What is the most imortant battle in history and why?

Answer 1

Gettysburg. It turned the tide of the American Civil War and preserved the Union allowing America to eventually become a superpower with the ability to crush the Nazi's and the win the Cold War.

Answer 2

I think efw has provided a most comprehensive answer, but seeing as this is my home territory I'd add my two pence worth.

I'd say Stalingrad and Kursk were more important in WW2 than either D-Day and the Western Campaign because of the shear numbers involved. The Red Army wrote down most of the German forces, the actions were on a much bigger scale. No disrespect to the Western Allies.

My view would be that the Tet Offensive in Vietnam was more important than any other battle in the Vietnam War. Walter Kronkite said that the war might now be unwinnable and that had a massive impact on US public opinion which eventually led to the US withdrawal, so Tet, while a tactical and miltary victory for the US / South Vietnam, was a strategic victory for the North. It should be noted that it didn't do them much good. Although Vietnam generally goes down as a loss for the US, it did enable the Tiger Economies of Asia to kick in - before the Communists could get a grip and now the ecomomy of Vietnam is enslaved to capitalism, and not to thier advantage either!

I've stuck to the 20th Century here, so my vote for the most important battle would be The Battle of Britain. RAF Fighter Command holds of the Luftwaffe, and persuades Hitler not to bother invading the UK after all, buying time to build up, buy time for the Russians, and for the US to get involved.

Answer 3

In the history of the world? That might be the battle of Marathon, the Greeks first victory over the Persians.

their victory endowed the Greeks with a faith in their destiny which was to endure for three centuries, during which western culture was born. John Stuart Mill's famous opinion is that the Battle of Marathon was more important an event for British history than the Battle of Hastings.

The longest lasting legacy of Marathon was the military tactic of double envelopment (or a "pincer movement"). Miltiades, leader of the Athenian Army,had personal experience from the Persian army and knew its weaknesses. As his course of action after the battle shows (invasions of the Cyclades islands), he had an integrated strategy on defeating the Persians. In the battle of Tannenberg in World War I the Germans followed the same tactic as in Marathon.

Personally, I have to give a stong vote for June 6th, 1944....D-Day. This battle may have decided the outcome of WWII or at least if the Allies had been hurled back into the sea, the war might have lasted years longer and cost millions of more people their lives...

Answer 4

Very good question and I'll just stick to American history for my answer. Actually i think that there were four battles that deserve equal importance.
1. Antietam Sept 1862.. Allowed Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and ended all hope of European help to the Confederacy.

2. Gettysburg and Vicksburg...July 1863...Ended all hope of a military victory being acheived by the Confederacy. Never again would the Confederacy be able to field such large Armies in the field.

3. Battles around Atlanta...Summer of 1864... Ended in a Cofederacte loss of Atlanta and ended all hope of Union war weariness forcing a negotiated peace and ensured Lincoln's re-election.

Each of these battles settled once and for all a specific reason that the Confederates could hope for a victory. No other war with another nation could have changed America more than a seperate Confederacy.

Answer 5

Let's see the candidates:
Cro Magnon vs. Neanderthal:affected us for alleternity
Yorktown,Saratoga,Trenton: take your pic
Stalingrad, turning point in WWII
The Spanish Armada:ended Spanish Hegemy in the world
battle of Marathon;stopped Persia from expanding to the west
Battle of Midway:turning point in Pacific,WWII
battle of Thermopylae: 250,000 to 7000
Battle for Hue in 1968 during the Tet Offensive.
Leipzeg, Napolianic wars
Battle of Chalons (451 AD): stopped Atilla
Moscow 1941:ended German expansion.
Antietam (as opposed to Gettysburg)
Chosin Campaign 1950
Bttle of Britain:Never was so much owed by so many to so few
Battle of la Marne: stopped the German invasion
Cajamarca,Spanish Conquest of Peru, 1532
Waterloo,Napoleonic Wars, 1815
Cannae 216 BC
Vienna, Austria-Ottoman Wars, 1529
Hastings, Norman Conquest of England, 1066
kursk....the largest tank battle ever.
Battle of Tours:Had Europe lost, most the world would be muslim and vastly different than it would be today.

The one i almost picked best was:
Kharkov. I liked Manstein's skillful counter offensive and Paul Hausser's master work on the tactical level. The II. SS Panzer Korps along with supporting elements beat off a Soviet force that out numbered them 7 to 1 and retook the city (third battle of Kharkov).

and then there's:
Atomic Bombing of Japan

My pick is:
The United States dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 to hasten the end of World War II in the Pacific. Although it would be the first, and to date the only, actual use of such weapons of "mass destruction," the mushroom clouds have hung over every military and political policy since then.

And the human population has stared into the dark abyss of global suicide since those dreadful days in August '45..

Greatest military battle in history?....hmmmm, i don't like the term 'great' for nuclear war, and aerial bombardment of citizens was pretty barbaric, but the consequences were pretty monumental...i guess war IS hell.

Answer 6

Very subjective question, to you the Americans, it is probably either Gettysburg or Pearl Harbour. To me, a European, it is probably the Siege of Vienna in 1683, it was the start of the eventual downfall of the Ottoman Empire. From that point on the Russian Empire started its long rise, The Holy Roman Empire fell into terminal decline, France started to dominate Europe, and the Hapsburgs started their rise. The seeds of the First World War were sown.

Answer 7

One of two-
1. The Battle of Thermapolae where 300 Spartans held 5 million Persians so the Greeks could rally their forces and survive. Had they not Western civilization in its Hllenic infancy would have been aborted and Persian dominated.
or
2. The fight between Genghis Khan and his brother. Forgetting Genghis's MASSIVE influence on the world of the 13th century from Japan to Europe his progeny went on to spawn one thirteenth of the world (genetically proven) so if he had've lost that first fight for supremecy we might be short a whole half billion (one thirteenth) people in the world today.
Wierd huh.
And to all you who say Gettysburg, there's alot more to the world than JUST America!

Answer 8

The battle of Mahabharata.It happened around 3300 BC.Second one in India's history was in Shivaji and Afzal Khan in 1654 AD.
Its one of the bravest battles in World History when very few men
of Shivaji defeated a massive Muslim army.

Answer 9

Battle of Actium -- end of the Roman Republic, start of the Roman Empire which in turn leads to domination setting up the eventual destruction of culture by the theocracy of the dark ages.

or

Battle of Chrysopolis -- where Constantine consolidated his power setting up the conversion of the western world to Christianity -- again leading but more timely to the theocracy of the dark ages.

Answer 10

In loving memory of my departed father I would say June 6th 1944 the battle for Normandy. My father was one of the brave men who parachuted behind German linesThat day.