Battles That Changed the World: 32 decisive days

1 Marathon, 490 BC

Where

Plain of Marathon, Attica, Greece

War

Greco-Persian Wars (Darius I's expedition)

Sides

Athens and Plataea vs the Persian Empire

Strength

About 10,000 Greeks (Nepos) vs 100,000 Persian foot in Nepos, about 25,000 in a modern estimate

Result

Athenian victory; the Persians sailed away

In the late summer of 490 BC a Persian expedition sent by Darius I, fresh from taking Eretria on Euboea, landed at Marathon, northeast of Athens, bringing Hippias, the exiled tyrant whom the Persians meant to put back in power. Nepos counts 10,000 Athenians and Plataeans, 1,000 of them from Plataea. He gives the Persians 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse, while the historian Jona Lendering reckons about 25,000, so their strength is disputed.¹

Led by Miltiades, the Athenians crossed the plain at a run, broke the Persian wings and drove the invaders to their ships.²

What it changed is smaller than its fame. Lendering points out that the Persian force was too small to conquer and hold Greece, and Xerxes came back with a far larger one ten years later. Its lasting effect was on ideas. The Athenians honored their dead as defenders of their democracy, and Herodotus told the war as free citizens against the subjects of a king, the root of the old notion that East and West are opposites. John Stuart Mill even called Marathon “more important than the battle of Hastings” as an event in English history. Myth vs fact: the runner who brought the news and dropped dead is not in Herodotus but appears centuries later in Plutarch; the story still gave the 1896 Olympics their race.³

Why it is here: Full marks for recognition and memory, since every marathon run anywhere carries its name, lift it to 44 and the sixth ancient place, a point ahead of Zama. It ended one expedition, not the war, so consequence and decisiveness score 4.

Read the full story of the Battle of Marathon ›

2 Salamis, 480 BC

Where

The strait between the island of Salamis and Attica, Greece

War

Greco-Persian Wars (Xerxes' invasion)

Fleets

Allied Greek fleet (Eurybiades of Sparta, Themistocles of Athens) vs the Persian fleet of Xerxes

Strength

310 to 380 Greek triremes (Aeschylus, Herodotus) vs perhaps 500 Persian in a modern estimate; 1,207 in Herodotus and Aeschylus (disputed)

Result

Greek victory; Xerxes recalled his army

Ten years after Marathon, Xerxes invaded Greece himself. He took Athens in the last days of September 480 BC, while the allied Greek fleet lay off the island of Salamis, opposite the city. Herodotus counts 378 Greek ships and Aeschylus 310; both give Xerxes 1,207 ships in all, while a modern estimate puts the Persians at Salamis at about 500, with no consensus.⁴

Themistocles may have lured the enemy into the strait with a false message, as Herodotus tells it. In the narrows the Persian numbers counted for little, and by nightfall at least a third of their ships had been beaten. Xerxes recalled his army from the Isthmus, and the next summer the army he had left behind lost the land war at Plataea.⁵

In 478 BC the Greeks formed the Delian League to free the Greek cities of the east, an alliance of more than 300 cities that Athens came to dominate so completely that it became, in effect, an Athenian empire. For World History Encyclopedia's Mark Cartwright, the freedom won at Salamis allowed “a never-before-seen period of artistic and cultural endeavour” that would form the foundations of Western culture: the Athens of the following century.⁶

Why it is here: Full marks for consequence and decisiveness, because it turned Xerxes' invasion back to Asia and kept the Greek cities free, give it 45; with Gaugamela it is one of only two ancient battles above 44. Its name is less known worldwide than Marathon's, so recognition and memory score 4.

Read the full story of the Battle of Salamis ›

3 Gaugamela, 331 BC

Where

Plain of Gaugamela, near Arbela (Erbil), northern Iraq

War

Alexander the Great's war against the Persian Empire

Sides

Macedonians and Greeks under Alexander vs the Persian Empire under Darius III

Strength

Alexander about 47,000 (Arrian); the Persian total is unknown, ancient figures run from about 245,000 to over 1,000,000

Result

Decisive Macedonian victory; Darius fled

On 1 October 331 BC Darius III, already beaten at Issus, met Alexander on a wide plain in northern Iraq. Arrian gives Alexander 7,000 cavalry and about 40,000 infantry, and Darius 40,000 cavalry and 1,000,000 infantry. The million is impossible. Other ancient writers give totals from about 245,000 to more than a million; no reliable modern figure exists, and Britannica calls some of the ancient totals fantastic.⁷

The Persian line stretched to follow Alexander as he edged to the right, a gap opened, and he drove his Companion cavalry into it straight at Darius, who fled as he had at Issus. A Babylonian diary written days later puts it more bluntly: “the troops abandoned their king.”⁸

The result is not in doubt. Alexander took Babylon and Susa, burned the palace at Persepolis, and Darius was killed by his own nobles. The prize was immense: on Rein Taagepera's figures, as tabulated by Peter Turchin and colleagues, the Achaemenid Empire at its height covered about 5.5 million km², and the empire Alexander ruled at his death in 323 BC about 5.2 million km².⁹

Why it is here: It has the highest score of the ancient world, 46, with full marks for consequence, recognition and decisiveness: few single battles ended a great empire so completely or changed the culture of so wide a region. Memory scores 4, and the inflated Persian numbers of the ancient writers hold certainty to 3.

Read the full story of the Battle of Gaugamela ›

4 Alesia, 52 BC

Where

Alesia, on Mont Auxois near Alise-Sainte-Reine, Burgundy, France

War

Gallic Wars

Besiegers

Julius Caesar's ten legions with auxiliaries, about 60,000 men by Britannica's estimate

Defenders

Vercingetorix with 80,000 men by Caesar's count, plus a relief army he put at 250,000 foot and 8,000 horse

Outcome

Relief army beaten; Vercingetorix surrendered and Gaul was conquered

In 52 BC most of Gaul rose against Rome under Vercingetorix of the Arverni. He shut himself into the hilltop town of Alesia with an army Caesar puts at 80,000 chosen men and grain for about 30 days. Caesar's army, about 60,000 men by Britannica's estimate, dug an 11-mile ring of works around it and then a second ring, 14 miles long, facing outward against the relief army they knew was coming.¹⁰

Then the relief army arrived, by Caesar's count about 250,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry. The Gauls attacked from inside and outside at once until Caesar broke their last assault with his reserves and German cavalry, and the next day Vercingetorix surrendered. He was kept a prisoner in Rome for six years, led in Caesar's triumph and executed in 46 BC. Caesar's Gallic numbers are almost certainly inflated, but his ditches are real: excavations ordered by Napoleon III in 1861 and 1862 found them around the hill.¹¹

Gallic independence died here. Once Caesar went home, Romanization began: Latin came in, and new Roman towns of brick and stone, with baths, temples and amphitheaters, replaced many of the old settlements. Gaul stayed Roman until the fifth century AD, when it passed to the Franks, Burgundians and Visigoths.¹²

Why it is here: A siege counts on this page when it decided a war, and Alesia decided the fate of Gaul, so it takes full marks for consequence and decisiveness. Caesar's own inflated numbers hold certainty to 3; on 44 it ties Marathon, Actium and Teutoburg Forest, and all four take ancient places one point ahead of Zama and Red Cliffs.

