Comments on: 50 Battles That Shaped Our World – What Would You Pick?

By: be skinny

be skinny — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 11:45:52 +0000

Thanks mate. Good article you have here. Got some more links to direct to with more info?

By: DEAN ALLEN JONES

DEAN ALLEN JONES — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:27:09 +0000

In spite of what American historians like to say, the wars for Haitian independence shaped the modern United states as much as did the wars of Independence and the war of 1812. France, Spain, and England, the superpowers of the time, squandered the lives of abourt 100,000 men attempting to retake the most prosperous slave colony in the new world. Eventually, Napoleon decided to cut his losses and sold about one third ot the continent of North America to the United States for chump change. Incidentally, the reparations which “free” Haiti was forced to pay to its former slave masters (with US approval) was many times higher than what the US paid for the Louisiana Purchase.

I didn’t see Dien Bien Phu among the list of the most decisive battles of modern history. I believe that the defeat of French forces which were well trained and largely equipped with US built weapons by indigenous Vietnamese encourged colonized people all over the world to seek independence on their own terms.

I do not regard the so-called cold war as a simple contest of good versus evil. The cold war was an ugly and cynical enterprise which both sides used as an excuse to retard and distort the decolonization process for people in the so-called third world at the cost of countless millions of lives, most of whom were civilians..

I do not think that future generations will look very kindly upon the cold war or on any of the major players.j

By: james fulford

james fulford — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:50:29 +0000

If you wish to have the battle where the English captured the French King, I think the appropriate battle would be Poitiers (1356).

Of ancient history I favour Carchemish (ca 1280 bce) between the forces of the hittite empire, and the new kingdom of egypt under Ramesses II.

Slightly more recent ancient history would be the invasion Syracuse by the Athenians which resulted , ultimately, in their defeat in the Peloponnesian war (430 to 404 bce)

By: Chris Hodson

Chris Hodson — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:33:48 +0000

I would drop a lot of the ones listed. Since we live in the “modern era”, I would most definitely drop Yorktown in favor of Saratoga.

By: greg whitlock

greg whitlock — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:12:57 +0000

1. Tours- preserved western culture,christianity, held back islam, in
sured the founding of representative govt and the founding the US.
2. platea- discouraged further invasion and establishment of mesopotamian culture, preserved republican democracy, held back later islam.
3. salamis- initial defeat of mesopotamian forces and culture and above remarks.
4. matarus river- preserved western greco-roman european culture and held back african phonecian monarchian culture, future christianity and held back future islam.
5. yarmuk- the establishment of islam in africa and the middle east.

By: Spike Beak

Spike Beak — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:04:32 +0000

The battles of Verdun and the Somme achieved nothing other than to send 2 million men to their deaths for no significant gains. The generals responsible for these debacles had not learned anything in years of trench fighting (First episode of Black Adder goes Forth comes to mind). They should not be on the list because they were nothing more than bloody battles in a bloody war. Of the battles of WWI, the one that “shaped our world” the most was the battle of Le Hamel, July 1918. Le Hamel was the first truly modern battle of our time, where the use of infantry, tanks, artillery and aircraft were used closely together, ie. the combined arms strategy. It shaped our world because ironically, the only nation to learn from Le Hamel were the ones on the recieving end, the Germans, and how they learned. Twenty years later, they unleashed Blitzkrieg, the combined arms strategy that rolled all before it. Had Britian or France learned the same lessons, Germany might well have stopped in her tracks.

By: Joseph Thompson

Joseph Thompson — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:01:53 +0000

I really think you should have included Julius Caesar’s victory at the Gaul city of Alesia. Caesar surrounded the city with 45,000 soldiers while the city had 70,000 defenders! The Romans also got attacked by a relief force of 250,000 troops and Caesar still defeated them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Darla

Darla — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:46:11 +0000

I would like to know why the Arabs of Gaza and the West Bank call themselves Palestinians? In my dictionary it says that Palestine means Jewish Homeland.So do the Palestinians now consider thmselves Jews??? I find that really odd!!

By: Darla

Darla — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:37:26 +0000

I am really confused by information I’ve gotten about isreal’s war of independence. They became a state in May of 1948 then were immediately attacked by the Arabs on all sides .Then Syria took the Golan Heights, Egypt took the Gaza Strip, Transjordan or (Jordan) took the West Bank and kept them for 19 years ,(even keeping the Isreali,s from Jerusalem for 19 years) Why didn’t the U.N. or the World call foul when that was done to Isreal ? Then when Isreal was attacked again in 1967 and took the territories back.Most people were so against the Jews “occupying “those areas that had been taken away in 1948. The U.N. were going to give all of Palestine to the Jews because of the horrible treatment they had been given around the world, but before that happened they (the U.N.) divided it by the Jordan River into two parts and gave most of the area to the Arabs. Isreal is surrounded by more than 20 Arab states ,that have 640 times the land mass and out number the Jews of Isreal 50 to 1. What is their problem???

By: Steve Litten

Steve Litten — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:48:28 +0000

Chris makes a valid point – there are vast swathes of history, cultural domination, or geopolitical importance ignored. Europe, and western Europe at that, was globally important only after China took its eye of the ball. But then, we are mostly “Europeans”, even the Americans and me.
Unfortunately, the list as presented moves forward through time. To help ourselves assess the importance of each “battle”, we should move backwards through time and consider how it impinged forward. Some battles, while decisive militarily, are overshadowed by political decisions made later. Thus, The French and Indian War (1756-63) was only significant because the British confiscated Quebec and not France’s Caribbean colonies. Similarly, the Seven Years War, between Prussia, Austria and Russia starts to look less imposing when one realises Russia’s Tsar Peter III handed all his country’s gains (East Prussia, Berlin) back to Prussia in support of a dynastic claim in Holstein.

But off my hobby horse, and onto an overlooked battle – Khalkin Gol, between thew Soviet Union and Japan, 1939. Japan was deterred from invading the Soviet Union and instead went South. Kind of important. It’s not the big wars that produce all the big decisions.