Chronology

Twenty-four centuries

From a coastal plain in Attica to a valley in Vietnam — the same problem, restated: who holds the ground when the day is over.

1. 490 BC

   01 · Land · Ancient

   Marathon

   Attica, Greece

   A city-state army proved the Persian war machine could be beaten on land.

2. 331 BC

   02 · Land · Ancient

   Gaugamela

   Near Mosul, in present-day Iraq

   The battle that ended the Persian Empire as a going concern.

3. 216 BC

   03 · Land · Ancient

   Cannae

   Apulia, Italy

   The textbook double envelopment — and a warning that tactical genius does not always win wars.

4. 208

   04 · Combined · Ancient

   Red Cliffs

   Middle Yangtze, China

   The battle that locked China into Three Kingdoms instead of one empire.

5. 1066

   05 · Land · Medieval

   Hastings

   Senlac Hill, Sussex

   A single day that grafted Norman rule onto England.

6. 1260

   06 · Land · Medieval

   Ayn Jalut

   Jezreel Valley, Galilee

   The first decisive field defeat of a Mongol army — and the salvation of Egypt.

7. 1453

   07 · Siege · Medieval

   Fall of Constantinople

   Constantinople (Istanbul)

   The last Roman capital fell; a new imperial city was born on the same stones.

8. 1600

   08 · Land · Early modern

   Sekigahara

   Gifu Prefecture, Japan

   The battle that decided who would rule Japan for 250 years.

9. 1683

   09 · Siege · Early modern

   Vienna

   Vienna, Habsburg Austria

   The high-water mark of Ottoman advance into Central Europe.

10. 1805

    10 · Sea · Napoleonic

    Trafalgar

    Off Cape Trafalgar, Spain

    Napoleon lost the sea for good; Britain kept it for a century.

11. 1815

    11 · Land · Napoleonic

    Waterloo

    Mont-Saint-Jean, Belgium

    Napoleon’s last battle; the end of a twenty-three-year European convulsion.

12. 1863

    12 · Land · Industrial

    Gettysburg

    Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

    The Confederate high-water mark in the east; Lee’s invasion of the North failed.

13. 1896

    13 · Land · Industrial

    Adwa

    Adwa, Tigray, Ethiopia

    An African empire defeated a European colonial army and kept its independence.

14. 1905

    14 · Sea · Industrial

    Tsushima

    Tsushima Strait

    An Asian navy annihilated a European one and announced a new rank order at sea.

15. 1916

    15 · Land · World wars

    Verdun

    Verdun, France

    The emblem of industrial attrition — a battle that tried to kill an army’s will.

16. 1940

    16 · Air · World wars

    Battle of Britain

    English skies and Channel

    The first major campaign fought and decided in the air — and Hitler’s first strategic failure.

17. 1942

    17 · Combined · World wars

    Midway

    Midway Atoll, Pacific Ocean

    The turning of the Pacific war, six months after Pearl Harbor.

18. 1942

    18 · Combined · World wars

    Stalingrad

    Stalingrad (Volgograd), USSR

    The destruction of a German field army and the turning of the European war in the east.

19. 1944

    19 · Combined · World wars

    D-Day

    Normandy coast, France

    The Western Allies returned to France; Germany now faced a war of two collapsing fronts.

20. 1954

    20 · Siege · Modern

    Dien Bien Phu

    Điện Biên Phủ, Vietnam

    The siege that ended French Indochina and opened the next Vietnam war.