In early 1915 the Central Powers had a grand design: a coordinated attack through East Prussia by Germany and in Galicia by Austro-Hungary to meet east of the Vistula, enveloping the Russian armies on the eastern front. On 7 February in severe winter conditions the German 8th and 10th Armies... More
Having subdued Austria and created the Confederation of the Rhine, Napoleon was determined to crush the remnants of the Prussian army, most of whom had been killed or captured in autumn 1806. Napoleon followed the Prussians as they moved eastwards, punching his way through Prussia in less than three weeks.... More
Also known as the Russo-Finnish War, the Winter War came about after Finland refused to negotiate with the Soviets over the acquisition of land on the Karelian Isthmus and a naval base at Hanko. The Soviets attacked on several fronts, yet made few gains. The Finns made some failed counterattacks,... More
Encrypted communications were used by all major military powers by World War II, so the ability to crack methods of encryption was vital to maintaining the upper hand in strategic decisions. The Germans used the Enigma machine and its successors, the much more powerful Lorenz SZ40 and SZ42, to encrypt... More
While Rome was pre-eminent at the dawn of the Christian era, its expansionist momentum was beginning to stall. The Parthians inflicted a crushing defeat in 53 BCE, the German tribes in 9 CE and Cush would prove too troublesome to subdue. The Han in China were also suffering from imperial... More
The second millennium dawned with few dominant imperial powers; the last pan-Muslim caliphate, the Abbasids, had long since fragmented into multiple dynasties, from the Zirids of Northwest Africa to the Qarakhanids of Central Asia. In China, the Khitan Empire, with its capital in Beijing, threatened prosperous Song dynasty. In Southeast... More
The Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE between the Egypt of Rameses II and the Hittites was a clash to determine supremacy in the Near East between the primary regional powers of the time. The result was inconclusive and over the next century the two rivals would increasingly be overshadowed... More
After the expulsion of the Mongols in 1368, the Ming Empire in China, with a standing army of a million troops and a population nearing 100 million, was probably the wealthiest and most powerful dominion worldwide. To the west, the empire of Timur was nearing the peak. In 1402, Timur... More
The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans (1453) shocked Christian Europe, but its subsequent renaissance was not purely cultural. By the dawn of the 15th century, the Holy Roman Empire, France, England and Spain had all acquired strong, secure dynastic rule, while Hungary, under John Hunyadi and Matthew Corvinus, was... More
In the 16th century, the Portuguese had established the first pan-global trading empire with outposts from Brazil to Nagasaki, while the Spanish were extracting vast wealth from their viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru. The Ming were in steady decline in China, while the Mughals were at their peak in... More
There was a change in the European power balances in the 17th century, with the ground-breaking first colonizers from Iberia becoming increasingly outrivalled by the maritime powers of France, England and the Dutch. France under Louis XIV was also Europe’s dominant terrestrial power, but would soon be humbled, with its... More
In 1800, the European order dominated the world map with its rival, the Ottoman Empire, falling behind. In 1800, the United States was independent, but the southwest remained under Spanish control. Central and South America, in addition to the West Indies, were western European possessions. The British controlled much of... More