Read the full story of the siege of Alesia ›

5 Actium, 31 BC

Where

Off the promontory of Actium, Ionian Sea, western Greece

War

Final war of the Roman Republic

Fleets

Octavian's fleet under Agrippa vs the fleet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII

Strength

Antony 500 warships vs Octavian 250 in Plutarch; modern accounts about 230 vs over 400

Result

Octavian's victory; Antony's fleet and army lost

By 31 BC the Roman world was split between Octavian in the West and Mark Antony, allied with Cleopatra of Egypt, in the East. Agrippa penned Antony's fleet and army in at the Gulf of Ambracia, beside the cape of Actium. The size of the fleets is disputed: Plutarch gives Antony 500 warships against Octavian's 250, while modern accounts put Antony's navy at about 230 vessels and Octavian's at over 400.¹³

On 2 September Antony tried to break out. Cleopatra's squadron sailed through a gap in the line, and Antony followed her to Egypt. Plutarch counts not more than 5,000 dead but 300 ships captured, and the abandoned land army held together for seven days before it went over to Octavian.¹⁴

In 30 BC, with Octavian besieging Alexandria, Antony and Cleopatra took their own lives. Cleopatra was the last ruler of Egypt before it was annexed as a province of Rome, and the fall of her kingdom, the last Hellenistic state, closed the age that Alexander had opened. In 27 BC the Senate gave Octavian the name Augustus and Rome had its first emperor. He ruled for more than forty years, long enough, in Jona Lendering's words, “to make people accustomed to it and to forget the violence of his coup.”¹⁵

Why it is here: Full marks for consequence and decisiveness, because it ended the civil wars, made Egypt Roman and turned the Republic into an empire. The fighting is thinly described and filtered through Augustan propaganda, so certainty scores 3, and on 44 it ties Marathon, Alesia and Teutoburg Forest.

Read the full story of the Battle of Actium ›

6 Teutoburg Forest, AD 9

Where

Probably near Kalkriese, Lower Saxony, Germany

War

Roman wars in Germania

Sides

Three Roman legions under Publius Quinctilius Varus vs Germanic tribes under Arminius

Strength

Three legions with auxiliaries, perhaps 10,000 to 15,000 men; Germanic numbers unknown

Result

Roman army destroyed; Varus killed himself

Rome had spent more than twenty years subduing the tribes between the Rhine and the Elbe, and Germania was about to become a province. In September AD 9 Publius Quinctilius Varus was leading three legions through the region when Arminius, a Cheruscan nobleman, turned a coalition of tribes against him. A modern estimate puts the Roman army at 10,000 to 15,000 men; the sources say nothing about German numbers.¹⁶

Cassius Dio, writing two centuries later, describes a column strung out among wagons and camp followers in thick forest and driving rain, attacked from all sides over four days, until Varus and his senior officers took their own lives. Excavations at Kalkriese since 1989 prove that Romans and Germans fought there.¹⁷

From AD 14 to 16 Germanicus devastated the country, routed Arminius and recovered two of the three lost eagles. But after three years of heavy losses the emperor called the campaigns off, and Rome dropped its plans for Germania. It never consolidated its hold east of the Rhine; the frontier was fortified along the river instead, and the lands beyond stayed outside the empire. The Kalkriese museum says hardly any other event fed German identity and nationalism in the same way, and the giant Hermann Monument to Arminius near Detmold was unveiled in 1875.¹⁸

Why it is here: Full marks for consequence and memory: it fixed where Roman Europe ended and became a founding story of German nationalism. Decisiveness is 4 because Rome fought on beyond the Rhine, and certainty 3 because the story rests on later Roman writers; on 44 it ties Marathon, Alesia and Actium.

Read the full story of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ›

7 Hastings, 1066

Where

On the ridge at Battle, East Sussex, 7 to 8 miles from Hastings, England

War

Norman conquest of England

Sides

William, Duke of Normandy, vs King Harold II of England

Strength

About 5,000 to 7,000 men a side (modern estimates cited by English Heritage); 5,000 to 8,000 Normans (World History Encyclopedia); no one counted

Result

Norman victory; Harold killed, William crowned on Christmas Day 1066

Harold was crowned king of England on 6 January 1066, after Edward the Confessor died childless. Harold destroyed Harald Hardrada of Norway at Stamford Bridge on 25 September; days later William of Normandy landed at Pevensey, and Harold rode south to meet him on a ridge 7 to 8 miles from Hastings. English Heritage cites modern estimates of 5,000 to 7,000 men a side, and World History Encyclopedia puts William's army at 5,000 to 8,000.¹⁹

On 14 October the English fought on foot behind their shield wall while Norman archers and mounted knights came up the slope again and again until Harold fell and the English line broke. Myth vs fact: the arrow in Harold's eye on the Bayeux Tapestry was added during 19th century repairs, and the accounts closest to the battle say Norman knights cut him down.²⁰

One afternoon ended five centuries of Anglo-Saxon rule. William was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, and a much smaller number of Normans almost entirely replaced the Anglo-Saxon ruling and landowning class, a changeover the Domesday Book of 1086 lays bare. Its Norman inspectors who spoke French and Latin questioned a people who spoke English. The Church was restructured, French had a lasting influence on English syntax and vocabulary, and the politics of England and France stayed bound together for centuries.²¹

Why it is here: With 49 it shares the highest medieval score with Constantinople: full marks for consequence, recognition, decisiveness and memory, since it changed who ruled England and how the English spoke. It drops a single point, for certainty, because the size of the armies is a guess.

Read the full story of the Battle of Hastings ›

8 Manzikert, 1071

Where

Near the fortress of Manzikert (Malazgirt) in Byzantine Armenia, now eastern Turkey

War

Byzantine-Seljuk wars

Sides

Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes vs Sultan Alp Arslan of the Seljuk Turks

Strength

No reliable figures survive for either side (Britannica); part of the Byzantine army withdrew before the battle and never fought

Result

Seljuk victory; the emperor captured and freed about a week later

In 1071 Romanos IV Diogenes marched east with conscripts and mercenaries to win back frontier fortresses from the Turks. No reliable figures survive for either army, Britannica notes. Paul Markham, writing for De Re Militari, reckons that Tarchaneiotes' army of about 20,000 withdrew before the battle and never fought.²²

In late August, after a day of skirmishing with Alp Arslan's horse archers, Romanos turned back toward camp; the reserve under his rival Andronikos Doukas withdrew from the field instead of coming to his aid, the lines broke, and Romanos was taken prisoner. Myth vs fact: the army was not wiped out. Markham puts Byzantine losses at no more than about 8,000.²³

The disaster came afterward. Romanos was deposed and blinded, and while the Byzantines fought each other in a civil war that lasted ten years, the Turks advanced into the power vacuum in Anatolia. In 1094 or 1095 Emperor Alexios I asked Pope Urban II for help against the Seljuks, who had taken nearly all of Asia Minor from him, and Urban's answer at Clermont was the call to the First Crusade. Markham argues that politics in Constantinople lost Anatolia more than this battle did. Turkey still marks the day: in 2026 a senior presidential aide called the victory the moment that opened Anatolia to permanent Turkish settlement, Yeni Şafak reported.²⁴

Why it is here: Full marks for consequence, because it opened Anatolia to the Turks and led to the appeal that became the First Crusade. Most of the army escaped, so decisiveness is 4, as are recognition and memory; on 43 it stays a point ahead of Hattin and Agincourt.

