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

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.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:16:34 +0000

While there are several battles I think probably were not important enough to make this list (Jutland, cough cough) my overall problem is that the list was extremely biased towards western civilization and the modern world. I understand that many battles and wars that shaped our world happened recently and many took place in Europe, but what about battles in the Middle East and Asia? What about the epic failed invasion of Japan by China? What of the Mongol clashes with the Russians? If you truly want to answer such a broad question as which battles shaped the world we live in today you must look deeper into the issue than just well-known battles that didn’t have nearly the same historical, cultural, and strategic military ramifications as some that were left out.

By: jim

jim — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:33:16 +0000

Lepanto( not listed), stoped muslim expansion into the central Mediteranian region and thereby allowed modern day Europe to come into being.

By: Kenny Capps

Kenny Capps — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:27:16 +0000

the blitz through France and the low countrys by Germany were also big changes that made the whole world change how wars were to be fought. Guderian and Manstien change how future wars would be fought. that was probably the biggest shock for the allies in wwII.

By: Kenny Capps

Kenny Capps — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:33:27 +0000

I agree with most of the battles chosen but Salamis would not have been possible without Thermopole and the sacrafice of those greeks that fought and died there.

By: Thomas Richardson

Thomas Richardson — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:43:37 +0000

Add French and Indian Wars, which was the 1st World War. Delete Quebec and Yorktown an add Guilford Courthouse, Yorktown would not have happened if the British were not kicked out of the Southern States. Verdun, Jutland and the Somme did not change anything, but the Spring Attacks in 1918 by the Germans and the Allied counter attacks turned the tide. Drop Leyte Gulf and Berlin add Guadalcanal and Midway