The Decisive Battles of World History Course Guidebook

Topic Subtopic History Military The Decisive Battles of World History Course Guidebook Professor Gregory S. Aldrete Uniiversityy of WWisconsin–Green Bay PUBLISHED BY: THE GREAT COURSES Corporate Headquarters 4840 Westﬁelds Boulevard, Suite 500 Chantilly, Virginia 20151-2299 Phone: 1-800-832-2412 Fax: 703-378-3819 www.thegreatcourses.com Copyright © The Teaching Company, 2014 Printed in the United States of America This book is in copyright. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of The Teaching Company. Gregory S. Aldrete, Ph.D. Frankenthal Professor of History and Humanistic Studies University of Wisconsin–Green Bay rofessor Gregory S. Aldrete is the Frankenthal Professor of History and Humanistic Studies Pat the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. He received his B.A. from Princeton University in 1988 and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1995. His interdisciplinary scholarship spans the ¿HOGVRIKLVWRU\DUFKDHRORJ\DUWKLVWRU\PLOLWDU\KLVWRU\DQGSKLORORJ\ Among the books Professor Aldrete has written or edited are Gestures and Acclamations in Ancient Rome; Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome; Daily Life in the Roman City: Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia; The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life: A Tour through History from Ancient Times to the Present, volume 1, The Ancient World; The Long Shadow of Antiquity: What Have the Greeks and Romans Done for Us? (with Alicia Aldrete); and Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor: Unraveling the Linothorax Mystery (with Scott Bartell and Alicia Aldrete). Professor Aldrete has won many awards for his teaching, including two national ones: In 2012, he was named the Wisconsin Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and in 2010, he received the American Philological Association Award for Excellence in Teaching at the College Level (the national teaching award given annually by the professional association of Classics professors). Professor Aldrete also has been a University of Wisconsin System Teaching Fellow, a University of Wisconsin–Green Bay Teaching Scholar, and winner of a Teaching at Its Best award. Professor Aldrete’s research has been equally honored with a number of prestigious fellowships, including two year-long Humanities Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Solmsen i Fellowship at the Institute for Research in the Humanities in Madison. Additionally, he was chosen as a fellow of two NEH seminars held at the American Academy in Rome; was a participant in an NEH institute at the University of California, Los Angeles; and was a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome. His university has given him its highest awards for both teaching and research: the Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship, both from the Founders Association. Professor Aldrete’s innovative Linothorax Project, in which he and his students reconstructed and tested ancient linen body armor, has recently garnered considerable attention from the media, having been featured in documentaries on the Discovery Channel and the Smithsonian Channel and on television programs in Canada and across Europe. It also has been the subject of articles in U.S. News & World Report, Der Spiegel, and Military History and of Internet news stories in more than two dozen countries. Professor Aldrete maintains an active lecture schedule, including speaking to retirement groups; in elementary, middle, and high schools; and on cruise ships. He also has been named a national lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America. For The Great Courses, he taught History of the Ancient World: A Global PerspectiveŶ ii Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Professor Biography ............................................................................i Course Scope .....................................................................................1 LECTURE GUIDES LECTURE 1 What Makes a Battle Decisive? ..........................................................4 LECTURE 2 1274 B.C. Kadesh—Greatest Chariot Battle ....................................10 LECTURE 3 479 B.C. Plataea—Greece Wins Freedom.......................................17 LECTURE 4 331 B.C. Gaugamela—Alexander’s Genius .....................................24 LECTURE 5 197 B.C. Cynoscephalae—Legion vs. Phalanx ................................31 LECTURE 6 31 B.C. Actium—Birth of the Roman Empire ....................................38 LECTURE 7 ±%&&KLQD²6WUXJJOHVIRU8QL¿FDWLRQ ................................45 LECTURE 8 636 Yarmouk & al-Qadisiyyah—Islam Triumphs ..............................53 LECTURE 9 751 Talas & 1192 Tarain—Islam into Asia.........................................60 LECTURE 10 1066 Hastings—William Conquers England.....................................67 iii Table of Contents LECTURE 11 1187 Hattin—Crusader Desert Disaster ...........................................74 LECTURE 12 1260 Ain Jalut—Can the Mongols Be Stopped? ..............................81 LECTURE 13 1410 Tannenberg—Cataclysm of Knights ........................................88 LECTURE 14 Frigidus, Badr, Diu—Obscure Turning Points ...................................95 LECTURE 15 1521 Tenochtitlán—Aztecs vs. Conquistadors ...............................102 LECTURE 16 1532 Cajamarca—Inca vs. Conquistadors .....................................109 LECTURE 17 1526 & 1556 Panipat—Babur & Akbar in India ..............................116 LECTURE 18 1571 Lepanto—Last Gasp of the Galleys.......................................122 LECTURE 19 1592 Sacheon—Yi’s Mighty Turtle Ships........................................129 LECTURE 20 1600 Sekigahara—Samurai Showdown .........................................135 LECTURE 21 1683 Vienna—The Great Ottoman Siege .......................................142 LECTURE 22 1709 Poltava—Sweden’s Fall, Russia’s Rise .................................149 LECTURE 23 1759 Quebec—Battle for North America ........................................156 iv Table of Contents LECTURE 24 1776 Trenton—The Revolution’s Darkest Hour ..............................163 LECTURE 25 1805 Trafalgar—Nelson Thwarts Napoleon ...................................170 LECTURE 26 1813 Leipzig—The Grand Coalition ...............................................176 LECTURE 27 1824 Ayacucho—South American Independence ..........................182 LECTURE 28 1836 San Jacinto—Mexico’s Big Loss ...........................................188 LECTURE 29 1862 Antietam—The Civil War’s Bloodiest Day ..............................194 LECTURE 30 1866 Königgrätz—Bismarck Molds Germany.................................201 LECTURE 31 1905 Tsushima—Japan Humiliates Russia ....................................208 LECTURE 32 1914 Marne—Paris Is Saved..........................................................215 LECTURE 33 1939 Khalkhin Gol—Sowing the Seeds of WWII ............................221 LECTURE 34 1942 Midway—Four Minutes Change Everything ..........................227 LECTURE 35 1942 Stalingrad—Hitler’s Ambitions Crushed ................................234 LECTURE 36 Recent & Not-So-Decisive Decisive Battles ...................................240 v Table of Contents SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL Bibliography ....................................................................................247 vi The Decisive Battles of World History Scope: any of the most decisive turning points in the history of the ZRUOGKDYHEHHQEDWWOHV0RUHWKDQMXVWFRQÀLFWVEHWZHHQDUPLHV Msuch moments often represent fundamental clashes among rival religions; cultures; and social, political, and economic systems. The outcomes of these battles have dramatically transformed and shaped the course of history, often sending it on unexpected or completely new paths. This course examines more than three dozen such pivotal moments, highlighting and exposing the key incidents and personalities responsible for these critical shifts. During the course of these lectures, we’ll discover how the Battle of Yarmouk contributed to the establishment of Islam in the Middle East; how the Battle of the Talas River curbed the expansion of the Tang dynasty of China; how the Battle of Boyaca resulted in South American independence from Spain; and how the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, fought on the borders of 0RQJROLDDQG0DQFKXULDLQÀXHQFHGWKHHQWLUHGLUHFWLRQRI:RUOG:DU,,LQ ERWK(XURSHDQGWKH3DFL¿F This course features three aspects that should be relatively original, even for those with some familiarity with military history. First, it is truly global in scope, including not only the more familiar battles of Western civilization but also pivotal ones in Asia, South America, India, and the Middle East. Thus, we’ll cover Mohamad of Ghor and the Battle of Tarain in India, as well as William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings; we’ll explore the Battle of Sacheon in Korea, as well as the Battle of Stalingrad. Second, the course analyzes both key land battles and naval clashes, topics that are frequently treated separately. Third, although many famous battles are included, there are also a good number that are not very well known, such as the battles of Cynocephalae, Yarmouk, Diu, and Ayacucho. Often, a more obscure battle

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