Prehistoric warfare Prehistoric warfare refers to war that occurred between societies without
recorded history. The
Tollense valley battlefield is the oldest evidence of a large-scale battle in Europe. More than 4,000 warriors fought in a battle on the site in the 13th century BC.
Ancient warfare with depictions of war and peace, from the
Sumerian city-state of
Ur, c. 2600 BC Much of what we know of
ancient history is the history of militaries: their conquests, their movements, and their technological innovations. There are many reasons for this. Kingdoms and empires, the central units of control in the ancient world, could only be maintained through military force. Due to limited agricultural ability, there were relatively few areas that could support large communities, and fighting was common. The
Umma–Lagash war was one of the earliest recorded wars, fought between the
Sumerian city-states of
Lagash and
Umma. The border conflict over the fertile
Guedena region lasted for several generations.
Weapons and
armor, designed to be sturdy, tended to last longer than other artifacts. Thus, many of the recovered artifacts tend to fall into this category, as they are more likely to survive. Weapons and armor were also mass-produced to a scale that makes them quite plentiful throughout history, and thus more likely to be found in archaeological digs. Such items were also considered signs of prosperity or virtue and were thus likely to be placed in tombs and monuments to prominent warriors. And when it existed, writing was often used by kings to boast of military conquests or victories. Writing, when used by the common person, also tended to record such events, as major battles and conquests were events many would have considered worthy of recording, either in an epic such as the
Homeric writings about the Trojan War or even in personal writings. Indeed, the earliest stories center on warfare, as war was both a common and dramatic aspect of life; the witnessing of a major battle involving many thousands of soldiers would be quite a spectacle, even today, and thus considered worthy both of being recorded in song and art, but also in realistic histories, as well as being a central element in a fictional work. relief of attack on an enemy town during the reign of
Tiglath-Pileser III, 743–720 BC, from his palace at
Nimrud Lastly, as
nation states evolved and empires grew, the increasing need for order and efficiency led to more records and writings. Officials and armies would have good reason for keeping detailed records and accounts involving anything concerning a matter such as warfare that, in the words of
Sun Tzu, was "a matter of vital importance to the state". For all these reasons, military history comprises a large part of ancient history. Notable militaries in the ancient world included the
Egyptians,
Assyrians,
Babylonians,
Persians, Ancient
Greeks (notably the
Spartans and
Macedonians),
Kushites,
Indians (notably the
Magadhas,
Gangaridais,
Gandharas and
Cholas), early Imperial
Chinese (notably the
Qin and
Han dynasties),
Xiongnu Confederation, Ancient
Romans, and
Carthaginians. The
Fertile Crescent of
Mesopotamia was the center of several prehistoric conquests. Mesopotamia was conquered by the
Sumerians,
Akkadians,
Babylonians,
Assyrians and Persians.
Iranians were the first nation to introduce
cavalry into their army.
Egypt began growing as an ancient power, but eventually fell to the
Libyans,
Nubians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans,
Byzantines, and
Arabs. The earliest recorded battle in
India was the
Battle of the Ten Kings. The
Indian epics Mahabharata and
Ramayana center on conflict and address military formations, theories of warfare, and esoteric weaponry.