Read the full story of Manzikert ›

9 Hattin, 1187

Where

The Horns of Hattin, west of the Sea of Galilee, in present-day Israel

War

Saladin's war against the Crusader states

Sides

Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, vs King Guy of Lusignan of Jerusalem

Strength

About 30,000 Ayyubids vs perhaps 20,000 Crusaders, some 1,200 of them heavy horse (Britannica); Solecki gives well over 30,000 vs 15,000 to 20,000

Result

Ayyubid victory on 4 July 1187; the Crusader field army destroyed, King Guy captured

By 1187 Saladin ruled both Egypt and Muslim Syria, and the Crusader states were ringed on land by a single power. When he invaded, King Guy of Lusignan called out almost every fighting man in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Britannica puts the army at perhaps 20,000 men with some 1,200 heavy horsemen and Saladin's at about 30,000; the historian Piotr Solecki gives the Franks 15,000 to 20,000 and the sultan well over 30,000. All are estimates.²⁵

On 3 July the Franks marched from the springs of Saffuriya to relieve Tiberias, and as soon as they left the water behind, Saladin's skirmishers harassed them, the chronicler Ernoul writes. Next morning the smoke of the burning scrub blew into the Franks' faces, and the parched army was driven onto the twin hill called the Horns of Hattin, where Guy and the relic of the True Cross were taken. Ibn al-Athir wrote that since their first assault on Palestine the Franks had never suffered such a defeat.²⁶

With no army left, the kingdom fell apart: Acre opened its gates within days, by September Saladin held nearly every port south of Tripoli except Tyre, and on 2 October 1187 Jerusalem surrendered. Tyre became the foothold from which the West struck back; the Third Crusade won back Acre and part of the coast, but never Jerusalem.²⁷

Why it is here: One battle cost the crusaders their army and, within three months, Jerusalem, so decisiveness takes full marks; consequence scores 4, because the crusader states held the coast for another century. It ties Agincourt on 42 points and goes ahead of it on consequence.

Read the full story of the Battle of Hattin ›

10 Second Tarain, 1192

Where

Tarain (Taraori), near Thanesar in today's Haryana, about 150 km from Delhi

War

Ghurid invasion of northern India

Sides

Muhammad of Ghor vs Prithviraj III Chauhan, king of the Chahamanas

Strength

Some 120,000 Ghurids vs 300,000, figures given as hearsay; a modern Indian account gives Prithviraj 100,000 to 120,000 (all disputed)

Result

Ghurid victory; Prithviraj captured and killed

In 1191 Muhammad of Ghor, the Muslim ruler of Ghazni, was routed at Tarain, near Thanesar, by Prithviraj III of the Chauhan dynasty, whose lands took in the Delhi region. In 1192 he came back to the same field with a new army of Turkic, Afghan and Persian troops. Nobody counted the armies: World History Encyclopedia gives, as what “is said”, 120,000 against 300,000, while the Indian magazine The Week gives Prithviraj 100,000 to 120,000.²⁸

This time Muhammad refused the head-on fight. Mounted archers harried the flanks and rear, avoiding close combat, until Prithviraj's army lost its cohesion; then 12,000 heavy cavalry charged its center and it broke. Prithviraj fled but was captured and killed, John Rickard writes. Myth vs fact: in the legend the blinded captive shoots Muhammad dead at Ghazni, but Muhammad was murdered in the Punjab in 1206; The Week has Prithviraj tortured to death soon after his capture.²⁹

Earlier Muslim victories in northern India had led to no lasting conquest; this one did. Delhi was taken in 1192, and in 1206 Muhammad's slave general Qutb ud-Din Aibak proclaimed himself sultan of Delhi. The Sultanate lasted until 1526, and World History Encyclopedia credits Muhammad with founding the Islamic dynasties of India that peaked in the Mughal Empire of 1526 to 1857.³⁰

Why it is here: It began Muslim rule from Delhi, which shaped northern India for centuries, so consequence and decisiveness take full marks; the name is little known outside India, recognition 3, and the numbers and Prithviraj's end rest on conflicting accounts, certainty 2. On 41 points it takes the sixth medieval place, one point above Yarmouk.

Read the full story of the Second Battle of Tarain ›

11 Agincourt, 1415

Where

Near Azincourt, northern France, about 75 km (45 miles) south of Calais

War

Hundred Years' War

Sides

Henry V of England vs the French army under the Constable, Charles d'Albret

Strength

About 6,000 to 8,500 English vs 12,000 to 30,000 French (Britannica, Anne Curry; disputed)

Result

English victory; about 6,000 to 7,000 French dead, a few hundred English (about 400 by Britannica's estimate)

Henry V invaded Normandy in August 1415 to press his claim to the French crown. The siege of Harfleur took more than five weeks, and disease, death and desertion thinned his army; he was marching for English-held Calais when a French army barred his road near Azincourt on 24 October. How large the armies were is still argued. Britannica gives the common estimate of about 6,000 English against 20,000 to 30,000 French; Anne Curry of the University of Southampton, working from muster rolls and pay records, puts them at about 8,500 English and around 12,000 French. Myth vs fact: the French did not outnumber the English five to one.³¹

On St Crispin's Day, 25 October, the French came on through rain-soaked plowland between two woods, into the arrows of archers sheltered behind sharpened stakes. As the field narrowed they were packed so tightly that many could barely lift their weapons, and the dead lay heaped in front of the English line. Britannica estimates the French dead at about 6,000 and the Pas-de-Calais tourist board at 7,000, many of them nobles, against about 400 English by Britannica's estimate; the Dukes of Alençon and Brabant were killed, and the Dukes of Orléans and Bourbon were taken to England as prisoners.³²

The victory opened the way to Henry's conquest of Normandy, and by the Treaty of Troyes of 1420 he was recognized as regent and heir of France. He died in 1422 without wearing the French crown; Joan of Arc helped raise the siege of Orléans in 1429, and by 1453 England kept only Calais. Shakespeare's Henry V of 1599 gave the world its Saint Crispin's Day speech and its “band of brothers,” and Curry argues that his version is the one most people still carry in their heads.³³

Why it is here: Recognition, memory and certainty take full marks: Shakespeare’s Henry V keeps its name alive, and Anne Curry has built a database of the campaign's men from its muster rolls and pay records. Consequence scores 3, because France won the war and undid the conquest within a generation; it ties Hattin on 42 points and goes below it on consequence.³⁴

Read the full story of the Battle of Agincourt ›

12 Constantinople, 1453

Where

Constantinople (today Istanbul), capital of the Byzantine Empire

War

Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine Empire

Besiegers

Sultan Mehmed II: 60,000 to 80,000 by modern estimates, 150,000 to 200,000 in other accounts

Defenders

Emperor Constantine XI: about 7,000 soldiers, 2,000 of them foreigners, plus 700 Genoese

Outcome

Stormed on 29 May 1453 after a siege begun on 6 April; the Byzantine Empire ended

Constantinople had been the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for well over 1,000 years, but by the 1400s the empire had shrunk to an Ottoman vassal. On 6 April 1453 the 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II opened the attack with an army that modern historians put at 60,000 to 80,000; the eyewitness Sphrantzes claimed 200,000, and the Foundation of the Hellenic World gives about 150,000. Constantine XI had some 7,000 soldiers, 2,000 of them foreigners, plus 700 Genoese. All these numbers are disputed.³⁵

Mehmed's answer to the walls was cannon: the largest was 9 meters long and fired a 500-kilogram ball. At dawn on 29 May, 53 days after the bombardment began by our count, he attacked from three sides; the last emperor died fighting on the walls, and as one Byzantine put it, everything was decided by the cannon.³⁶

The city was looted for three days. Mehmed had Hagia Sophia turned into a mosque and made Constantinople the capital of his empire, which lasted until 1922. The historian Mark Cartwright calls the fall the end of the old Roman Empire and the last surviving link between the medieval and ancient worlds. In Turkey the conquest of Istanbul is still celebrated every 29 May.³⁷

Why it is here: Full marks for consequence, recognition, decisiveness and memory: the siege ended an empire that went back to Rome and gave the Ottomans their capital, and it counts because it decided the fate of a state. Its 49 points, level with Hastings, are the highest medieval score; certainty is 4 because both sides' numbers rest on partisan chroniclers.

