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Saturday, July 17, 2021

 


The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World

 

THE FIFTEEN DECISIVE BATTLES OF THE WORLD

It is an honourable characteristic of the Spirit of this Age, that projects of violence and warfare are regarded among civilized states with gradually increasing aversion. The Universal Peace Society certainly does not, and probably never will, enrol the majority of statesmen among its members. But even those who look upon the Appeal of Battle as occasionally unavoidable in international controversies, concur in thinking it a deplorable necessity, only to be resorted to when all peaceful modes of arrangement have been vainly tried; and when the law of self-defence justifies a State, like an individual, in using force to protect itself from imminent and serious injury. For a writer, therefore, of the present day to choose battles for his favourite topic, merely because they were battles, merely because so many myriads of troops were arrayed in them,and so many hundreds or thousands of human beings stabbed, hewed, or shot each other to death during them, would argue strange weakness or depravity of mind. Yet it cannot be denied that a fearful and wonderful interest is attached to these scenes of carnage. There is undeniable greatness in the disciplined courage, and in the love of honour, which make the combatants confront agony and destruction. And the powers of the human intellect are rarely more strongly displayed than they are in the Commander, who regulates, arrays, and wields at his will these masses of armed disputants; who, cool yet daring, in the midst of peril reflects on all, and provides for all, ever ready with fresh resources and designs, as the vicissitudes of the storm of slaughter require. But these qualities, however high they may appear,are to be found in the basest as well as in the noblest of mankind. Catiline was as brave a soldier as Leonidas, and a much better officer. Alva surpassed the Prince of Orange in the field; and Suwarrow was the military superior of Kosciusko. To adopt the emphatic words of Byron:-- "'Tis the Cause makes all, Degrades or hallows courage in its fall."..

 

The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo is a book written by Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy and published in 1851. This book tells the story of the fifteen military engagements (from Marathon to Waterloo) which, according to the author, had a significant impact on world history.

Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, from Marathon to Waterloo (local copy), first published in 1851 (with later editions), by Edward Shepherd Creasy (1812-1878)

The Battle of Gaugamela

The Battle of Tours

The Siege of Orléans

The Spanish Armada

The Battle of Poltava

The Battle of Valmy

1
The Battle of Marathon, B.C. 490 (86 KB)

2
Defeat of the Athenians at Syracuse, B.C. 413 (51 KB)

3
The Battle of Arbela, B.C. 331 (67 KB)

4
The Battle of the Metaurus, B.C. 207(77 KB)

5
Victory of Arminius over the Roman Legions under Varus, A.D. 9 (65 KB)

6
The Battle of Chalons, A.D. 451 (40 KB)

7
The Battle of Tours, A.D. 732 (31 KB)

8
The Battle of Hastings, A.D. 1066 (88 KB)

9
Joan of Arc's Victory over the English at Orleans, A.D. 1429 (51 KB)

10
The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, A.D. 1588 (69 KB)

11
The Battle of Blenheim, A.D. 1704 (60 KB)

12
The Battle of Pultowa, A.D. 1709 (41 KB)

13
Victory of the Americans over Burgoyne at Saratoga, A.D. 1777 (70 KB)

14
The Battle of Valmy, A.D. 1792 (42 KB)

15
The Battle of Waterloo, A.D. 1815 (156 KB)

The Battle of Waterloo

Each chapter of the book describes a different battle. The fifteen chapters are:

