The battle of Lepanto took place in 1571 and consisted of what was essentially combined fleets of all of Mediterranean Christendom assembled into what was called the Holy League, facing the massive navy of the Ottoman Grand Admiral Ali Pasha. The Holy League possessed 206 galleys and 6 massive galleasses, while the Ottomans had 230 galleys and 50 smaller galliots. The Venetians gave the most ships to the fleet, donating over 100 galleys and all of the galleasses. Spain also donated a considerable number with 80 ships. Other ships were from Genoa, the Papal States, Savoy, and the Knights of Malta. The allied forces were commanded by the very capable Don John of Austria. The allied forces assembled in Sicily and sailed east, meeting the Ottoman forces off the coast of Greece.

As soon as the fleets saw each other they met for battle. One of the factors that largely determined the fate of the battle was the effectiveness of the Venetian galleasses. These ships were massive sailing fortresses bearing dozens of guns, and sailing in front of the Christian forces, the galleasses alone destroyed dozens of the enemy galleys. The outcome of the battle seesawed back and forth for hours until Spanish soldiers who had twice been repulsed from the Ottoman Commander’s flag ship were able to overcome the Ottoman resistance in a third attempt and take over the ship. Ali Pashan was killed and his head was placed on a pike for all to see. This was a major moral blow to the Muslim forces and the Ottoman’s began to withdraw.

Further pressure from the galleasses turned the battle into a rout and the Ottomans retreated with heavy losses. In the end the Ottomans lost almost 200 ships (most captured and later used by the Christians) and over 20,000 dead, wounded, or taken prisoner. The Holy League suffered only some 25 ships lost and around 10,000 casualties. While the loss to the Ottomans was many ships and men, the battle also represented a significant drain in irreplaceable sailors and soldiers. The ships could be and would be rebuilt, but many of the best soldiers in the Ottoman army had been killed, not to mention the majority of their best sailors.

This battle also represented a dramatic shift in the assumed perception of Ottoman dominance over Christian military forces. The belief held by many that the Ottoman’s were invulnerable was forever shattered at Lepanto, and would never really be regained. One historian has commented that the battle of Lepanto swung for the last time the pendulum of wealth and power from East to West.

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While there had been pressure building in eastern Asia between the Russians and Japanese for decades, tensions came to a head on May 11th of 1939 when a small force of Russia’s Mongolian vassals accidentally moved across a disputed border into what was then the Japanese controlled region of Manchuria. The Japanese pushed them out, but were consequently repelled by a larger force of Mongolian’s. The Japanese began funneling large amounts of troops to the disputed region, which led the Russians to do the same. On May 22nd, a small force of Japanese reconnaissance troops was surrounded and destroyed by Russian soldiers. Over 100 Japanese were killed. This skirmish quickly led to a large scale escalation by both the Japanese and the Russians.

At the peak of the battle, the Japanese had around 75,000 troops and the Russians almost 60,000. The battle turned into nothing short of a small scale war as planes, tanks, and artillery were all utilized in an attempt to gain an advantage for their respective sides. The battle dragged on into late summer with ups and down for both sides. The Japanese attempted two major offensives but both were repulsed by the Russian forces being led by the Soviet commander Georgy Zhukov (who later led the Russians to victory against the Germans at Stalingrad). Finally in August, Zhukov decided to go on the offensive, and with a force of almost 50,000 Soviet and Mongolian troops, almost 500 tanks, and an impressive array of air power, Zhukov led an incredible encircling movement of the Japanese forces. The move was so successful that the entire Japanese force was either beaten back or surrounded. Most of the surrounded troops refused to surrender and the Soviets wiped them out with artillery and air strikes. The battle concluded on August 31st with the total defeat of the Japanese and the next day, September 1st, German tanks rolled into Poland beginning World War II.

The implications of the battle of Khalkin-Gol cannot be overstated. Essentially this defeat so utterly convinced the Japanese they could not be victorious over the Soviets that they decided it would be more advantageous for the Japanese to expand into the Pacific than to continue pushing into eastern Russia. This policy meant the Japanese would inevitably come into contact with the United States, but the Japanese decided they would rather face America than Russia. It is possible that if the Japanese had won the battle of Khalkin-Gol, they would never have fought the battle of Pearl Harbor two and a half years later. Not only did this battle set the pieces for the war soon to be in the Pacific, but it also kept Russia from having to fight a two front war, splitting its soldiers between fighting the Japanese in the east and the Germans in the west. The impact this could have had is enormous. It’s scary to think of what might have happened if the battle of Khalkin-Gol had ended differently…

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The war came during the aftermath of the death of the pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini on August 25th and the subsequent succession to the throne of Sultan Khalid bin Barghash, who was not a supporter of British policies and was essentially (according to the British) a threat to their authority on the island. Khalid gathered together an army of some 3,000 soldiers (many of them recruited civilians) and barricaded himself in the royal palace. The British sent Khalid an ultimatum demanding that he that he have his forces abdicate and relinquish control of the country to a British supported ruler.

The ultimatum ran out at 9AM on August 27 and it was then that the British declared war on Sultan Khalid bin Barghash. The British had assembled a force of three cruisers, two gunships, around 150 marines and sailors, and probably close to 1,000 loyal Zanzibaris within striking distance of the palace. The 3,000 men of Khalid’s forces were almost entirely within the palace complex, armed with various small arms, a few artillery pieces and numerous machine guns.

