5 of the World’s important Battles one should know about

The human history starts with a fight for supremacy over more lands, more money, and more power. The fight often led to many battles and wars that decide who should share more and who should bear.  The battles and wars always were the deciding factors.

Sometimes, a side having more arms and ammunition won the battle and sometimes the side though having large army was forced to accept the defeat on account of poor strategy. Sometimes it was the nature who helped the winner and sometimes the sheer willpower and enthusiasm coupled with a superiority of the weaponry that decided the side victorious. This is all about of course winning the game only. The following are the important battles where find all the aspects described above.

Megiddo 1479 B.C

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The Details of the Battle come from Egyptian sources. It is also the first use of a composite bow, that store more energy than an ordinary bow and first body count which means the total number of people killed in the battle.

The first recorded battle of the history fought between the Pharoah Thutmose III of Egypt and rebel chieftains took place near Mount Carmel in modern day Israel Though there is a difference of opinion as to the date of the battle, there is unanimity in accepting the date as 1479 B.C. The Battle resulted in the total suppression of Canaanite forces and Egyptian forces became victorious bringing 1041 horses, and 941 chariots of the enemy. The interesting thing is that the details of the battle are written in Hieroglyphic script on the walls. 

Marathon 490 B.C:

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The victory of the Greeks over the invading forces of the Persian emperor Darius I near Athens. The victory rescued Greek democracy from the threat of the foreign tyranny.

The victory of Greeks over Persians was very doubtful in view of the supremacy of the Persian Cavalry and lack of support from Spartan but the location chosen was turned out to be a boon for Greeks.

The location was surrounded by marshes and mountain and as such the cavalry could not reach the main Persian army.

The Persian army was broken to pieces and many were slaughtered.

This has shown the Greeks that they can beat Persians and that the need of Spartans is not necessary.

This battle is the inspiration for the Marathon race.

The message of Greek’s victory carried by a messenger running to Athens became an athletic event.

Salamis 480 B.C

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The source of information about this battle is available from the writings of Greek historian Herodotus who is known as ‘father of History’.

This is the first important naval battle of history in which the Greek navy defeated the Persian fleet near Athens.

Greek and its allies as well as Persian king Xerxes were anxious to win the battle and want to make it a decisive once and for all.

The Persian navy sailed into the strait of salamis and tried to block both the entrances, but in the cramped conditions it became difficult to maneuver the ships and they became totally disorganized which was used as a great opportunity by the Greeks and scored a decisive victory.

The importance of the Battle of Salamis lies in the fact that the Persians were defeated once and for all otherwise their victory would have crippled the development of ancient Greece.

Gaugamela 321 B.C

 

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The Battle was fought between Alexander the Great of Macedonia and the Persian army under Darius III at Gaugamela.

This Battle is also called the Battle of Arbela. Alexander emerged victorious on account of superior tactics and the weaponry. Arrian explains beautifully the tactics adopted by Alexander in the Battle.

The Historians give different figures about the strength of the army of Darius III. Though the figure is very much higher, the army of Alexander was armed with ‘sarissa’ a six-meter long spear whereas the troops of Darius III was poor in training and got only 3 meter long spears which are totally a mismatch.

Historians say that Darius made three negotiations before declaring a battle with Alexander. Plutarch and Arrian mention that Darius even offered ransom in the third negotiation. But all were turned down by Alexander insisting that ‘there could be only one king for Asia ‘. He asked Darius III either to surrender or to prepare for the Battle to decide who was to be the sole ruler of Asia.

Alexander the Great’s victory over the Persian Empire on the Tigris River in modern day Iraq led to the establishment of Greek rule in the Middle East.

Cannae 216 B.C

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In the Second Punic War Hannibal of Carthage invaded Southern Italy, where he was badly outnumbered by Roman forces. Nevertheless, by using a deceptive battle strategy, he was able to encircle and defeat the Romans. This is one of the worst defeats in Roman History and one of the greatest tactical feats in Military History.

The Double envelopment strategy, where the forces simultaneously attack the both sides of an army formation was adopted by Hannibal was a great success that the Roman army was totally destroyed. In this battle, the Roman troops used typical Roman equipment and traditional helmets whereas the Carthaginian army used a variety of equipment Polybius gives a vivid description of the battle and even names it as the barbarian method of fighting.