Read the full story of the fall of Constantinople ›

13 Tenochtitlan, 1521

Where

Tenochtitlan, island capital of the Mexica (today Mexico City)

War

Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire

Besiegers

Fewer than 1,000 Spaniards under Hernán Cortés and 50,000 to over 100,000 Indigenous allies

Defenders

The Mexica under Cuauhtémoc, in a city of over 200,000 people

Outcome

Fell on 13 August 1521 after 93 days; the Aztec Empire ended

In 1519 Tenochtitlan ruled 400 to 500 small states, by National Geographic's count, and with over 200,000 people on its island in Lake Texcoco it was the largest city in the Americas. Hernán Cortés, driven out in June 1520, came back in 1521 with about 700 infantry, 118 crossbowmen and arquebusiers, 86 horses, 18 guns and 13 brigantines built for the lake. Most of his army were Tlaxcalans and other enemies of the Mexica: at least 100,000 warriors by one count, 50,000 by another. Myth vs fact: a few hundred Spaniards did not take the city alone.³⁸

On 26 May the attackers cut the aqueduct from Chapultepec, and the brigantines swept the Mexica canoes off the lake, so water and food ran short. On 13 August 1521, after 93 days of resistance, the ruler Cuauhtémoc was captured fleeing by canoe, and the city fell. National Geographic puts the dead at about 100 Spaniards and up to 100,000 Mexica, all guesses.³⁹

The fall ended the Aztec Empire. On the ruins rose the capital of New Spain, with Cortés its governor in 1523, and Tenochtitlan slowly became Mexico City. National Geographic calls it the first major possession of the Spanish Empire, which came to stretch across both Americas.⁴⁰

Why it is here: Full marks for consequence and decisiveness: one siege ended the Aztec Empire and made Spain master of Mexico, and it counts because it decided the fate of a state. Recognition and memory score 4 and certainty 3, as the death tolls are guesses; it ties Quebec, the Spanish Armada and Mohács on 44 and goes first, ahead of the Armada and Mohács on consequence and of Quebec as the older.

Read the full story of the siege of Tenochtitlan ›

14 The Spanish Armada, 1588

Where

The English Channel and off Gravelines, on the Flemish coast near Calais

War

Anglo-Spanish War (1587 to 1604)

Fleets

The Spanish Armada (Duke of Medina Sidonia) vs the English fleet (Lord Howard of Effingham, Drake)

Strength

About 130 to 138 Spanish ships vs about 136 to 200 English; some 60 a side in the fight off Gravelines

Result

English victory on 8 August 1588; invasion abandoned; only about 67 of 138 Spanish ships got home

Philip II of Spain, master of what World Book calls the world's most powerful country, meant the Armada to end English help for the Dutch rebels and make England Catholic again. It left Lisbon on 30 May 1588 with 138 ships and over 25,000 men by the Royal Museums Greenwich count, about 130 ships by World Book's, to ferry the Duke of Parma's army from Flanders; England mustered about 136 ships by the museum's count, 200 by World Book's.⁴¹

The Armada anchored off Calais on 6 August, but a Dutch fleet kept Parma in port. English fireships scattered the anchorage by night, and on 8 August about 60 English ships fought as many Spanish off Gravelines all day, sinking at least three. On the flight north around Scotland and Ireland about 19 ships were wrecked; only about 67 got home, and up to 11,000 men died. Myth vs fact: English guns did not destroy the Armada; most of its losses came from storms and disease.⁴²

The defeat ended the threat of invasion and, the museum notes, the hopes of many in England for a Catholic monarch. The war ended in stalemate in 1604, but England had won recognition as one of Europe's most feared sea powers, and its sailors now challenged Spain worldwide with new confidence.⁴³

Why it is here: A household name, full marks for recognition and memory; it decided that England would be neither invaded nor made Catholic again, but Spain stayed a great power and the war ran on, so decisiveness and consequence score 4. It ties Tenochtitlan, Quebec and Mohács on 44, goes below the first two on consequence and above Mohács on recognition.

15 Sekigahara, 1600

Where

Sekigahara, Mino Province (today Gifu Prefecture), Japan

War

War for the succession to Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Sides

Eastern Army (Tokugawa Ieyasu) against the Western Army (Ishida Mitsunari and the Toyotomi loyalists)

Strength

About 80,000 a side by the National Park Service’s account, over 150,000 in all (traditional figures)

Result

Eastern Army victory on 21 October 1600; about 30,000 dead by the National Park Service’s count

Toyotomi Hideyoshi had united Japan, but after his death in August 1598 the council governing for his young heir split between a camp led by Tokugawa Ieyasu and one led by Ishida Mitsunari. In October 1600 the two armies met at Sekigahara, where the main roads of Japan cross, about 80,000 men each by the National Park Service's account, over 150,000 in all.⁴⁴

The battle began in fog at about 7:30 a.m. on 21 October. Some 28,000 Mōri troops never moved, and Kobayakawa Hideaki, with about 15,600 men on Mount Matsuo, had secretly agreed to change sides; when he turned on his allies the Western Army collapsed, and by the afternoon about 30,000 men lay dead, by the Park Service's count. Myth vs fact: Stephen Turnbull reports Shiramine Jun's finding that the earliest accounts have Kobayakawa change sides as the battle began, so the story of Ieyasu's gunners firing on his hill to force his hand is a myth.⁴⁵

Three years later Ieyasu was named shogun, and the Japanese still call Sekigahara the battle that decided the realm. It closed the long Sengoku period of civil war and opened the Edo period, some 260 years of peace and isolation from the outside world, and his family's shogunate ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration of 1868.⁴⁶

Why it is here: Full marks for consequence, decisiveness and memory: one day settled who would rule Japan, and how, until 1868. Recognition scores 4, as the name is less known outside Japan, and certainty 4, because the army sizes are traditional figures; its 47 points are the second highest early modern score, after Yorktown.

Read the full story of the Battle of Sekigahara ›

16 Vienna, 1683

Where

Vienna and the Kahlenberg heights, Austria

War

Great Turkish War

Sides

Ottoman Empire (Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa) against the Habsburg garrison and a relief army of imperial, German and Polish troops (King John III Sobieski)

Strength

About 100,000 to 120,000 Ottomans vs 16,000 defenders and a relief army of 65,000 to 69,000

Result

Ottoman defeat; siege broken on 12 September 1683; 10,000 to 15,000 Ottoman losses

Since the conquests of Süleyman the Magnificent the Ottomans had held most of Hungary, and in 1683 Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa marched on Vienna, the Habsburg capital. In July he closed round the city with about 120,000 men by the City of Vienna's count, 100,000 by the Wilanów Palace museum's, while Count Starhemberg held the walls with 11,000 soldiers and 5,000 citizen militia and volunteers. It held out for two months while Emperor Leopold, with papal money, won over Bavaria, Saxony and King John III Sobieski of Poland.⁴⁷

By early September some 65,000 imperial, German and Polish troops had massed at Tulln, 69,000 by the Wilanów count, and on 12 September they came down from the Kahlenberg heights. Late in the afternoon about 20,000 horsemen charged and the Ottoman army fled, losing about 10,000 dead by the dzieje.pl count, almost 15,000 men by the Wilanów museum's. Sobieski wrote to the Pope: “Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit”, we came, we saw, God conquered.⁴⁸

Kara Mustafa was strangled on the sultan's orders. Pope Innocent XI drew Austria, Poland and Venice into a Holy League, Buda fell in 1686, and at Karlowitz in 1699 the sultan recognized Austria's possession of Hungary and Transylvania. After 1683, the historian Douglas Clark Baxter writes, the Ottoman Empire ceased to be a serious threat to Europe, and Austria emerged as the major power of Central Europe.⁴⁹

Why it is here: Full marks for recognition, memory and certainty, but it decided a campaign, not the war, decisiveness 4, and it moved the balance of Central Europe rather than a civilization, consequence 4. Its 45 points are the third highest early modern score, behind Yorktown and Sekigahara.