  1. The Battle of Marathon, 490 BC
    • Excerpt: Two thousand three hundred and forty years ago, a council of Athenian Officers was summoned on the slope of one of the mountains that look over the plain of Marathon, on the eastern coast of Attica. The immediate subject of their meeting was to consider whether they should give battle to an enemy that lay encamped on the shore beneath them; but on the result of their deliberations depended, not merely the fate of two armies, but the whole future progress of human civilization.
  2. Defeat of the Athenians at Syracuse, 413 BC
    • Known as the Battle of Syracuse.
    • Excerpt: Few cities have undergone more memorable sieges during ancient and mediaeval times than has the city of Syracuse.
  3. The Battle of Gaugamela, 331 BC
    • Also called the Battle of Arbela.
    • Excerpt: ... the ancient Persian empire, which once subjugated all the nations of the earth, was defeated when Alexander had won his victory at Arbela.
  4. The Battle of the Metaurus, 207 BC
    • Excerpt: That battle was the determining crisis of the contest, not merely between Rome and Carthage, but between the two great families of the world...
  5. Victory of Arminius over the Roman Legions under Varus, AD 9
  6. The Battle of Châlons, AD 451
    • Also called the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields or the Battle of the Catalun.
    • Excerpt: The victory which the Roman general, Aëtius, with his Gothic allies, had then gained over the Huns, was the last victory of imperial Rome.
  7. The Battle of Tours, AD 732
    • Also called the Battle of Poitiers.
    • Excerpt: the great victory won by Charles Martel ... gave a decisive check to the career of Arab conquest in Western Europe.
  8. The Battle of Hastings, AD 1066
    • Excerpt: ..no one who appreciates the influence of England and her empire upon the destinies of the world will ever rank that victory as one of secondary importance.
  9. Joan of Arc's Victory over the English at Orléans, AD 1429
    • Known as the Siege of Orléans.
    • Excerpt: ..the struggle by which the unconscious heroine of France, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, rescued her country from becoming a second Ireland under the yoke of the triumphant English.
  10. Defeat of the Spanish Armada, AD 1588
    • Excerpt: The England of our own days is so strong, and the Spain of our own days is so feeble, that it is not easy, without some reflection and care, to comprehend the full extent of the peril which England then ran from the power and the ambition of Spain, or to appreciate the importance of that crisis in the history of the world.
  11. The Battle of Blenheim, AD 1704
    • Excerpt: Had it not been for Blenheim, all Europe might at this day suffer under the effect of French conquests resembling those of Alexander in extent and those of the Romans in durability.
  12. The Battle of Pultowa, AD 1709
    • Also called the Battle of Poltava.
    • Excerpt: The decisive triumph of Russia over Sweden at Pultowa was therefore all-important to the world, on account of what it overthrew as well as for what it established
  13. Victory of the Americans over Burgoyne at Saratoga, AD 1777
  14. The Battle of Valmy, AD 1792
    • Excerpt: ..the kings of Europe, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, trembled once more before a conquering military republic.
  15. The Battle of Waterloo, AD 1815
    • Excerpt: The exertions which the allied powers made at this crisis to grapple promptly with the French emperor have truly been termed gigantic, and never were Napoleon's genius and activity more signally displayed than in the celerity and skill by which he brought forward all the military resources of France...

[edit] Point of view

The book is a product of the Victorian era, and Creasy's descriptions of the battles and their impact on history are from a decidedly Eurocentric, and specifically Anglocentric, point of view. There is also significant emphasis placed on the events of, at the time, recent history: one-third of the battles are from within a century and a half of Creasy's writing.

[edit] Derivative works

Since the publication of Creasy's book, other historians have attempted to modify or add to the list.

The Battle of San Jacinto

  • In 1899 The Colonial Press published Decisive Battles of the World by Edward Shepherd Creasy with a Special Introduction and Supplementary Chapters On the Battles of Gettysburg 1863Sedan 1870Santiago and Manila 1898, by John Gilmer Speed (Revised Edition)
  • In 1908 Harper & Bros published an edition with 8 battles added. Quebec; Yorktown; Vicksburg; Gettysburg; Sedan; Manila Bay; Santiago; and Tsushima.
  • In 1920 the Viscount D'Abernon published The Eighteenth Decisive Battle of the World: Warsaw, 1920, in which he claimed that the next battle on the list was the battle of Warsaw, fought in 1920 by the Polish and Bolshevik forces during the Polish-Bolshevik War.
  • In 1930 Texas historian Clarence Wharton published San Jacinto: The Sixteenth Decisive Battle, in which he made the case for adding the final battle of the Texas Revolution to Creasy's list. In 1936 the San Jacinto Monument

