The Aztecs ruled one of the largest and most advanced civilizations in the world. So how
was their entire empire toppled by a small band of Spanish soldiers?
Alexander the Great's reign as the king of Macedonia lasted just over a decade, but
his impact remained far past his death in 323 B.C. One of the most significant battles of Alexander's
career came in the early years of his reign, in 331 B.C. This was the famous Battle of Gaugamela.
Alexander was born in 356 B.C. and became king of Macedonia in 336 B.C. after the assassination of
his father, Philip II. After putting down internal rebellions, Alexander sought to continue his
father's legacy of expanding the empire into Asia. He and the Greek army conquered Egypt,
and by 331 B.C., Alexander was ready to take on the Persian Empire under Darius III at Gaugamela.
With roughly 20% of the force that Darius had, Alexander was able to defeat Darius and
the Persians during the battle, using superb tactics but also sacrificing many of his own
men. This battle not only strengthened the Greeks, who then pushed across the
Asian mainland all the way to India, but also spelled the end of the Persians. Darius was
killed and Alexander took over as king of his empire, forever changing the landscape of Asia.
In terms of Western history, few imperial powers were as important as ancient Rome.
One of the most significant periods of ancient Rome was the switch from the
Roman Republic to the Roman Empire around the turn of the first millennium. This was due to
a great victory by Octavian, later known as Augustus, in 31 B.C. at the Battle of Actium.
The battle was set up by the death of Julius Caesar 13 years prior,
which had kicked off a power struggle for control of Rome. Though there was a ruling
council consisting of Marc Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus, they fought amongst each other,
which led to the armies of Antony and Octavian facing off at Actium in 31 B.C. Octavian's
victory split Anthony and his lover Cleopatra and led to their deaths, which allowed Octavian
to consolidate power. He then took the name Augustus and became the first Roman emperor.
For Islamic history, one of the most formative early events was the Battle of the Yarmouk.
It ended with a Muslim victory against the Byzantines, largely thanks to the leadership
of Khalid ibn al-Walid, a great early Muslim commander. Following the death of the Prophet
Muhammad in 632, Muslim warriors had continued his legacy of the expansion of Islam. Moving north,
soldiers under the command of Khalid found themselves invading the Levant,
which was then under the control of the Roman Byzantine Empire.
Pushing back, the Byzantine armies met the Muslims at the Yarmouk River in Syria,
with a force roughly twice the size of the Arabs. Even though they were outnumbered,
the Arabs were able to defeat the Byzantine armies' relentless attacks,
with Khalid's superior tactical skills making a crucial difference. The Muslim cavalry
proved decisive, crushing the Byzantines and securing the entire area for Islam.
The victory at Yarmouk essentially gave the Muslims unfettered access through the Levant,
which would quickly result in the surrender of the holy
city of Jerusalem, changing the course of history.
As far as Western Europe is concerned, the Battle of Tours in 732 is certainly one of
the most important in history. The battle saw the Franks under Charles "The Hammer" Martel fighting
to defend their homeland, which was under attack by the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate. Though based all
the way back in Syria, the Umayyad Caliphate had quickly conquered territory across North
Africa following their founding in the seventh century, which soon allowed them access to Europe.
The two armies met at Tours, in what is now modern-day France, in 732, and had roughly
the same strength. Due to the brilliant leadership of Martel, the Franks took the victory that day,
but the battle had consequences that stretched far beyond the battlefield. Many people argue
the battle is what stopped the Muslim invasion of Western Europe, preserving it for Christianity.
The Battle of Hastings in 1066 was one of the most monumentally important battles in
English history. Though it only lasted a single day, the end result was the death
of an English king and the crowning of a Norman as the new ruler of England.
Leading up to the battle was a dispute over who was to succeed English King Edward the Confessor,
who had died in early 1066. Both Harold Godwinson and William, Duke of Normandy,
claimed the throne was theirs, but it was Harold who was crowned.
This led William to initiate an invasion of England in September. William's Norman army
trounced King Harold II's army, and within months William had conquered all of England.
"He was now William the Conqueror,
soon to be William, King of England. The future belonged to the Normans."
It's hard to imagine just how enormous a shift this was at the time, as England had been under
Anglo-Saxon rule for hundreds of years, since the fifth century. The Normans would go on to rule
for nearly a century themselves, fundamentally changing the culture of England in the process.
The name Joan of Arc is one of the most famous in history, and much of her stature comes because
of her actions during the Siege of Orléans in 1429. The battle took place near the end of the
Hundred Years' War between France and England, and many consider it to be a crucial turning
point. By this point in the war, the English were beginning their advance through France,
even going as far as to crown their king's infant son as the new king of France.
Believing she was on a spiritual mission,
Joan was able to convince the real king of France, Charles VII, to send her to Orléans,
which had already been the site of an English siege for months and seemed futile. Within
weeks she was able to completely turn the tide of the battle, forcing the English to retreat.
Though Joan herself would soon be burned at the stake,
the battle proved to have a huge impact on the Hundred Years' War. It helped
France to stave off an English invasion and regain much of its lost territory.
It's thought the Aztecs first came to power in the 15th century in what is now southern Mexico.