Read the full story of the siege and battle of Vienna ›

17 Quebec, 1759

Where

Plains of Abraham, Quebec City, New France (now Canada)

War

Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War)

Sides

Britain (Major General James Wolfe) against France, Canadian militia and Indigenous allies (Marquis de Montcalm)

Strength

About 4,000 British landed vs about 4,500 French in the battle

Result

British victory on 13 September 1759; about 650 British and 640 French killed or wounded; Quebec surrendered on 18 September

In the Seven Years’ War Britain fought France in Europe, India and North America. In June 1759 Major General James Wolfe appeared before Quebec, the main French settlement in North America, with a fleet of 150 vessels and an expedition of about 5,000 men; some 13,000 French regulars, colonial militia and Indigenous allies under the Marquis de Montcalm defended the city and its surroundings.⁵⁰

On the night of 12 to 13 September some 4,000 soldiers landed at a cove west of the city and climbed a steep path up the cliffs to the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm attacked at once with about 4,500 men, and Wolfe’s disciplined volleys drove the French back into the walled city. The battle lasted only twenty minutes, the City of Quebec says. Wolfe and Montcalm were both mortally wounded, about 650 British and 640 French were killed or wounded, and Quebec surrendered on 18 September.⁵¹

The French won again at Sainte-Foy in the spring of 1760, but Montreal capitulated that September, and by the Treaty of Paris of 1763 France ceded most of its possessions in North America east of the Mississippi to Britain. The City of Quebec calls the battle the death blow to New France. For French-speaking Quebecers it began two centuries as a minority in the country they had founded, and since the 1960s their national holiday has been celebrated on the same Plains.⁵²

Why it is here: Consequence and certainty 5: it decided that Canada would be British rather than French. Decisiveness 4, since the French won again at Sainte-Foy. Of four early modern battles on 44, consequence 5 takes it past Mohács, the era’s nearest miss, and the Spanish Armada.

18 Yorktown, 1781

Where

Yorktown and Gloucester Point, Virginia

War

American Revolutionary War

Besiegers

About 16,000 to 19,900 American and French troops under Washington and Rochambeau; de Grasse’s French fleet offshore

Defenders

About 7,500 to 9,000 British, German and Loyalist troops under Cornwallis

Outcome

Surrendered 19 October 1781; 7,416 British missing and captured

Yorktown was won by an alliance. France had signed a treaty with the United States in February 1778, and the State Department’s historians call French help crucial to the surrender. In the summer of 1781 Cornwallis fortified Yorktown as a base the Royal Navy could supply, but on 5 September a French fleet beat the British off the Chesapeake while Washington and Rochambeau marched south. The allies numbered about 16,000 by our sum of the park historian Charles Hatch’s figures, or 19,900 by the American Battlefield Trust’s count; Cornwallis had about 7,500 by Hatch’s count, 9,000 by the Trust’s.⁵³

The allies closed round the town on 28 September, dug siege lines on 6 and 11 October and stormed Redoubts 9 and 10 on the night of 14 October. On 19 October the garrison marched out to Surrender Field and laid down its arms, a third of all British forces in North America, the National Park Service notes. When the news reached London, the Trust records, Lord North cried “It is all over”. On 5 March 1782 Parliament authorized peace, North resigned, and the Treaty of Paris of 1783 confirmed the independence of the United States. Myth vs fact: the British band playing “The World Turned Upside Down” at the surrender is, says the Trust, apocryphal.⁵⁴

Why it is here: Full marks for consequence, recognition, decisiveness and certainty give it 48 points, the highest early modern score; it is counted though it was a siege because it decided a war. Memory scores 4, as its anniversary is kept mostly as a local one.

Read the full story of the siege of Yorktown ›

19 Trafalgar, 1805

Where

Off Cape Trafalgar, south-west Spain

War

Napoleonic Wars

Fleets

British fleet (Nelson) vs combined French and Spanish fleet (Villeneuve)

Strength

27 vs 33 ships of the line; about 18,000 vs nearly 30,000 men

Result

British victory, 21 October 1805; 17 enemy ships captured and one burned; Nelson killed

By 1805 Napoleon was weighing an invasion of Britain, which he could attempt only with control of the Channel. When the plan failed he turned on Austria, and he ordered Vice-Admiral Villeneuve to take the combined French and Spanish fleet out of Cadiz into the Mediterranean; 33 ships of the line sailed on 19 October, and Nelson was waiting with 27. The enemy had nearly 30,000 men and 2,632 guns to his 18,000 men and 2,148 guns.⁵⁵

On 21 October, off Cape Trafalgar, the British came on in two columns straight at the enemy line. At 11.45 a.m. Victory flew the signal “England expects that every man will do his duty”. When the firing stopped at 5.30 p.m., 17 enemy ships had been captured and another was a blazing wreck. The British lost 449 killed; Royal Museums Greenwich puts the French and Spanish dead at 4,408. Nelson was shot on Victory’s deck at 1.15 p.m. and died at 4.30.⁵⁶

What Trafalgar changed was the sea. The National Museum of the Royal Navy calls it the decisive end of Napoleon’s hopes of invading Britain and the start of a century of British naval supremacy. On land it changed much less: Royal Museums Greenwich judges that it had little overall effect on the course of the war, which went on for another ten years, until Waterloo.⁵⁷

Why it is here: Full marks for recognition, decisiveness, memory and certainty, but consequence 4, because it ended no war and Napoleon had already turned his army against Austria. On 47 it takes the third of the three Napoleonic places, five points clear of Leipzig, the era’s nearest miss.

Read the full story of Trafalgar ›

20 Austerlitz, 1805

Where

Near Austerlitz (Slavkov u Brna), Moravia, Czech Republic

War

Napoleonic Wars, War of the Third Coalition

Sides

France vs Russia and Austria

Strength

About 73,000 French vs about 85,000 to 90,000 Russians and Austrians

Result

French victory, 2 December 1805; Allies lost about 27,000 including 12,000 prisoners, French about 8,000 to 9,000

Six weeks after Trafalgar, Napoleon won on land what he had lost at sea. At Olmütz a Russian and Austrian army had grown to 90,000 under the eyes of both emperors. J. Rickard puts the Allies on the day at about 85,000 against some 73,000 French. Napoleon asked for an armistice and pulled his troops off the Pratzen Heights, and the Allies read both as weakness.⁵⁸

On 2 December they sent their weight against the French right. As the “sun of Austerlitz” burned off the mist, Soult’s men attacked the weakened center on the heights and cut the Allied army in two. The Allies lost about 27,000 men, 12,000 of them prisoners; the French lost about 8,000 to 9,000. Myth vs fact: Napoleon’s 30th Bulletin claimed 20,000 drowned in the frozen ponds, but when the ponds were drained only two bodies were found, Rickard writes.⁵⁹

The consequences reached across Europe. The Treaty of Pressburg on 26 December took Austria out of the coalition at the price of land and a 40-million-franc indemnity. In July 1806 Napoleon gathered his German client states into the Confederation of the Rhine, and that summer the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved after a thousand years; Francis now called himself Emperor of Austria. For most of the next decade, World History Encyclopedia notes, France held military supremacy on the continent.⁶⁰

Why it is here: Consequence 5, with full marks for recognition, decisiveness and certainty too: one afternoon ended a coalition and, within a year, an empire a thousand years old. Memory scores 4, as no national day keeps it, and on 48 it stands second in its era only to Waterloo.

