History Of War (how Warfare Changed The World)

Arranged chronologically, History of War provides a sumptuous, pictorial guide to the most significant conflicts in human history, from the Bronze Age to the 21st Century.

Mankind has waged warfare for as long as hunters have been able to wield deadly weapons: rock paintings dating back 10,000 years show hunter-gatherers in Spain fighting with bows and arrows. The history of humankind is in part the history of warfare, as peoples and states have sought to impose themselves on each and protect their own interests, fighting for land, resources and influence. Arranged chronologically, History of War offers a broad overview of the most important wars, battles and campaigns from the Bronze Age to the present, with extensive coverage of the key developments in military technology along the way. Learn about the fabled Siege of Troy, and the Bronze Age weapons deployed at the time; understand how William of Normandy broke the Anglo-Saxon shield wall at Hastings with the clever use of feint cavalry tactics, and in so doing, won himself a kingdom; marvel at the final fall of the Eastern Roman empire, when Mehmet II’s Ottoman troops finally stormed the walls of Constantinople in 1453; follow the three-day battle at Gettysburg, where the Union army halted Lee’s Confederate advance north and turned the war in favour of the federal government; see the success of the tank as a spearhead of lightning tactics, deployed so effectively by Germany during the invasions of Poland, France and Russia in World War II; and understand the uses of drones in modern warfare, and their ability use stealth tactics to destroy tanks, artillery and fixed enemy positions. History of War provides a sumptuous, pictorial guide to the most significant wars, battles and campaigns in world history, from the Bronze Age to the 21st Century.

Contents:

EARLY WARFARE Heroic war and the dominance of the chariot Ancient Era (1300BCE–500CE) Egyptian-Hittite conflicts (new Kingdom period), 1274 (battle of Kadesh) Sea Peoples'' invasion of Egypt Trojan War (dates uncertain) First Messenian War (c. 735–715 BCE) Lelantine War (c. 720–680 BCE; dates uncertain) Egyptian campaign against the Kingdom of Judah Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley (c. 535/518BCE–450 BCE)

CLASSICAL WARS The rise of the phalanx and military order; the trireme, and mounted infantry Greco-Persian Wars (492–449 BCE) Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE) Campaigns of Alexander the Great (335– 326 BCE): Battle of Thebes, 335 BCE, Battle of the Granicus River, 334 BCE, Battle of Issus, 333 BCE, Siege of Tyre, 332 BCE, Battle of Gaugamela, 331 BCE, Battle of the Persian Gate, 330 BCE, Battle of the Hydaspes, 326 BCE First Punic War (264–241 BCE) Second Punic War (218–201 BCE) Third Punic War (149–146 BCE) Gallic Wars (58–50 BCE) Siege of Jerusalem (63 BC) by Pompey the Great Siege of Alexandria (48–47 BC) – Caesar''s Civil War War of Actium (32–30 BC) Wars of Augustus (30BCE–14CE) Siege of Masada (72–73 or 73–74) – First Jewish–Roman War Roman conquest of Britain (43–96) Roman–Parthian War of 58–63 Second Dacian War (105–106) Perso-Roman wars of 337–361 Goguryeo–Wa conflicts (391–404) Gothic War (401-403)

EARLY MEDIEVAL WARFARE (600–1100) The return of heroic war in the west, organization remains in the east, the rise of cavalry, the longship, and the return of the phalanx (shield wall) Siege of Rome (537–538) – Gothic War (535–554) Siege of Ravenna (539–540) – Gothic War (535–554) Siege of Rome (549–550) – Gothic War (535–554) Siege of Edessa (603) – Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 Siege of Constantinople (626) by Avars and Sassanid Persians Siege of Damascus (634) – Muslim conquest of the Levant Jinshin-no-ran (672) Siege of Mecca (683) by the Umayyads du