Chanakya's
Arthashastra contains a detailed study of ancient warfare, including topics such as
espionage and
war elephants. (right) and Persian warrior depicted fighting, on an ancient
kylix, 5th century BC
Alexander the Great invaded northwestern India and defeated
King Porus in the
Battle of the Hydaspes River. The same region was soon reconquered by
Chandragupta Maurya after defeating the Macedonians and
Seleucids. He also went on to conquer the
Nanda Empire and unify northern India. Most of South Asia was unified under his grandson
Ashoka the Great after the
Kalinga War, though the empire collapsed not long after his reign. In China, the
Shang dynasty and
Zhou dynasty had risen and collapsed. This led to the
Warring States period, in which several states continued to fight over territory. Philosopher-strategists such as
Confucius and
Sun Tzu wrote various manuscripts on ancient warfare (as well as international diplomacy). The Warring States-era philosopher
Mozi (
Micius) and his
Mohist followers invented various siege weapons and siegecraft, including the Cloud Ladder (a four-wheeled, extendable ramp) for scaling fortified walls during sieges of enemy cities. The warring states were first unified by
Qin Shi Huang after a series of military conquests, creating the first empire in China. His
empire was succeeded by the
Han dynasty, which expanded into Central
Asia, Northern China/Manchuria, Southern China, and present-day Korea and Vietnam. The Han came into conflict with settled people such as the
Wiman Joseon, and proto-Vietnamese Nanyue. They also came into conflict with the
Xiongnu (
Huns),
Yuezhi, and other steppe civilizations. , discovered near modern
Xi'an, which was meant to guard the
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, 3rd century BCThe Han defeated and drove the Xiongnus west, securing the city-states along the silk route that continued into the
Parthian Empire. After the decline of central imperial authority, the Han dynasty collapsed into an era of civil war and continuous warfare during the
Three Kingdoms period in the 3rd century AD. The
Achaemenid Persian Empire was founded by
Cyrus the Great after conquering the
Median Empire,
Neo-Babylonian Empire,
Lydia and
Asia Minor. His successor
Cambyses went on to conquer the
Egyptian Empire, much of Central Asia, and parts of Greece, India, and Libya. The empire later fell to Alexander the Great after defeating
Darius III. After being ruled by the Seleucid dynasty, the Persian Empire was subsequently ruled by the Parthian and
Sassanid dynasties, which were the
Roman Empire's greatest rivals during the
Roman-Persian Wars. In
Greece, several
city-states rose to power, including
Athens and
Sparta. The Greeks successfully stopped two Persian invasions, the first at the
Battle of Marathon, where the Persians were led by
Darius the Great, and the second at the
Battle of Salamis, a naval battle where the Greek ships were deployed by orders of
Themistocles and the Persians were under
Xerxes I, and the land engagement of the
Battle of Plataea. The
Peloponnesian War then erupted between the two Greek powers, Athens and Sparta. Athens built a long wall to protect its inhabitants, but it also helped facilitate the spread of a plague that killed about 30,000 Athenians, including
Pericles. After a disastrous campaign against
Syracuse, the Athenian navy was decisively defeated by
Lysander at the
Battle of Aegospotami. The
Macedonians, under
Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great, invaded Persia and won several major victories, establishing Macedonia as a major power. However, following Alexander's early death, the empire quickly fell apart. depicts a battle between
Romans and
Goths. Meanwhile, Rome was gaining power, following a rebellion against the
Etruscans. During the three
Punic Wars, the Romans defeated the neighboring power of Carthage. The
First Punic War centered on
naval warfare. The
Second Punic War started with
Hannibal's invasion of Italy by crossing the
Alps. He famously won the encirclement at the
Battle of Cannae. However, after
Scipio invaded Carthage, Hannibal was forced to follow and was defeated at the
Battle of Zama, ending Carthage's role as a power. After defeating Carthage the Romans went on to become the Mediterranean's dominant power, successfully campaigning in Greece, (
Aemilius Paulus decisive victory over Macedonia at the
Battle of Pydna), in the Middle East (
Lucius Licinius Lucullus,
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus), in
Gaul (
Gaius Julius Caesar) and defeating several
Germanic tribes (
Gaius Marius,
Germanicus). While Roman armies suffered several major losses, their large population and ability (and will) to replace battlefield casualties, their training, organization, tactical and technical superiority enabled Rome to stay a predominant military force for several centuries, utilizing well trained and maneuverable armies to routinely overcome the much larger "tribal" armies of their foes (see Battles of
Aquae Sextiae,
Vercellae,
Tigranocerta,
Alesia). In 54 BC, the Roman triumvir
Marcus Licinius Crassus took the offensive against the
Parthian Empire in the east. In a decisive battle at
Carrhae, the Romans were defeated, and the golden
Aquilae (legionary battle standards) were taken as trophies to
Ctesiphon. The battle was one of the worst defeats suffered by the Roman Republic in its entire history. While successfully dealing with foreign opponents, Rome experienced numerous civil wars, notably the power struggles of Roman generals such as Marius and
Sulla during the end of the Republic. Caesar was also notable for his role in the civil war against the other member of the Triumvirate (Pompey) and against the Roman Senate. The successors of Caesar—Octavian and Mark Anthony—also fought a civil war against Caesar's assassins (the Senators Brutus, Cassius, etc.). Octavian and Mark Anthony eventually fought another civil war to determine who would be the sole ruler of Rome. Octavian emerged victorious, and Rome became an empire with a large standing army of professional soldiers. By the time of
Marcus Aurelius, the Romans had expanded to the Atlantic Ocean in the west and to
Mesopotamia in the east and controlled Northern Africa and Central Europe up to the
Black Sea. However, Aurelius marked the end of the
Five Good Emperors, and Rome quickly fell into decline. The
Huns,
Goths, and other barbaric groups invaded Rome, which continued to suffer from
inflation and other internal strifes. Despite the attempts of
Diocletian,
Constantine I, and
Theodosius I, western Rome collapsed and was eventually conquered in 476. The
Byzantine empire continued to prosper, however.