Read the full story of the Battle of Austerlitz ›

21 Waterloo, 1815

Where

Near Waterloo, south of Brussels, Belgium

War

Napoleonic Wars, the Hundred Days

Sides

Wellington’s Anglo-allied army and Blücher’s Prussians vs Napoleon’s French army

Strength

68,000 Anglo-allied troops and 48,000 Prussians vs 72,000 French; about 188,000 in all (our sum)

Result

Allied victory, 18 June 1815; nearly 40,000 French killed, wounded or captured and 22,000 Allied casualties (National Army Museum); Napoleon abdicated

In March 1815 Napoleon escaped from exile and took back power in France. In June he crossed into Belgium to beat the British and Prussian armies before they could join, and at Ligny he drove the Prussians into retreat; but their army of 48,000 regrouped and marched to help Wellington on the ridge of Mont-Saint-Jean.⁶¹

On 18 June Napoleon had 72,000 men and 246 guns against Wellington’s 68,000 men and 156 guns. All day the French attacked, around the strongpoints of Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte and against the allied center, and from about four in the afternoon the Prussians arrived on their flank. At about 7 p.m. Napoleon sent in his last reserve, the Imperial Guard; it was routed and the French army broke. The National Army Museum puts French losses at nearly 40,000 and Allied losses at 22,000. Napoleon was forced to abdicate, the Allies entered Paris on 7 July, and he spent the rest of his life on St Helena.⁶²

Waterloo closed an age. In the National Army Museum’s words it ended the wars that had convulsed Europe since the French Revolution and France’s attempts, under Louis XIV or Napoleon, to dominate the continent, and it opened a general European peace that, apart from the Crimean War, lasted until 1914. The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards still keep 18 June as Waterloo Day.⁶³

Why it is here: The only battle of the Napoleonic age with full marks on all five criteria, 50 points: it ended Napoleon’s rule for good and opened a long general European peace, its name is known far beyond military history, it is still commemorated, and no battle of the era is better documented.

Read the full story of the Battle of Waterloo ›

22 Antietam, 1862

Where

Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, Maryland

War

American Civil War

Sides

Union Army of the Potomac (McClellan) vs Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (Lee)

Strength

About 87,000 Union vs 41,000 to 45,000 Confederates

Result

Tactical draw, 17 September 1862; Lee withdrew to Virginia; about 22,700 to 23,000 casualties

In September 1862 Lee carried the war into Maryland, hoping that a victory on Union soil might persuade the European powers to recognize the Confederacy, the American Battlefield Trust notes. McClellan caught him behind Antietam Creek with about 87,000 men; straggling had cut Lee’s army to some 41,000. On 17 September the armies fought from dawn to dusk. In the West Woods 2,200 of 5,300 Union soldiers fell in twenty minutes, and by nightfall about 23,000 men were killed, wounded or missing, the bloodiest single day in American history; the Trust’s estimate is 22,717. Neither army broke, but that night Lee withdrew across the Potomac.⁶⁴

The result that mattered came five days later, when Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation: from 1 January 1863 the enslaved in states still in rebellion were to be free. It freed no one at once, the National Park Service stresses, but it turned a war to save the Union into a war to destroy slavery, the basis of Southern society, and it opened the way for Black Americans to enlist. Abroad, according to the Trust, Britain and France now declined an alliance with a slaveholding Confederacy; the State Department’s historians credit both the anti-slavery feeling of European publics and the South’s failure to win enough battles in a row.⁶⁵

Why it is here: Consequence 5, for the proclamation that made the war a war against slavery; a tactical draw, so decisiveness 3. It ties Sedan and Königgrätz on 42 with the same consequence, and its recognition 4 takes it past Königgrätz, the era’s nearest miss.

Read the full story of the Battle of Antietam ›

23 Gettysburg, 1863

Where

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

War

American Civil War

Sides

Army of the Potomac (Meade) vs Army of Northern Virginia (Lee)

Strength

93,921 Union vs 71,699 Confederate

Result

Union victory, 1 to 3 July 1863; 51,112 killed, wounded, captured or missing (estimate)

After Chancellorsville Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia north in June 1863, his second invasion of enemy territory, hoping that a victory on Northern soil would force a negotiated end to the war. On 1 July his men ran into Union cavalry at Gettysburg, and the largest battle of the Civil War began.⁶⁶

For three days the armies fought over the ridges south of the town. On 3 July some 150 Confederate cannon opened a bombardment near 1 p.m., and then some 12,000 men advanced across open fields against the Union center in Pickett’s Charge, which cost Lee over 5,000 men in an hour. The American Battlefield Trust estimates 51,112 casualties, the most of any battle of the war, and on 4 July Lee began his retreat to Virginia.⁶⁷

The Trust calls Gettysburg the turning point of the war: it ended Lee’s invasions of the North and dashed Confederate hopes of independence. Yet the South fought on until Lee surrendered at Appomattox on 9 April 1865. Its deeper legacy came in words. On 19 November 1863, after a two-hour oration by Edward Everett, Lincoln spoke for about two minutes at the dedication of the soldiers’ cemetery, and promised that the war would bring the nation “a new birth of freedom”.⁶⁸

Why it is here: Recognition and memory 5: it is the best known battle of its century, and Lincoln’s address keeps it alive. It broke Lee’s second invasion, but the Confederacy fought on for almost two more years, so decisiveness and consequence 4. On 45, level with Adwa, it takes one of the five industrial places with three points to spare.

Read the full story of the Battle of Gettysburg ›

24 Sedan, 1870

Where

Sedan, on the Meuse, north-eastern France

War

Franco-Prussian War

Sides

German armies under Moltke (Prussia and allies) vs French Army of Châlons (MacMahon, with Napoleon III)

Strength

200,000 to 240,000 Germans with 800 guns vs 120,000 to 130,000 French with 400 to 600 guns

Result

German victory, 1 to 2 September 1870; Napoleon III captured; 83,000 French surrendered, about 100,000 taken in all

In July 1870 France declared war on a Prussia that since 1867 had led the North German Confederation, and every German state, south as well as north, took Prussia’s side. By 31 August MacMahon’s army, with Napoleon III himself, had fallen back on Sedan, and Moltke closed in with about 200,000 men and 800 guns; Larousse gives 240,000. The trapped French numbered 120,000 to 130,000, with 400 to 600 guns.⁶⁹

On 1 September two German armies met north of the town and completed the ring. The French went through three commanders that day, and crushed by the German artillery they could not break out. On 2 September 83,000 men capitulated, on top of some 21,000 captured in the fighting, about 100,000 in all by the German Historical Museum’s count, and the emperor was a prisoner.⁷⁰

On 4 September Paris deposed the emperor and proclaimed the Republic, the Third Republic, and the Second Empire was gone. The new government fought on, but Paris was besieged until the armistice of January 1871. On 18 January, in the palace of Versailles, the German princes proclaimed the King of Prussia German Emperor. France felt the loss of Alsace and part of Lorraine as a deep humiliation, and Franco-German relations stayed heavily strained for decades.⁷¹

Why it is here: Consequence 5: it brought down the Second Empire and opened the way to a German Empire proclaimed at Versailles; decisiveness 4, since the republic fought on. It has little living memory outside France and Germany, so memory 3. It ties Antietam and Königgrätz on 42 with the same consequence and takes an industrial place ahead of Königgrätz on recognition.