    File:Sam Houston at San Jacinto.jpg

  • was given an inscription that echoed Wharton's view: "Measured by its results, San Jacinto was one of the decisive battles of the world. The freedom of Texas from Mexico won here led to annexation and to the Mexican-American War, resulting in the acquisition by the United States of the states of TexasNew MexicoArizonaNevadaCaliforniaUtah and parts of ColoradoWyomingKansas and Oklahoma. Almost one-third of the present area of the American Nation, nearly a million square miles of territory, changed sovereignty."
  • In 1954-1956, British historian J.F.C. Fuller published The Decisive Battles of the Western World and their Influence upon History.
  • In 1956, historian and author Fletcher Pratt published The Battles that Changed History, stories of conflicts that forever changed the course of world events. He listed 16 battles from Arbela to Midway.
  • In 1964, American historian Lt. Col. Joseph B. Mitchell published Twenty Decisive Battles of the World, an update of Creasy's list with five additions:
    1. The Vicksburg Campaign, 1863. By capturing the Mississippi River during the American Civil War, the Union separated the Confederacy into two halves.
    2. Battle of Sadowa, 1866. This Prussian victory over the Austrians during the Seven Weeks War paved the way for a German empire.
    3. First Battle of the Marne, 1914. The British and French prevented a German assault of Paris and an early German victory in World War I.
    4. Battle of Midway, 1942. The beginning of the United States offensive in the Pacific Ocean during World War II and the devastating loss of four Japanese aircraft carriers.
    5. Battle of Stalingrad, 1942-43. The defeat of the German attempt to conquer the Soviet Union and a significant loss of German resources in World War II.
  • In 1976, Noble Frankland and Christopher Dowling published Decisive Battles of the Twentieth Century, which listed 23 battles, from the Battle of Tsushima to the Tet Offensive.

[edit] In popular culture

[edit] External links


 


1

The Battle of Marathon, B.C. 490

The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece.



2

Defeat of the Athenians at Syracuse, B.C. 413 (51 KB)

The Sicilian Expedition was an Athenian military expedition to Sicily, which took place during the period from 415 BC to 413 BC . The expedition was hampered from the outset by uncertainty in its purpose and command structure—political maneuvering in Athens swelled a lightweight force of twenty ships into a massive armada, and the expedition's primary proponent, Alcibiades, was recalled from command to stand trial before the fleet even reached Sicily—but still achieved early successes. Syracuse, the most powerful state on Sicily, responded exceptionally slowly to the Athenian threat and, as a result, was almost completely invested before the arrival of a Spartan general, Gylippus, galvanized its inhabitants into action. From that point forward, however, as the Athenians ceded the initiative to their newly energized opponents,the tide of the conflict shifted. A massive reinforcing armada from Athens briefly gave the Athenians the upper hand once more, but a disastrous failed assault on a strategic high point and several crippling naval defeats damaged the besiegers' fighting capacity and morale, and the Athenians were eventually forced to attempt a desperate overland escape from the city they had hoped to conquer. That last measure, too, failed, and nearly the entire expedition surrendered or was destroyed in the Sicilian interior.and the Athenians were eventually forced to attempt a desperate overland escape from the city they had hoped to conquer. That last measure, too, failed, and nearly the entire expedition surrendered or was destroyed in the Sicilian interior.and the Athenians were eventually forced to attempt a desperate overland escape from the city they had hoped to conquer. That last measure, too, failed, and nearly the entire expedition surrendered or was destroyed in the Sicilian interior.




3

The Battle of Arbela, B.C. 331 (67 KB)

File:Battle of Gaugamela.jpg


4

The Battle of the Metaurus, B.C. 207(77 KB)

Continuing distrust led to the renewal of hostilities in the Second Punic War when Hannibal Barca attacked a Spanish town, which had diplomatic ties to Rome. Hannibal then crossed the Italian Alps to invade Italy. Hannibal's successes in Italy began immediately, and reached an early climax at the Battle of Cannae, where 70,000 Romans were killed. In three battles, the Romans managed to hold off Hannibal but then Hannibal smashed a succession of Roman consular armies. By this time Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal Barca sought to cross the Alps into Italy and join his brother with a second army. Hasdrubal managed to break through into Italy only to be defeated decisively on the Metaurus River. Unable to defeat Hannibal himself on Italian soil,the Romans boldly sent an army to Africa under Scipio Africanus with the intention of threatening the Carthaginian capital. Hannibal was recalled to Africa, and defeated at the Battle of Zama. Carthage never managed to recover after the Second Punic War and the Third Punic War that followed was in reality a simple punitive mission to raze the city of Carthage to the ground. Carthage was almost defenceless and when besieged offered immediate surrender, conceding to a string of outrageous Roman demands. The Romans refused the surrender, and the city was stormed after a short siege and completely destroyed. Ultimately, all of Carthage's North African and Spanish territories were acquired Carthage never managed to recover after the Second Punic War and the Third Punic War that followed was in reality a simple punitive mission to raze the city of Carthage to the ground. Carthage was almost defenceless and when besieged offered immediate surrender, conceding to a string of outrageous Roman demands. The Romans refused the surrender, and the city was stormed after a short siege and completely destroyed. Ultimately, all of Carthage's North African and Spanish territories were acquired Carthage never managed to recover after the Second Punic War and the Third Punic War that followed was in reality a simple punitive mission to raze the city of Carthage to the ground. Carthage was almost defenceless and when besieged offered immediate surrender, conceding to a string of outrageous Roman demands. The Romans refused the surrender, and the city was stormed after a short siege and completely destroyed. Ultimately, all of Carthage's North African and Spanish territories were acquired Ultimately, all of Carthage's North African and Spanish territories were acquired Ultimately, all of Carthage's North African and Spanish territories were acquired by Rome.




