Military History

Highlights of the History of Warfare

Battle of Borodino
Battle of Borodino: French and Russian Cavalry Clash Behind the Raevsky Redoubt. Details from Roubaud’s Panoramic Painting.
Public domain image from Wikipedia.

Readings in the histories of armies, navies, air forces and the military as a whole by some of the greatest writers.

Some Years listed below are approximate.

YearTitleAuthor(s)
1184 BCFall of TroyGeorge Grote
660 BCJapan’s First EmperorSir Edward Reed
490 BCThe Battle of MarathonSir Edward Shepherd Creasy
480 BCBattle of ThermopylaeHerodotus
413 BCSyracuse Defeats AthensSir Edward S. Creasy
400 BCCrisis of Xenophon’s Quest for HomeXenophon
388 BCBrennus Burns RomeBarthold Georg Niebuhr
331 BCAlexander the Great Wins the Battle of GaugamelaSir Edward S. Creasy
322 BCAlexander the Great Reduces TyreOliver Goldsmith
280 BCPyrrhus Attacks RomePlutarch
264-149 BCRome Versus CarthageFlorus
YearTitleAuthor(s)
207 BCBattle of MetaurusSir Edward Creasy
202 BCScipio Africanus Crushes Hannibal At Zama And Subjugates CarthageLivy
200 BCTartars Invade China 200 BCDemetrius Charles Boulger
165-141 BCMaccabaeus Liberates JudeaJosephus
52 BCCaesar Conquers GaulNapoleon III
9 ADArminius Drives Romans Out of GermanySir Edward Creasy
14 ADGermanicus in GermanyTacitus
60 ADRomans Conquer BritainOliver Goldsmith
70 ADRomans Crush Jewish Revolt; Destroy Great TempleJosephus
449-579Germans Conquer BritainJohn R. Green| |Charles Knight
451Attila the Hun Invades the Western Roman EmpireSir Edward S. Creasy| |Edward Gibbon
YearTitleAuthor(s)
636Muslims Conquer SyriaSimon Ockley
711Saracens Invade SpainAhmed Ibn Mahomet Al-Makkari
732Battle of ToursEdward S. Creasy
1000Muslims Invade IndiaAlexander Dow
1066Battle of HastingsSir Edward Creasy
1096-1099The First CrusadeSir George W. Cox
1118Knights Templar FoundedCharles G. Addison
1146Roger Ravages the Byzantine EmpireGeorge Finlay
1187Saladin Takes Jerusalem From the ChristiansSir George W. Cox
1189-1194The Third CrusadeHenry Von Sybel
1190-1809The Teutonic KnightsFrederick C. Woodhouse
1202Philip Breaks the Angevin EmpireKate Norgate
1086-1214Islamic Power Declines in SpainSamuel A. Dunham
1270Louis IX Leads The Last CrusadeJoseph François Michaud
1273Hapsburg Dynasty FoundedWilliam Coxe
1281Japan Repels The MongolsEdward H. Parker| |Marco Polo
YearTitleAuthor(s)
1302The War of the Flemings with Philip the Fair of FranceEyre Evans Crowe
1305William Wallace, BraveheartSir Walter Scott
1314Battle of BannockburnAndrew Lang
1340Battles that Began the 100 Years WarSir John Froissart
1358The Jacquerie RebellionJean Froissart
1370-1405Timur’s (Tamerlane) ConquestsEdward Gibbon
1386The Swiss Win IndependenceF. Grenfell Baker| |Lina Hug and Richard Stead
1415The Battle of AgincourtJames Gairdner
1429Joan of Arc at OrleansSir Edward S. Creasy
1453Ottomans Conquer ConstantinopleGeorge Finlay
1455-1485Wars of the RosesDavid Hume
1456John Hunyady Repulses the TurksÁrmin Vámbéry
1490Spain Conquers GrenadaWashington Irving
1500Ivan the Great Unites Russia and Breaks the Tartar YokeRobert Bell
YearTitleAuthor(s)
1521Sweden LiberatedEric Gustave Geijer
1524The Peasants’ War in GermanyJean-Henri Merle d’Aubigné
1525The Battle of PaviaWilliam Robertson
1527Charles V Sacks RomeBenvenuto Cellini| |T. Adolphus Trollope
1546Protestant Struggle Against Charles V – The Smalkaldic WarEdward Armstrong
1558England Looses Her Last French TerritoryCharles Knight
1571The Battle of Lepanto and the Destruction of the Turkish NavySir William Stirling-Maxwell
1573From the Heroic Years of the DutchThomas Henry Dyer
1581The Cossacks Conquer SiberiaNikolay M. Karamzin
1587Drake Captures Cartegena; Raids CadizJulian Corbett
1588Defeat of the Spanish ArmadaSir Edward Creasy
YearTitleAuthor(s)
1603Earls Flee IrelandJustin McCarthy
1618The Thirty Years WarSamuel R. Gardiner| |Charles F. Horne
1632Gustavus Adolphus at LutzenBenjamin Chapman
1649The English Civil WarLord Thomas Macaulay| |Charles Knight
1649Cromwell’s Ireland CampaignFrederic Harrison
1660When Fighting Sail MaturedAlfred Thayer Mahan
1671Buccaneers Sack PanamaJohann W. Von Archenholz
1672The Dutch Crisis 1672C.M. Davies
1675King Philip’s WarRichard Hildreth
1683Last Turkish Invasion of EuropeSutherland Menzies
1685Monmouth’s RebellionGilbert Burnet
1690James II Invades IrelandTobias G. Smollott
1704The Battle of BlenheimSir Edward Creasy
1709The Battle of PoltavaKazimierz Waliszewski
YearTitleAuthor(s)
1717Turkish Threat on Europe Finally VanquishedPrince Eugene Of Savoy
1739Nadir Shah Captures DelhiSir John Malcolm
1740Prussia Invades SilesiaWilliam Smyth
1755Braddock’s DefeatWinthrop Sargent| |George Washington| |Captain De Contrecoeur
1756-1763The Seven Years WarWolfgang Menzel| |Frederick The Great
1757Clive Establishes British Supremacy in IndiaSir Alexander J. Arbuthnot
1759Britain Captures QuebecArthur G. Bradley
1763Pontiac’s UprisingE.O. Randall
1775Battle of LexingtonRichard Frothingham
1775The Battle of Bunker HillJohn Burgoyne, James Grahame, and John Heneage Jesse
1775Canada Chooses Not Join American RevolutionJohn McMullen
1777The Battle of SaratogaSir Edward Shepherd Creasy
1779“I Have Not Yet Begun to Fight!”Alexander Slidell Mackenzie
YearTitleAuthor(s)
1781Yorktown SurrendersHenry B. Dawson| |Lord Charles Cornwallis
1792Europe’s First Battle Against Republican FranceAlphonse M. L. Lamartine
1794Poland’s DownfallSir Archibald Alison
1796Napoleon’s First CampaignSir Walter Scott
1798Napoleon’s Egyptian WarCharles Knight
1804The Tripolitan War of 1804James Fenimore Cooper
1805The Battle of TrafalgarRobert Southey
1805The Battle of AusterlitzPierre Lanfrey
1806Napoleon Crushes PrussiaSir Walter Scott
1808-1813Wellington’s Peninsular CampaignJohn Richard Green
1809Bolivar and South American IndependenceAlfred Deberle
1812Napoleon’s Russian RetreatCharles A. Fyffe| |Francois Guizot
YearTitleAuthor(s)
1812Canada Versus USA 1812-1814Agnes M. Machar| |David Ramsay
1813Battle of Lake ErieTheodore Roosevelt
1813Leipzig Battle of the NationsWolfgang Menzel
1814British Burns Washington, D.C.Richard Hildreth| |George R. Gleig
1815The Battle of New OrleansJames Parton
1815The Battle of WaterlooWolfgang Menzel| |William Siborne| |Victor Hugo
1825Siege of MissolonghiGeorge Finlay
1827The Battle of NavarinoHarriet Martineau
1830Franch Takes AlgiersFrancis Pulszky
1831Poland 1831 RevoltAlfred Rambaud
1836The Texas RebellionSam Houston| |Charles Edwards Lester
YearTitleAuthor(s)
1837Abd-el-Kader and France’s Conquest of AlgeriaEdgar Sanderson
1840The Opium War of 1840Demetrius Charles Boulger
1846California Acquired by the United StatesHenry B. Dawson
1847Scott Captures Mexico CityJohn Bonner
1855Capture of Sevastopol Ends Crimean WarEdward B. Hamley| |Evelyn Wood
1857The Sepoy MutinyJ. Talboys Wheeler
1859The Second War of Italian IndependencePietro Orsi
1860Kingdom of Italy EstablishedGiuseppe Garibaldi| |John Webb Probyn
1861The First Battle of Bull RunHorace Greeley
1862 The USS Monitor Versus CSS MerrimacJohn Senison Champlin
YearTitleAuthor(s)
1862McClellan’s Peninsula CampaignRossiter Johnson
1862Farragut Captures New OrleansAlfred Thayer Mahan
1863Battle of GettysburgOrville J. Victor| |Edward A. Pollard| |Abraham Lincoln
1863Fall of VicksburgCharles A. Dana| |James H. Wilson
1864The USS Kearsarge Versus CSS AlabamaRaphael Semmes| |John Ancrum Winslow
1864Sherman’s March Across GeorgiaRossiter Johnson
1865Lee Surrenders at AppomatoxUlysses S. Grant
1866The Austro-Prussian WarCharles A. Fyffe
1870Battle of SedanHelmuth von Moltke| |Otto von Bismark
1871German Siege of ParisCharles F. Horne
1877-1878Russo-Turkish War 1877Wilhelm Mueller
1879First Combat Between Modern WarshipsClements R. Markham
1881Chile Captures LimaClements R. Markham
1894The Sino-Japanese War of 1894J. MacGowan| |Jurichi Inouye