25 Adwa, 1896

Where

The hills east of Adwa, Tigray, northern Ethiopia

War

First Italo-Ethiopian War

Sides

Ethiopian Empire (Menelik II) vs Kingdom of Italy (Baratieri)

Strength

80,000 to 120,000 Ethiopians vs about 17,000 to 17,700 Italians and Eritrean askari with 56 guns; disputed

Result

Ethiopian victory, 1 March 1896; about 6,000 Italian dead and over 3,000 prisoners; Ethiopia stayed independent

By 1885 seven European powers were carving up Africa, and at the height of colonial rule only Liberia and Ethiopia were still independent. Italy claimed that the Treaty of Wuchale of 1889 made Ethiopia its protectorate, a reading that rested on a difference between its Italian and Amharic texts, and Emperor Menelik II rejected it. When Italy invaded he raised an army that HISTORY puts at 80,000 to 120,000 and EBSCO at about 100,000.⁷²

General Oreste Baratieri had about 17,000 Italians and Eritrean askari; HistoryNet gives 17,700 men and 56 guns. His three columns, sent through the mountains by night, lost touch and on 1 March 1896 were beaten one by one, leaving about 6,000 dead and more than 3,000 prisoners; the World History Encyclopedia calls it the worst defeat of a European army in the whole history of colonialism. On 26 October 1896, by HistoryNet's account, Italy signed the Treaty of Addis Ababa, which annulled Wuchale and recognized Ethiopia as a fully sovereign state.⁷³

The historian Haile Larebo, quoted by HISTORY, says the victory forced Europeans to take Africans "much more seriously" and that Ethiopia's resistance stayed a beacon for African independence movements and Pan-Africanism. Italy's wish to avenge it fed Mussolini's invasion of 1935. Adwa Victory Day is still a national holiday in Ethiopia.⁷⁴

Why it is here: It kept an African state free through the scramble for Africa, full marks for consequence, decisiveness and memory; it is far less known worldwide, recognition 3, and its numbers are disputed, certainty 4. On 45 points, level with Gettysburg, it takes one of the five industrial places, three points clear of Königgrätz, the best industrial battle left out.

Read the full story of the Battle of Adwa ›

26 Tsushima, 1905

Where

Tsushima Strait, between Korea and Japan

War

Russo-Japanese War

Fleets

Japanese Combined Fleet (Togo) vs Russian Second and Third Pacific Squadrons (Rozhestvensky)

Strength

Japanese Combined Fleet vs 38 Russian ships

Result

Japanese victory, 27 to 28 May 1905; 34 of 38 Russian ships sunk, captured or interned; Japan lost 3 torpedo boats and 117 killed

By the end of 1904 Japan had destroyed Russia's Pacific squadron at Port Arthur, and the tsar sent his Baltic Fleet some 18,000 nautical miles around Africa; it arrived worn out. On 27 May 1905 Admiral Heihachiro Togo met it in the Tsushima Strait as it tried to slip through to Vladivostok, turned his battle line across its course, the maneuver later called crossing the T, and in two days of fighting destroyed it. Of 38 Russian ships, 34 were sunk, captured or interned in neutral ports, while Togo lost three torpedo boats; the British naval historian Julian Corbett counted 117 Japanese dead against 4,830 Russians killed and 5,907 taken prisoner.⁷⁵

The tsar's government, afraid of revolution at home, sued for peace, signed at Portsmouth in September 1905 with Theodore Roosevelt as mediator. Corbett judged that the battle made Japan a major naval power and the leading nation of the Far East, and HistoryNet traces from that confidence a line to Japan's violence in China in the 1930s and to the attack on Pearl Harbor. In Russia the loss of the fleet fed the naval mutinies of 1905, the Potemkin among them, which HistoryNet counts among the background to the revolutions of 1917. Across Asia it was read as a sign: the Mikasa Preservation Society quotes Sun Yat-sen calling it the first victory of an Asian people over Europeans.⁷⁶

Why it is here: It has the highest industrial score: a war decided at sea in two days and a new great power in Asia, full marks for consequence, decisiveness and certainty. It is less known in the West than Gettysburg and less alive in memory, so recognition and memory 4.

Read the full story of Tsushima ›

27 The Marne, 1914

Where

The Marne valley between Paris and Verdun, France

War

World War I, Western Front

Sides

France and the British Expeditionary Force vs Germany

Strength

About two million men in all, roughly a million on each side

Result

Allied victory, 6 to 10 September 1914; the German armies fell back about 40 miles to the Aisne

Germany went to war in 1914 planning to beat France in about six weeks by sweeping through neutral Belgium. In early September Alexander von Kluck's First Army turned south-east short of Paris, and on 6 September Joseph Joffre struck its flank along the Ourcq; a 30-mile gap opened between the German First and Second Armies, and the French and British pushed into it. About two million men fought, roughly a million on each side. From 9 September the Germans fell back some 40 miles to the Aisne and dug in. Losses are disputed: HistoryNet gives about 263,000 Allied casualties and as many German, Holger Herwig roughly 67,700 German.⁷⁷

The Marne decided what kind of war the world would fight: it marked the failure of the Schlieffen Plan and condemned Germany to a war on two fronts, and in its aftermath the barbed wire went up on a front that barely moved for four years. "It began at the Marne in 1914. It ended at Versailles in 1919," Herwig writes, and in between about 60 million men were mobilized and 10 million killed. Before it was over the tsar, the Kaiser and the Habsburg emperor had all abdicated. Herwig even calls the Marne strategically indecisive: had the Allies pursued harder, he suggests, the world might have been spared the greater catastrophe of 1939 to 1945.⁷⁸

Why it is here: It has the highest World War I score: it wrecked Germany's plan for a short war and set the shape of the long one, full marks for consequence, recognition and decisiveness. It is commemorated less than Verdun or the Somme, memory 4, and its losses are disputed, certainty 4.

Read the full story of the Battle of the Marne ›

28 Gallipoli, 1915 to 1916

Where

Gallipoli peninsula and the Dardanelles, Ottoman Empire (today Turkey)

War

World War I, Dardanelles campaign

Sides

Britain, the British Empire (with Australia and New Zealand) and France vs the Ottoman Empire, with some German officers

Strength

Some 559,000 Allied troops over the campaign (Gallipoli Association; the National Army Museum gives nearly 500,000); Ottoman strength not firmly known

Result

Ottoman victory; naval attack from 19 February 1915, landings from 25 April, evacuation complete 9 January 1916; over 250,000 Allied and 250,000 to over 300,000 Ottoman casualties

In early 1915 the Allies hoped that a fleet forcing the Dardanelles to Constantinople might relieve the pressure on Russia, open a supply route to it through the Black Sea and at best knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war. On 18 March the attempt failed when three Allied battleships sank on mines laid by the Ottoman minelayer Nusret.⁷⁹

After the landings of 25 April Colonel Mustafa Kemal led the counterattack that pinned the invaders below the heights. The Gallipoli Association counts, approximately, over 250,000 Allied and more than 300,000 Ottoman casualties, HISTORY roughly 250,000 on each side. The last Allied troops left on 9 January 1916, and the supply route to Russia was never opened. Myth vs fact: it was not mainly an Anzac campaign; of some 559,000 Allied troops about 50,000 were Australians and 13,000 New Zealanders.⁸⁰

Anadolu Agency writes that the naval victory of 18 March gave the Turks a massive moral boost that enabled them to wage a war of independence and in 1923 to build a republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, with Kemal as its first president. In Australia and New Zealand the "Anzac legend" became part of national identity, and Anzac Day, 25 April, is one of Australia's most important national occasions.⁸¹

Why it is here: Full marks for recognition, memory and certainty: a failed landing shaped the memory of two nations and made the name of the founder of modern Turkey. It decided its front rather than the war, so consequence and decisiveness 4; on 45 points it takes one of the three World War I places, three points clear of the Battle of Warsaw.