Medieval warfare (1346) between the English and French in the
Hundred Years' War. When
stirrups came into use sometime during the
Dark Ages, militaries were forever changed. This invention, coupled with technological, cultural, and social developments, had forced a dramatic transformation in the character of warfare from
antiquity, changing military tactics and the role of
cavalry and
artillery. Similar patterns of warfare existed in other parts of the world. In China, around the 5th century, armies shifted from massed infantry to cavalry-based forces, copying the
steppe nomads. The Middle East and North Africa used technologies similar to, if often more advanced than, those of Europe. In Japan, the Medieval warfare period is considered by many to have stretched into the 19th century. In Africa, along the
Sahel and in
Sudan, states like the
Kingdom of Sennar and the
Fulani Empire employed Medieval tactics and weapons well after they had been supplanted in Europe. In the
Medieval period,
feudalism was firmly implanted, and there existed many landlords in Europe. Landlords often owned
castles to protect their territory. The Islamic
Arab Empires began rapidly expanding throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, initially led by the
Rashidun Caliphate, and later under the
Umayyads. While their attempts to invade Europe by way of the Balkans were
defeated by
Byzantium and
Bulgaria, the Arabs expanded to the
Iberian Peninsula in the west and the
Indus Valley in the east. The
Abassids then took over the Arab Empire, though the Umayyads remained in control of
Islamic Spain. At the
Battle of Tours, the
Franks under
Charles Martel stopped short a Muslim invasion. The Abassids defeated the
Tang Chinese army at the
Battle of Talas, but were later defeated by the
Seljuk Turks and the
Mongols centuries later, until the Arab Empire eventually came to an end after the
Battle of Baghdad in 1258. In China, the
Sui dynasty had risen and conquered the Chen dynasty of the south. They invaded Vietnam (northern Vietnam had been under Chinese control since the Han dynasty), fighting the troops of
Champa, who mounted cavalry on elephants. After decades of economic turmoil and a
failed invasion of Korea, the Sui collapsed and was followed by the Tang dynasty, who fought with various
Turkic groups, the
Tibetans of
Lhasa, the
Tanguts, the
Khitans, and collapsed due to political fragmentation of powerful regional military governors (jiedushi). The innovative
Song dynasty followed next, inventing new weapons of war that employed
Greek fire and
gunpowder (see section below) against enemies such as the
Jurchens. forces over the Muscovites at the
Battle of Orsha in 1514 The
Mongols under
Genghis Khan,
Ögedei Khan,
Möngke Khan, and
Kublai Khan conquered most of Eurasia. They took over China, Persia, Turkestan, and Russia. After Kublai Khan took power and established the
Yuan dynasty, the empire's divisions ceased to cooperate, and the Mongol Empire was only nominally united. In New Zealand, before European discovery, oral histories, legends, and
whakapapa include many stories of battles and wars.
Māori warriors were held in high esteem. One group of
Polynesians migrated to the
Chatham Islands, where they developed the largely pacifist
Moriori culture. Their pacifism left the Moriori unable to defend themselves when mainland Māori invaded the islands in the 1830s. They proceeded to massacre the Moriori and enslave the survivors.
Warrior culture also developed in the isolated
Hawaiian Islands. During the 1780s and 1790s, the chiefs and alii were constantly fighting for power. After a series of battles, the Hawaiian Islands were united for the first time under a single ruler who would become known as
Kamehameha I.