5
Victory of Arminius over the Roman Legions under Varus, A.D. 9

in 9CE between Arminius and multiple allied Germanic tribes against three Roman Legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus. It would prove to be one of Rome's greatest losses. A defeat that would redefine the borders of the Roman Empire for centuries and set the path for Europe's linguistic future.

It is a battle that would leave great parts of the Rhine as the border between Germania and a young Imperial Rome ruled by its first Emperor Augustus.




6

The Battle of Chalons, A.D. 451

The battle of the Catalaunian Plains (also known as Battle of the Campus Mauriacus, Battle of Maurica, Battle of the Catalaunian Fields or Battle of Chalons) that was fought in 451 between the alliance led by the Western Roman General Flavius Aetius, king of the Visigoths Theodoric I and the king of Alans Sangiban against the Hun Alliance commanded by Attila, the king of Ostrogoths Valamir and the king of Gepids Ardaric. With the addition of dozens of other tribes, the battle of the Catalaunian Plains can be rightly considered the first pan-European clash. It is equally complicated and controversial, as our info on the battle between the Last Roman Aetius and the Scourge of God Attila, is both limited and conflicting. In any case, this battle was decisive for the history of the Roman Empire and Europe and influenced events of the next centuries.



7

The Battle of Tours, A.D. 732 (31 KB)



File: Battle of Poitiers.jpg

 


8

The Battle of Hastings, A.D. 1066


9

Joan of Arc's Victory over the English at Orleans, A.D. 1429

File: Lenepveu, Joan of Arc at the siege of Orléans.jpg

 

10
The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, A.D. 1588 (69 KB)

File:Loutherbourg-Spanish Armada.jpg



11

The Battle of Blenheim, A.D. 1704



12

The Battle of Pultowa, A.D. 1709

The Battle of Poltava (or Pultowa) on 28 June 1709 was the decisive victory of Peter I of Russia over Charles XII of Sweden in the most famous of the battles of the Great Northern War. It is said to have started the end of Sweden's role as a Great Power and the Russians took their place as the leading nation of northern Europe. This also meant the rise of Imperial Russia


13

Victory of the Americans over Burgoyne at Saratoga, A.D. 1777

The Battles of Saratoga marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne led a large invasion army southward from Canada in the Champlain Valley, hoping to meet a similar British force marching northward from New York City and another British force marching eastward from Lake Ontario; the southern and western forces never arrived, and Burgoyne was surrounded by American forces in upstate New York. He fought two small battles to break out which took place 18 days apart on the same ground, 9 miles south of Saratoga, New York. They both failed. Burgoyne found himself trapped by superior American forces with no relief, so he retreated to Saratoga and surrendered his entire army there on October 17. His surrender,says historian Edmund Morgan, "was a great turning point of the war because it won for Americans the foreign assistance which was the last element needed for victory."14



The Battle of Valmy, A.D. 1792
 (42 KB)

File: Battle of Valmy ag1.jpg



15

The Battle of Waterloo, A.D. 1815 (156 KB)

File:Sadler, Battle of Waterloo.jpg

 

Scene inspired by the Battles of Alexander the Great" - Attributed to Panayiotis Douxaras (1662-1729)

“…the Maiden lets you know that here, in eight days, she has chased the English out of all the places they held on the river Loire by attack or other means: they are dead or prisoners or discouraged in battle. Believe what you have heard about the earl of Suffolk, the lord la Pole and his brother, the lord Talbot, the lord Scales, and Sir Fastolf; many more knights and captains than these are defeated.”
-Letter from Joan to the citizens of Tournai

“…the struggle by which the unconscious heroine of France, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, rescued her country from becoming a second Ireland under the yoke of the triumphant English”

photo

Alexander the GreatNy Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.

  

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