Fifty Decisive Battles of History
History is made up of the movements of peoples, and single events are rarely crucial. But there are exceptions. These significant battles (many of which could have gone either way) were turning points of history in which the events of a single day had consequences for millions of lives.
1.
2.
The famous Greek defeats of Persian invasions are probably as pivotal as any single events in history -- they allowed subsequent Greek (and European) culture to develop.
3.
With this
victory, Octavian (Augustus Caesar) controlled the Mediterranean world; he was
then able to establish the institutions of the
4.
Established Constantine I as uncontested emperor. Though Constantine’s dynasty was short-lived, his adoption of Christianity (which he credited for the victory) changed history.
5. The
6.
Famous
battles (think
7. Badr (624)
8. Makkah (630)
At Badr, Muhammad built himself up as a local legend, supported by divine intervention. With the (bloodless) conquest of Mecca in 630, he took control of the city that would become the center of his religion.
9.
This defeat stopped a Roman initiative to drive away the Germanic tribes from the borders of the empire. Following that event, the tide slowly turned the other way until most of northern Europe became (and still is) Germanic.
10.
Though Germanic tribes had been expanding into the Empire for some time, it’s difficult to estimate the psychological importance of this major Roman defeat by the Goths. At some point, maybe after this battle (but maybe before), the empire stopped believing in itself and the “barbarians” (ancestors of most current Europeans) began to press their advantage further.
11.
12.
13. Poitiers (732)
These
battles stopped Arab expansion into Europe, permanently as it turned out (at least,
so far). It’s impossible to know how further Arab advance would have changed
the history of
14. Changping (260 BC)
15. Dai (221 BC)
Some of the most significant battles you never heard of took place in 228-221 BC when the armies of Ch’in conquered five other states to unify China, the world’s largest state, for the first time. The achievement would be emulated successfully several times in Chinese history.
16.
17.
At
18. Chalons (451)
This
lucky defeat of the disgusting Attila the Hun saved what little was left of
19. al-Qadisiyyah (636)
20.
21. Nahavand (642)
With these battles ‘Umar, the second caliph of Islam, began a series of astonishing conquests that gave Moslems control of a wide swath of the Earth within a few decades of Muhammad’s death, leading to the hybrid culture of the Islamic empires.
22. Alesia (52 BC)
Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul diminished the Celtic presence in Europe and influenced the subsequent development of a Latin-speaking France.
23.
24.
Palermo (1091)
The successful victory by the small Norman force over the English (Saxons) at Hastings established modern England. Hardly less important was the Norman conquest of Sicily by Roger Guiscard, which paved the way for all Italy to be controlled by Northern Europeans.
25. Manzikert (1071)
This
Seljuk victory in Anatolia marked the advance of Turkish influence in what
would eventually become the
26.
27. Vouillé (507)
These
victories by
28. Lechfeld (955)
Otto I
held the Magyars out of western Europe and defended
the
29.
30. Lepanto (1571)
Halted the advance of the Turks into
31. Spanish Armada (1588)
32.
This
battle ended waning Moorish influence in
33.
European
domination of the
34. Valmy (1792)
Though a trivial battle, it was important because it boosted to the revolutionary government of France, leading immediately to the Revolution which would tear apart the country, and eventually Europe.
35. Sekigahara (1600)
This victory launched the shogunate of Tokugawa Ieyasu which established institutions of Japanese society.
36. Mu Yu (c 1057 BC)
A legendary battle which launched the Chou dynasty, formed after overthrowing the Shang Dynasty.
37. Shelona and The
In
these battles Ivan III got the upper hand over the
38.
The fall
of Constantinople (which became
39.
Established British dominance over the other European
powers in much of
40. Kai-hsia (203 BC)
The battle that allowed Liu Pang to establish the Han Empire.
41. Pydna (168 BC)
Gave
42.
The beginning
of the end of the Franco-Prussian War; the Prussian victory led to the
unification of
43. Boyacá (1819)
44. Ayacucho (1824)
Simón Bolivar’s nationalist war began the dissolution of the European empires.
45. Orléans (1428)
Bizarre battle in which a French force led by the visionary (or crazy)
Jeanne d’Arc rebuffed the English. Eventually d’Arc drove the English out of
46.
These two almost simultaneous battles sealed the outcome of the U.S. Civil War, resulting in the centralization of what is currently the world’s most powerful nation.
47.
48. Midway (1942)
Turning points in the European and Asian theatres of WWII.
49. Panipat (1526)
After this battle (the first of three fought at Panipat) Babur founded the Mughal empire, the last great state in northern India before British rule.
50.
One of the most famous battles in history, it was the defeat that broke Napoleon's empire. But its long-term significance is hard to estimate, since it’s uncertain whether the empire would have outlasted Napoleon or greatly altered the culture of its constituent countries.
…A final
note. Obviously, we will never know many details about the ebb and flow
of social groups before recorded history began. The competition and
advance of cultural groups within Africa; the first movements of peoples out of
Africa and into central and southern Asia; the spread along the southern Asian
coast of the ancestors of Melanesian, Dravidian and Elamite
peoples; the growth of China and southeast Asia; the first colonization of Asia
Minor and Europe and, later, reinvasion of Europe by Celts, Aryans and other
groups; the Asian colonization of the Americas; the rise of the Indo-Europeans
and their subsequent development into known groups such as Persian/Median,
Hittite, Phoenician, and Greek; the origin of Sumer and unification of Egypt;
and the conquests of southeast Asia and the Pacific are all little known to
us. Many of these colonial initiatives were peaceful, but many battles
were also involved. To assign more
importance to later, more familiar developments is obviously backwards, since
the earlier events and migrations did much to shape the world as it is now. But
we don’t have enough information to describe those events.