led to the defeat of Carthage, which led to Rome's predominance and eventually to the Roman Empire. Hannibal had to march over the Alps because Rome commanded the sea.
5. The Sambre/57 BC--Julius Caesar came closer to being destroyed here than in any other battle he fought. If he had lost, he would have been destroyed politically, even if he'd survived. There would have been no conquest of Gaul, no crossing the Rubicon and no inheritance for Octavianus. The future would have wound up being VERY different. But winning set him on the path that led to becoming Dictator For Life....and the Ides of March.
6. Actium/31 BC--It ended the plague of Roman Civil Wars--and the Roman Republic. It also decided who would rule the Western World and so shape its future.
7. Teutoberger Wald/9 AD--It ended Augustus' plan to Romanize Germany (thus indirectly leading to this forum), which led to Rome having to defend a much longer and less-defensible frontier, and left the barbarians to come with a central location where they could organize for their attacks on Rome. Which eventually led to the exhaustion of the Western Empire and to its "fall".
8. Milvian Bridge/312 AD--It reunited the Roman Empire under one man, who reorganized both it and its army, thus giving both a new lease on life. Part of the reorganization was the establishment of a new capital at Nova Roma--Constantinople. Further, it put in power a man favorable to Christianity, and ended the long rule of pagan deities. The new capital, further, became the bastion that defended Europe during the Dark Ages, and which kept alive the learning and culture of the Ancient World. Consider the implications of no Constantinople and no Christianity.
10. Badr/624 AD--A small battle, as battles go, but if the Medinans under Muhammed had lost, much would have been different in the future.
11. The Yarmuk/636 AD--Winning this battle turned Islam from a backwoods religion into a world power. It shortly led to their control of most of the Middle East west of Persia, and all of North Africa, followed by Spain. It gave them the foundation of Greek and Roman culture on which their civilization was based, led to their becoming a naval power and eventually led to the destruction of the Byzantine Empire.
12. Siege of Constantinople/717AD-718AD--Winning here ensured that the Byzantine Empire would continue to exist, which in turn ensured that Europe had time to move out of the Dark Ages. This guaranteed that Islam would not Islamicize Europe and that Christianity and a Christian culture there would survive.
13. Hastings/1066 AD--This battle determined that England--and Britain--would develop as a fusion of cultures, rather than as an Anglic one, and would be oriented outward, rather than inward as it had been previous to the battle. This had considerable ramifications for the future history of the entire world.
14. Manzikert/1071 AD--This battle led to the Turks overruning Asia Minor, the heartland of the Byzantine Empire. That determined that the Byzantine Empire would eventually be destroyed by those same Turks.
15. Orleans--1429 AD--This battle ensured that France would not be dominated by England. In turn, this ensured that England would not become a backwater of a Plantagenet Empire. Had the English won, eventually, England would have become Gallicized due to the great difference in size and population between the two countries.
16. Armada/1588 AD--Winning here made certain that the Duke of Parma's army would not set foot on English soil, which meant that England would remain independent AND Protestant. It further ensured that England would--through command of the sea--be able to have access to the rest of the world. And it demonstrated the power of the new-model warship that had been developing in England, which same would rule the waves till the Age of Steam and Iron arrived.
17. Leutzen/1632 AD--This battle determined that Germany would remain Protestant, that Germany would be decimated by the Thirty Years War, and that the new-model army developed by Gustavus Adolphus and his advisors would dominate warfare in the future, and that France would become the leading power on the Continent for the next two centuries.
18. Malplaquet/1709AD--The bloodiest battle of the 18th Century, it determined that a peace would not be forced on France, that the War of the Spanish Succession would continue until a peace was made on terms favorable to France, and that the Duke of Marlborough would lose his influence and power. It further set the precedent for the battles to come in the 19th Century. Lastly, the prelude to the battle changed political history, because Louis XIV made a direct appeal to his people for support in order to form the army that fought at Malplaquet, rather than demanding it as his due from Divine Right. This, in turn, mobilized the emotions of the French nation; the battle was thus the prelude to the French Revolution.
19. Virginia Capes/1781 AD--This battle ensured that Cornwallis would surrender to Washington at Yorktown, which in turn led to Britain finally granting independence to the United States.
20. Turcoing/1794AD--The battle where the new army and tactics of France came of age, thus setting the stage for the future of land warfare, and for the predominance of Napoleon.
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