10 Little-Known Battles That Changed The World
If you’re here for any reason, it’s to learn about all the things they should have taught you in school. If you missed these stories in history class, we’d like to fix that
10 Little-Known Battles That Changed The World
If you’re here for any reason, it’s to learn about all the things they should have taught you in school. If you missed these stories in history class, we’d like to fix that, because we would be living in a completely different world without these 10 battles.
10 The Battle Of Tours, 732
In the sixth century, the Muslim armies were on a roll, toppling local superpowers and claiming huge swaths of land. In the early sixth century, Berbers from Libya sailed up into Spain and started claiming land for the Ummayad Dynasty. The armies didn’t stop, taking most of southern Spain and then moving further and further up into France. This was the most serious attempt by the Muslims to take Western Europe, and considering Western Europe was in a thing we like to call the Dark Ages, they would have succeeded.
That is, if it wasn’t for Charles Martel. Martel led his armies to meet the Muslims a few times and didn’t get off to a very good start, suffering several defeats. However, the Muslims got lazy, abandoned their posts, and started looting and pillaging local villages. Martel staged a last attempt at Tours and turned the Muslims back into southern Spain. Had he been defeated, there was no other army to check the Ummayads as they entered into Western Europe.
9The Battle Of Tsushima, 1905
Believe it or not, Japan and Russia fought a crazy war before World War I over power in the region. The Russo-Japanese war would eventually end in a Japanese victory and turn them into a key power player that would come into play during World War II. Way back before all that, however, it was the Battle of Tsushima that decided who would win the war. The Russians wanted control of Manchuria, and so did the Japanese. The two armies met at Tsushima. The sea battle was the first time electronic communication was used in battle and resulted in an almost complete destruction of the Russian Navy as well as Japanese control over Manchuria.
8 The Battle Of The Metaurus, 207 B.C.
The Punic Wars were a series of wars between the world’s greatest superpowers of the era, Rome and Carthage. It would be like if China and the US went three rounds in the nuclear octagon. There were three wars, and Rome won each war (but only barely). The Battle of Metaurus was the “little” battle of the Second Punic Wars. Hannibal’s brother, Hasdrubal, faced off against the Roman consul, Nero. Hasdrubal was bringing reinforcements so large that, had he met up with Hannibal, Rome would certainly have fallen. But Hasdrubal lost the battle, and Nero famously had him beheaded and his head thrown into Hannibal’s camp. The Romans would later defeat Hannibal and today we care about the Romans, not the Carthaginians.
7 The Battle Of Blenheim, 1704
Louis XIV wanted something, and he wanted it bad—he wanted regional peace. The problem was that in order to achieve peace, he needed to knock out the Hapsburg capital. So he arranged a massive army and moved in on the superpower. The Austrians, worried of losing, allied themselves with England, Rome, and Prussia into one massive “Great Alliance.” The armies met at the town of Blenheim, where the English began a siege. The French were able to hold off many repeated attempts to enter the city, the English finally broke through. The French suffered huge losses and their “invincible” reputation was destroyed. Furthermore, they were never able to conquer all of Europe.
6The Battle Of Hastings, 1066
For a long time in the eighth and ninth centuries, England was playing the isolationist. Stuck on their island with no other major territories, they sat back and watched as the rest of Europe scratched itself to pieces—until the Normans decided they didn’t like England hiding in the corner like that. They pushed to invade England with a large army, and at the battle of Hastings, they succeeded. The victory placed a foreign ruler on the English throne for the first time ever, opening England to influence from many other countries. For example, the win would integrate many French words into English, dramatically changing the language. It was the last time an army would successfully invade England.
5 The Battle Of Lechfeld, 955
In the eighth century, the Hungarian Empire was on the rise and wanted more and more land. After establishing themselves in the east, they made a move for Western Europe. The only people that stood by them were the newly formed German nation, which was fighting as one army for the first time. At the Battle of Lechfeld, the Germans fought off the invasion and successfully defeated the Hungarian invaders, keeping them from moving into Western Europe and effectively destroying any chance that the Hungarian Empire had of becoming a regional power player. It