1936-39The Spanish Civil War Video

 

YearTitleAuthor(s)
1897Greco-Turkish War of 1897Sir Ellis Ashmead Bartlett
1898The Cuban Campaign of the Spanish-American WarAndrew S. Draper| |Theodore Roosevelt| |Pascual
1898The Battle of Manila BayHubert Howe Bancroft
1900The Boer WarArthur Conan Doyle| |James F.J. Archibald| |
1904Early U.S. BattleshipsJack Le Moine
1904The Russo-Japanese WarCharles F. Horne| |Leo Tolstoy
1911The Turkish-Italian WarWilliam T. Ellis
1912Militarism Before World War INorman Angell| |Sir Max Waechter
1912The First Balkan WarJ. Ellis Barker| |Frederick Palmer| |Stephen P. Duggan
1913The Second Balkan WarStephen P. Duggan| |Capt. A.H. Trapmann
1914Battle of First MarneJack Le Moine
1916Arabs Enter World War ILowell Thomas
1917Lawrence Launches Arab Desert CampaignLowell Thomas
1936-39The Spanish Civil WarVideo
1941-45The Russian Front in World War IIVideo
1942Marines Land on GuadalcanalHenry I. Shaw, Jr.
1944D-Day Summary (infographics)Corey Truman
1945The First Atomic BombCarl Maag| |Steve Rohrer
YearTitleAuthor(s)
– – – –France’s Wars SeriesJack Le Moine

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