At one point, their civilization numbered in the millions and was one of the greatest in
Indigenous American history, but things came to a brutal end following the conquest of the Spanish.
The Spanish, as part of their exploration of the New World under Hernán Cortés, overpowered
the Aztec civilization during the famous Siege of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan in 1521. When
Cortés arrived with his native allies, who hated the violent rule of the Aztecs, he met the Aztec
ruler Montezuma and imprisoned him, then massacred thousands of Aztecs. This led to an Aztec revolt
that briefly halted the Spanish conquest, but the Spanish had more tricks up their sleeves.
"What they decided to do was to mount an attack both by land and by sea."
Along with their superior weapons, the Spanish also brought with them an unknown lethal element:
smallpox. Smallpox devastated the Aztec population, and combined with
the 93-day Siege of Tenochtitlan, led the end of the Aztec empire.
The Byzantine Empire made Constantinople, known today as Istanbul, their capital,
and it stood as a symbol of the greatness of their civilization for over 1,000 years until
its fall in 1453. The Ottoman Empire had been attacking the city for 60 years by that point,
and at Constantinople in 1453, 60 to 80,000 Ottomans took on just 5,000 Byzantine soldiers.
Under the command of Mehmed II and with high-powered and innovative cannons on
their side, the Muslims blasted the city to bits for nearly two
months. Though the Byzantines did the best they could to hold out,
eventually the city fell after the Ottomans finally breached the outer walls.
The invaders proceeded to massacre the populace of the city, essentially ending
the Byzantine Empire. With their capital now in Ottoman hands and their emperor dead,
the Byzantines were powerless to stop the Muslim march into Europe.
It would be another 200 years before their advance was finally turned back for good.
Of the many battles in the American Revolutionary War,
perhaps the most important was that of Saratoga, which ended on October 7, 1777.
Two years into the revolution, the Americans had yet to gain the upper hand on the British.
Dug in and expecting an attack from Gen. John Burgoyne's troops, the colonists under Gen.
Horatio Gates actually enjoyed a troop advantage of more than 2:1 against the British at Saratoga.
The British attack was a complete failure from the beginning, as the outmanned British were
unable to accomplish practically anything. A month after first engaging the colonists,
the British were forced to surrender due to a lack of supplies, a shocking defeat that
suddenly meant the Americans were a force to be reckoned with on the world stage.
"A British officer would write that he felt as if he were looking at a new race of men."
Not only was the battle a huge military victory for the colonists, but it also had astronomical
political implications. The victory at Saratoga brought the French firmly to the American side,
which ultimately proved to be the decisive factor in Americans winning the war.
For many historians, the French Revolution is the most important event in European history.
It began in the 1780s, and by the early 1790s the revolutionaries were ready to expand outside of
France, something neighboring monarchs wished to stop. But at the Battle of Valmy in 1792,
the French defeated the Prussians, signaling the end of the French monarchy
and the beginning of revolutionary ideas spreading throughout Europe.
It also paved the way for Napoleon to become absolute ruler of France,
and nearly the conqueror of all Europe. But in 1815, his army ran into a combined
British and Prussian force at the Battle of Waterloo, where he was ultimately defeated.
Valmy and Waterloo serve as bookends of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars,
which reshaped not just Europe, but the world.
"The 19th century becomes the British century as a result of Waterloo."
After the German invasion of Belgium kicked off the First World War in August 1914,
the German advance across Belgium into northern
France was swift. With the German advance threatening the French capital at Paris,
the First Battle of the Marne became one of the most important of the entire war.
The French faced the Germans in a devastating clash beginning
on September 6. While the Germans had been steamrolling the Allies for weeks,
that came to a halt at the Marne. The French discovered a weakness in the German lines,
and the 6th French Army exploited the hole to devastating effect. This completely split the
German lines apart, allowing the French to stop them from uniting and pushing forward together.
With reinforcements being hurried to the front lines, the French were able to stop the German
assault and save Paris from certain occupation. As a result of the First Battle of the Marne,
the Germans' plan to quickly and decisively end the war was thwarted,
leading to years of devastating warfare. Without the incredible French stand,
Paris falls to the Germans, and the outcome of World War I looks very different.
While it's often the Siege of Stalingrad that gets most of the attention,
the earlier Battle of Moscow may have been even more important for the outcome
of WWII. The Battle of Moscow was part of the larger German Operation Barbarossa,
which they began in the summer of 1941. Barbarossa was a surprise attack on the
Soviet Union by Adolf Hitler and the Germans, and it inaugurated the Eastern Front of the war.
The Germans broke their peace treaty they had signed with the Soviets just two years prior,
and the hope was the surprise attack would allow them to catch the Soviets off-guard
and quickly destroy all of their forces. At first, the German’s gains were extraordinary,
and by September they had reached Moscow. However, it was at Moscow
that the German advance was halted in the face of increasing Russian resistance.
The German advance nearly forced Stalin to evacuate in mid-October, but it also caused
many Russians to rally to the cause and defend Moscow. The Germans had to abandon Barbarossa
and retreat from Moscow in January 1942. Many argue that Barbarossa was the Germans' best
chance to defeat the Soviet army, as it was their one opportunity to catch them off-guard.
With the failure at Moscow, the Germans never found a better chance to win the war.