Read the full story of Gallipoli ›

29 Hundred Days Offensive, 1918

Where

The Western Front from Amiens through the Hindenburg Line to Mons, France and Belgium

War

World War I, Western Front

Sides

The British Empire, France and the United States, under Ferdinand Foch's overall command, vs Germany

Strength

At Amiens on 8 August alone: 13 attacking divisions with over 2,000 guns, 450 tanks and 1,900 aircraft

Result

Allied victory, 8 August to 11 November 1918; Germany signed the armistice; about 1.07 million Allied and 786,000 to 1.17 million German casualties

By summer 1918 Germany's spring offensives had won ground but exhausted its army, and the initiative passed to the Allies under Ferdinand Foch. On 8 August near Amiens Henry Rawlinson's Fourth Army attacked with 13 divisions, supported by over 2,000 guns, 450 tanks and 1,900 aircraft. Erich Ludendorff called it "the black day of the German Army", and he and the Kaiser now privately concluded that Germany could not win.⁸²

The Allies then attacked along the whole front. The British broke through the Hindenburg Line on 26 September while the Americans fought in the Meuse-Argonne. The National WWI Museum puts Allied casualties at close to 1,070,000 and German losses at 1,172,075; HistoryNet gives 786,000 German. When the armistice was signed on 11 November, Kaiser Wilhelm II had already abdicated and the Weimar Republic had been proclaimed, ending the German Empire; the abdication of the Habsburg emperor Charles I ended Austria-Hungary, from whose lands Czechoslovakia was formed.⁸³

Myth vs fact: the German army was not "undefeated in the field". In autumn 1918 its own high command saw that it could not fight on. Hindenburg and Ludendorff spread the stab in the back legend afterward, and the far right, above all the DNVP and the Nazi party, turned it against the Weimar Republic.⁸⁴

Why it is here: Full marks for consequence, decisiveness and certainty: this run of offensives won World War I and ended the German Empire. It is a campaign with a less familiar name than the Marne or the Somme, so recognition 4 and memory 3; on 44 points it takes the last of the three World War I places, two points above the Battle of Warsaw.

Read the full story of the Hundred Days Offensive ›

30 The Battle of Britain, 1940

Where

The skies over southern England and the English Channel

War

World War II

Sides

Britain's Royal Air Force, with airmen from 16 nations, vs the German Luftwaffe

Strength

Fighter Command: about 768 aircraft in July 1940 and some 1,400 within weeks; Luftwaffe: just over 1,000 single-engine fighters plus its bombers

Result

British victory; the German invasion of Britain postponed indefinitely on 17 September 1940

When France fell in June 1940, Britain stood alone. The German leadership wanted it beaten quickly, to free its back for the planned war on the Soviet Union, and the landing it planned, Operation Sea Lion, first needed command of the air.⁸⁵

Fighter Command began with about 768 aircraft and within weeks had some 1,400, against just over 1,000 German single-engine fighters, and the National WWII Museum notes that its roughly 1,400 fighter pilots outnumbered the Luftwaffe's 1,200 single-engine pilots: the "few" were not as few as legend has it. One airman in five came from overseas, among them 145 Poles, and the Polish No. 303 Squadron became the top scoring unit in the RAF. On 15 September the Luftwaffe lost 56 of the 1,700 aircraft it sent, by the German Historical Museum's count; two days later Hitler postponed Sea Lion indefinitely. The losses are still argued over: one reference work gives 788 British and 1,294 German aircraft, the German museum 2,265 Luftwaffe aircraft for the whole air war against Britain.⁸⁶

In spring 1941 Hitler took his aircraft east for the attack on the Soviet Union, leaving Britain unbeaten. History Hit sums it up: Britain would supply the Soviet Union with intelligence and material, rearm, and become the base from which the Allies launched the liberation of Western Europe.⁸⁷

Why it is here: It kept Britain in the war, and with it the base for D-Day, so full marks for consequence, recognition and memory; it prevented a campaign rather than ending one, so decisiveness 4, and the loss figures differ widely, certainty 4. On 47 points it takes the third World War II place, one point above Berlin.

Read the full story of the Battle of Britain ›

31 Stalingrad, 1942 to 1943

Where

Stalingrad (today Volgograd), on the Volga, Soviet Union

War

World War II, Eastern Front

Sides

Germany and its Axis allies vs the Soviet Union

Strength

Just under 300,000 Axis troops against the city vs the Soviet 62nd Army, about 54,000 men at first and constantly reinforced

Result

Soviet victory; the German 6th Army surrendered 31 January to 2 February 1943, about 91,000 taken prisoner

In summer 1942 Hitler's armies drove toward the Volga and the oil of the Caucasus. The German 6th Army under Friedrich Paulus, about 270,000 men with 500 tanks by the count of dzieje.pl (the Russian historians Krinko and Medvedev give about 430,000), reached the approaches to Stalingrad on 17 July, and by mid-November, after weeks of fighting from house to house, it held about 90 percent of the city. The Soviet 62nd Army under Vasily Chuikov, about 54,000 men at the start, clung to the riverbank, continuously reinforced from the eastern side of the Volga.⁸⁸

On 19 November the Red Army broke through the Italians, Romanians and Hungarians on the flanks, and within three days some 250,000 Germans and more than 30,000 Romanian and Russian auxiliaries were trapped. Paulus surrendered on 31 January 1943 and the northern pocket two days later. About 150,000 Germans had died in the pocket; some 91,000 went into captivity, and perhaps 6,000 of them came home. Soviet dead number more than 400,000 by the German Historical Museum's estimate.⁸⁹

It was the Wehrmacht's first crushing defeat in the war against the Soviet Union, and the initiative passed to the Red Army. Hitler's armies, the World History Encyclopedia notes, never recovered and from then on fought a defensive war of retreat. At home most Germans saw the turning point: Goebbels' call for "total war" on 18 February did not silence their doubts, and the year "1918" appeared on walls in German cities, painted at the risk of death.⁹⁰

Why it is here: Full marks on all five criteria: the destruction of a whole German army turned the war in the east, and with Normandy it shares the top score of World War II.

Read the full story of the battle of Stalingrad ›

32 Normandy, 1944

Where

The Normandy coast and its hinterland, northern France

War

World War II, Western Front

Sides

The United States, Britain, Canada and 12 other Allied nations vs Germany

Strength

About 150,000 to nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on 6 June and more than 850,000 by the end of June (National WWII Museum), vs 58 German divisions in the West, most of them near Calais

Result

Allied victory; German forces trapped at Falaise in August, Paris liberated on 25 August 1944

In May 1943 Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to invade France the next spring, to open a western front that was meant to bring about Germany's swift military collapse. The Germans expected the blow at Calais, where the Atlantic Wall was strongest and most of their 58 divisions in the West stood. Instead, on 6 June 1944, troops from the United States, Britain, Canada and 12 other nations came ashore on five Normandy beaches: nearly 160,000 by the National WWII Museum's count, about 150,000 by the German Historical Museum's. It was the largest amphibious invasion in history, and the first day cost the Allies over 10,300 killed, wounded or missing.⁹¹

By the end of June more than 850,000 Allied soldiers were ashore by the National WWII Museum's count (the German Historical Museum says close to a million), and on 31 July the Americans broke through at Avranches. In mid-August the Allies encircled and destroyed much of the German army near Falaise, with the Canadians and the Polish 1st Armoured Division of General Stanisław Maczek fighting in the Canadian corps, and on 25 August Paris was liberated.⁹²

In the months after D-Day, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum writes, the western Allies drove the Germans out of France and the other countries of western Europe, while the Soviet Union fought its way in from the east. The museum also judges that the invasion and the victories that followed likely saved hundreds of thousands of Jews in western and central Europe from being murdered.⁹³

Why it is here: Full marks on every criterion: the largest seaborne invasion in history opened the second front and within three months had broken the German army in France, and it shares the top score of World War II with Stalingrad.

Read the full story of D-Day and the battle of Normandy ›