Gunpowder warfare , or
Dutch Revolt against Spain, painting by
Sebastiaen Vrancx After
gunpowder weapons were first developed in
Song dynasty China (see also:
Technology of the Song dynasty), the technology later spread west to the
Ottoman Empire, from where it spread to the
Safavid Empire of Persia and the
Mughal Empire of India. European armies later adopted the
arquebus during the
Italian Wars of the early 16th century. This all brought an end to the dominance of armored cavalry on the battlefield. The simultaneous decline of the feudal system—and the absorption of the medieval city-states into larger states—allowed the creation of professional standing armies to replace the
feudal levies and mercenaries that had been the standard military component of the Middle Ages. In Africa,
Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi was the first African commander to use gunpowder on the continent in the
Ethiopian–Adal War, which lasted for fourteen years (1529–1543). The period spanning between the 1648
Peace of Westphalia and the 1789
French Revolution is also known as
Kabinettskriege (Princes' warfare) as wars were mainly carried out by imperial or monarchical states, decided by cabinets and limited in scope and in their aims. They also engaged in rapid shifts in alliances and primarily relied on mercenaries. Over the course of the 18th–19th centuries all military arms and services underwent significant developments that included a more mobile
field artillery, the transition from use of battalion
infantry drill in
close order to open order formations and the transfer of emphasis from the use of
bayonets to the rifle that replaced the musket, and virtual replacement of all types of cavalry with the universal
dragoons, or
mounted infantry.
Military Revolution during the
Franco-Dutch War, 1672 The Military Revolution is a conceptual schema for explaining the transformation of European military strategy, tactics, and technology in the early modern period. The argument is that dramatic advances in technology, government finance, and public administration transformed and modernized European armies, tactics, and logistics. Since warfare was so central to the European state, the transformation had a major impact on the modernization of government bureaucracies, taxation, and the national economy. The concept was introduced by
Michael Roberts in the 1950s, as he focused on the
Swedish Empire, 1560–1660. Roberts emphasized the introduction of muskets that could not be aimed at small targets but could be very effective when fired in volleys by three ranks of infantry, with one rank firing while the other two reloaded. All three ranks march forward to demolish the enemy. The infantry now had the firepower previously reserved for the artillery and the mobility to advance rapidly on the battlefield, which the artillery lacked. The infantry thereby surpassed the artillery in tactical maneuvering on the battlefield. Roberts linked these advances to broader historical consequences, arguing that innovations in tactics, drill, and doctrine by the Dutch and Swedes, 1560–1660, led to a need for more and better-trained troops, and thus for permanent forces (standing armies). Armies grew much larger and more expensive. These changes, in turn, had major political consequences for the level of administrative support and the supply of money, men, and provisions, producing new financial demands and the creation of new governmental institutions. "Thus, argued Roberts, the modern art of war made possible—and necessary—the creation of the modern state". In the 1990s, the concept was modified and extended by
Geoffrey Parker, who argued that developments in fortification and siege warfare caused the revolution. The concept of a military revolution based on technology has given way to models based more on slow evolution, in which technology plays a minor role in organization, command and control, logistics, and, in general, non-material improvements. The revolutionary nature of these changes was only apparent after a long evolution that gave Europe a dominant role in warfare, a role that the Industrial Revolution would confirm. The concept of a military revolution in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has received a mixed reception among historians. Noted military historians Michael Duffy and
Jeremy Black have strongly criticised it as misleading, exaggerated, and simplistic.
Industrial warfare As weapons—particularly small arms—became easier to use, countries began to abandon a complete reliance on professional soldiers in favor of
conscription. Technological advances became increasingly important; while the armies of the previous period had usually had similar weapons, the industrial age saw encounters such as the
Battle of Sadowa, in which possession of a more advanced technology played a decisive role in the outcome. Conscription was employed in industrial warfare to increase the number of military personnel available for combat. Conscription was notably used by
Napoleon Bonaparte and the major parties during the two World Wars.
Total war was used in industrial warfare to prevent the opposing nation from engaging in war. Napoleon was the innovator.
William Tecumseh Sherman's "
March to the Sea" and
Philip Sheridan's burning of the
Shenandoah Valley during the
American Civil War were examples. On the largest scale the
strategic bombing of enemy cities and industrial factories during
World War II was total warfare.
Modern warfare Since the 1940s, preparation for a major war has been based on technological arms races involving all sorts of new weapons systems, such as nuclear and biological, as well as computerized control systems, and the opening of new venues, such as seen in the
Space race involving the United States, the Soviet Union, and more recently, China. Modern war also saw improvements in
armored tank technology. While tanks were present in the
First World War, and the
Second World War, armored warfare technology came to a head with the start of the
Cold War. Many of the technologies commonly seen on main battle tanks today, such as
composite armor,
high-caliber cannons, and
advanced targeting systems, would be developed during this period. A distinctive feature since 1945 is the decline in the number and casualties of interstate wars. Instead, actual fighting has largely been limited to civil wars and insurgencies. The major exceptions were the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the
Iran–Iraq War 1980–1988, the
Gulf War of 1990–91, and the
Russo-Ukrainian War. ==See also==