Most Important battle in history?

Question

Alright, I am interested to see what you guys think is the most important battle in world history. What is one battle that determined the course of the world? What is one battle that, had it not occured, or gone in favor of the losing side, would make our world entirely different? Have fun...

Answer 1

Probably the Battle of Salamis. In this ancient battle, the forces of Greece defeated the Persian empire and ended Persian expansion into Europe. The Greek victory was the start of the Golden Age of Greece and preserved Western culture as we know it.

Had the battle gone differently, we may not have seen the rise of Western philosophy, Rome, Christianity as a major world religion, liberalism, or anything else produced by Western culture. The history of the world from the Classical period to today would have been radically different.

Answer 2

Contrary to some of the expressed opinions, I do think that one battle could have changed the world if it had gone differently in many cases. I can think of several battles that have greatly influenced history in several ways. Some, like the battle of Thermopylae affect the world through how it affects military tradition. Some, such as Waterloo, affect it directly by how it affects a ruler.

While I can think of many battles that have affected the course of the world, I think one of the most important would have to be the Battle of Hastings in 1066. This battle allowed the Normans from France to invade and conquer England, and started what became the British Empire. Considering the affect of the British on the world and our history, it may very well be one of the most important ever. Without it going the way it did, we would never have had things like the Magna Carta, and the Declaration of Independence.

Of course, I am taking a very westernized view of history based on being American. I would bet that a Chinese or Japanese person would come up with different, equally valid, answers

Answer 3

Probably either the Battle of Normandy or The Battle of the Bulge
would have to be the most important in recent History. All conflicts since WW II have actually been on a small more manageable scale they have just been mismanaged.

In the Battle of the Bulge 80,000 Americans Died on Foreign soil
but saved Europe from itself.
If Democrats then act the way they do now, there would be no Europe it would be called Germany.

There would be no Jews alive in the world outside of America and Canada, the English and Irish would be exiled from their home and living displaced as the Jewish are just not as endangered.

We would have to fight Japan as allies with Australia and occasionally from China and we would have no front against Germany but our own waters and boarders because Germany had an awesome Navy.

I honor my Grandfathers generation for their fortitude and their compassion. It is my great hope that my generation inherited this
character and it has just yet awaken.

So how many Americans have Died in Lebanon, Iraq I, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq II, Bosnia, Somalia and WTC. Ten years worth of conflicts. These conflicts combined don't come close to the 80,000 in one battle in WW II for someone other than ourselves.

Answer 4

Let's see the candidates:

Cro Magnon vs. Neanderthal:affected us for all eternity

Yorktown

Stalingrad

The Spanish Armada

battle of Marathon

Battle of Midway

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

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.



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 victory....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 5

I wasn't really a battle but the commander. Chingas Khan fell off his horse that led to his death before he could overrun the remainder of China and then to complete his conquest of Europe. The death of his successor also halted another invasion of Europe as well. There was nothing to stop the Mongol armies from going all the way to the Atlantic. History would have been dramatically different had the Mongols held power from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

Answer 6

The great Khans attack of Japan.

When the typhoon deemed Kamikaze destroyed the Chinese Armada. It weakened China's global fronts. It stopped Chinese expansion into Russia and Europe. Allowed Islam to grow throughout the Mideast.
It set Japan up for 5 centuries of imaginary power leading to Pearl Harbor.

A single event that changed things world over and still ripples with the effects.

Answer 7

You can't say one battle changed the world. You can say it, however, about military campaigns, which typically involve a series of battles and manouvers. The most decisive campaign of the Twentieth Century was Hitler's Operation Barbarossa - it failed.
Had it been otherwise, yes, the world would now be very, very different.

Answer 8

Waterloo when the British saved the whole of Europe from being conquered by the French.Really any battle that saved a country from taking over another.

Answer 9

Stalingrad, WW11 Eastern Front. Broke the Nazi's back. Was the turning point of WW11. The 6th German Army was trapped between the Don and the Volga, and all but whiped out!!

Answer 10

Whatever battle is going on now. It will determine the future. The rest are history.