دانلود کتاب 100 Decisive Battles. From Ancient Times to the Present

1. Battles. 2. Military history. [1. Battles. 2. Military history

This work has been undertaken to fulfill a niche in military history that has been somewhat overlooked: that of a detailed survey of the 100 most decisive battles in history. Here, the criteria for including a battle as “decisive” are defined as including any or all of the following:

The outcome of the battle brought about a major political or social change. For example, the Battle of Hastings (or Senlac Hill) in 1066 would fit in this category. The Norman invasion of England completely altered the future of the British Isles, determining the heritage of its people and the nature of its political and social systems. The resulting society then proceeded to have major impacts on events in Europe and, ultimately, the world.

Had the outcome of the battle been reversed, major political or social changes would have ensued. Under this category, a battle such as Trenton in the American Revolution appears. Had Washington lost this battle in December 1776, the defeat almost certainly would have spelled the end of the revolutionary army and therefore the revolution itself, leaving Britain in control of the North American colonies for an indeterminate period in the future, perhaps as a dependent dominion like Canada. Because of battles such as Trenton, multiple battles sometimes appear in the course of a single war; if Trenton had been a British/Hessian victory, the Saratoga and Yorktown battles, also included in this work, would not have been fought.

The battle marks the introduction of a major change in warfare. Adrianople in 378 was such a battle. Before that battle, the infantry in general and Roman infantry, in particular, had dominated warfare; in this battle, the Goths’ victory introduced cavalry as the dominant weapon for the succeeding thousand years.