US_006-007_Foreword.indd 6 06/04/2018 16:04
7
FOREWORD
Foreword
SIR TONY ROBINSON
How many battles did change the course of history?
It’s a good question. When we read about some troop
deployment on an ancient battleeld, it’s easy to think
of it as a mere historical curiosity rather than as a
confrontation still relevant to us today.
The reality is, though, that the outcomes of historic
battles have shaped countries, empires, civilizations, and
the lives of each and every one of us. In Europe, nations
were born from the crucible of warring powers, while
in the mountains and deserts of the East, ancient rivalries
created borders and molded cultures in ways that are
still central to the lives of their inhabitants today. Across
the great landmass of central Europe, the expansion of
Genghis Khan’s Mongol empire changed the face of a huge
swathe of the world. In South America the use of Spanish
as a lingua franca can be traced to Cortés’s conquest of
the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán, while the US owes much
of its political and cultural heritage to the Revolutionary
War and the American Civil War. Closer to the present,
the behind-the-scenes dealings of the Cold War have had
an enormous inuence both on contemporary geopolitics
and on modern combat.
But it’s not only the great dening moments of history
that are revealed in these battles. Each military engagement
is a snapshot of the political and cultural background in
which it took place; the anger, frustrations, and terror
of the local inhabitants; the clothes and weapons of
the ghting forces, the fateful decisions taken by civilian
and military leaders—all are reected in, and are illuminated
by, the clash of arms. And while this book isn’t intended
as a comprehensive compendium of the world’s wars
or as a manual on the art of warfare, it does aim to oer
a glimpse of the broader world in which each battle took
place, as well as the ways in which history was made at a
particular moment in time.
Finally, as tempting as it is to look back at historical
events simply as fascinating echoes of years gone by,
it’s always worth remembering the sacrices of the fallen.
Military history is forged not only by bravery but by loss
of life, and we would do well to remember this when we
look back at the struggles of the past.
US_006-007_Foreword.indd 7 06/04/2018 16:04
..................Content has been hidden....................
You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.