At 9:02 the British opened up a naval bombardment on the palace and there forces there, and the palace consequently caught fire. The fire resulted in the disabling of the artillery and most of the machine guns, not to mention throwing the forces of Khalin bin Barghash into disarray. A few scattered shots were fired without much effect at the pro Anglo Zanzibari troops who approached the palace and the Zanzibari’s removed the Sultan’s flag from the palace essentially dashing his play for the throne. The firing ceased at 9:40 after only some 38 minutes and the war was considered to be over.

The Sultan had suffered almost 500 casualties while only one British soldier had been injured, and he would later recover from his wounds. Though Khalid was not killed in the skirmish, he did abdicate his position, and ended up escaping (with the help of the Germans) to Tanganyika. The war marked the end of Zanzibar’s status as a sovereign nation and a period of direct British control of the country.

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Benedict Arnold was born in Norwich Connecticut in January of 1741. Arnold was very intelligent as a child and as he grew up recognized for being excessively proud and sensitive, as well as being extremely strong and brave. At the age of fifteen Arnold ran away from home and joined the Connecticut army to resist the incoming French Invasion of Albany and Lake George. By the year 1776 and the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Arnold had become a Brigadier General. Arnold had taken part in numerous battles including Fort Ticonderoga, and Quebec. Despite his many successes, much of the next year and a half of Arnold’s life were a sad mixture of frustration and hurt pride as Arnold felt very displeased with the Continental Congress and what he considered a complete lack of respect for both his person and his abilities. Twice between 1776 and the Battle of Saratoga, did Arnold send letters of resignation to General Washington attempting to relieve himself of command.

The Battle of Saratoga took place in the fall of 1777 as a result of British General Burgoyne’s attempt to divide the New England States from the southern states. The battle was an incredible success for the American’s, but it was based significantly on the actions of Benedict Arnold. There were two main skirmishes that took place and after the first one, the higher ranking General Horatio Gates actually stripped Arnold of his command. Against Gates’ orders however, Arnold went back into the fray during the second battle and rallied the Americans at the critical moment, enabling them to win the day and seal the fate of Burgoyne’s army.

The victory resulted in not only significant casualties to the British, but also the capture of the vast majority of the survivors. It was the greatest American success up to that point, and came at an extremely important time. Moral was low in the Continental army, and had Burgoyne succeeded at the battle of Saratoga, the British would have likely been able to split the colonies in half, a conclusion that would have been nothing sort of disastrous. Instead however, the Americans were able to destroy an entire British army, and most importantly, as a result of Saratoga, the French decided to make an alliance with the Americans against the British. The French began sending the Continental army equipment, troops, and money; not to mention forcing the British to send vast amounts of all three to their far flung colonies throughout the world, as well as back to Europe.

The significance of the battle of Saratoga cannot be overstated, nor can Arnold’s being the key to the American victory. Without Arnold’s assistance, it is not far fetched to imagine that the Revolutionary War would have turned out very differently.

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Alexander was tutored by the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle beginning at the age of 13, and exhibited a grasp of strategy so amazing, his tactics are still studied by military institutes over 2300 years later. Alexander’s first major victory was against the Persian forces ruled by King Darius III at the battle of Granicus. It was here that Alexander defeated a numerically superior army which viewed him as nothing more than an upstart teenager. Alexander maneuvered his troops with such skill and vibrancy however, that he routed the Persian force and according to legend, suffered only 118 losses.

After this loss, Darius III took personal command of the Persian army and met Alexander at the Battle of Issus. The Persian’s vastly outnumbered the Greeks this time and Darius was anticipating an easy victory. What took place however was anything but. Alexander was able to utilize the hilly country to break up the Persian formations, while using his superior cavalry to overwhelm the Persian flank. After their side was in disorder, Alexander was able to make his way behind the Persian forces and turn the battle into a rout. Darius fled from the field leaving his wife and children to be captured by Alexander. This left Palestine and Egypt relatively free for the taking. After mopping up those areas including a lengthy siege of the city of Tyre, Alexander pursued Darius in hopes of destroying finally his Persian opponent.

The two forces met at the battle of Gaugamela. Darius had assembled a force larger than any he had earlier amassed, and having learned his lesson from the battle of Issus, Darius waited for Alexander on a wide plain so that he could use his enormous numbers to crush the Macedonian soldiers. The plan was good on paper, but Alexander was a far superior general than Darius. Alexander concentrated his troops on his right flank and was able to push through the Persian left. Once he had smashed through their line, he just rolled them up onto one another. It was a massacre and it resulted in the absolution of the Persian Empire for good.

In a matter of years, Alexander had accomplished what would have seemed to be impossible. His empire stretched from the western end of the known world, all the way to lands unknown. Alexander was not satisfied with this however and spent the rest of his short life pursuing new conquests in central Asia, further pushing the boundaries of his already burgeoning empire. Alexander died at the age of 32, but not before his empire stretched from Egypt to India, the Mediterranean to the Himalayans.

Alexander is considered to be one of the greatest military minds of all time, and he has the distinction of being the first king in history to be called “The Great.” It is widely believed that Alexander never lost a battle in his life. One could certainly make the argument that he was the greatest commander the world has ever seen.

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