| Hafta | Konu | Ön Hazırlık | Dökümanlar |
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Introduction to Military History
What is Military History? The nineteenth- and early twentieth-century traditions of military historiography, dominated by ex-military men writing about the “Art of War” emphasized on the importance of battles, tactics and strategies. However, since the mid-1970s, the “new military history” has revitalized military studies, placing warfare in its socio-political, economic and cultural contexts, in – what we may call – a society organized for war.
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Organized Warfare in Ancient state-level societies: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia Minor, Indus Valley and China (3500-600 BC)
In this lecture, we move from a brief examination of what can be known about the origins of warfare, and the external and internal consequences of the invention of warfare for social organization; to a survey of the major themes of ancient organized warfare, in areas where urban, state-level societies first arose, in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia Minor, the Indus valley, and, a little later, north China.
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The building of empires in the ancient world: the Achaemenids in Persia, the Qin and Han in China, and the Mauryan in India (800-200 BC)
After about 800 BC, an age that witnessed greater interactions between civilizations, greater social and cultural complexity within civilizations, and technological innovations including the spreading use of iron technology for both agriculture and war, those elites mostly adapted, becoming cavalry elites who, if not dominating warfare the way chariot warriors had in the Bronze Age, still played an important role on the battlefield and in politics. Hence, the relationship of the old chariot elites (and their successors, the cavalry elites) to the new forces of centralization and empire building was a crucial element in the history of this period militarily, socially, and politically.
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The Ancient Greek polis and the Macedonian phalanx (800-200BC)
The age of disruptions in southwest Asia and the eastern Mediterranean that began around 1200 BCE saw the eventual re-emergence of imperial states in most of that area, a pattern mirrored in developments in China and, in different ways, in India. However, developments in Greece would follow a different course, with significant implications for military history. Instead of following the large-state path of military-political development, the Greeks developed small-scale political organizations that generated an effective style of infantry shock combat. The Macedonians then perfected this style and fit it into a combined arms force unmatched in ancient times for its tactical flexibility and effectiveness.
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Rome and its legions: from a Republic to an Empire (500 BC - AD400)
The rise of Rome from small city-state to world empire is probably one of the best-known stories
of military history, and Rome remains an archetype of both military efficiency and imperialism in the modern world. Rome’s growth as a state and empire entailed significant internal changes both socially and politically, changes that, in turn, had implications for its patterns of military organization and activity. Unlike the Greeks, whose communal infantry was eventually swallowed and appropriated by large states external to Greece, Rome assumed the role of swallower, if not appropriator.
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The Germanic kingdoms in Western Europe (400-850)
Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, the military forces of the Germanic successor kingdoms reflected the fusion of Roman and barbarian elements that characterized the whole society. Frankish, Burgundian, and Gothic kings and their rivals consciously attempted to maintain Roman systems of recruitment and organization. But the socioeconomic conditions of the time and the invaders’ own traditions made complete continuity impossible.
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Steppe warfare - the Hunnic and Mongol practices
The steppe people have inhabited the periphery of the world’s great civilizations—in Europe, the Middle East, south Asia, and China—and their relationship with these sedentary peoples has been often characterized by raiding and warfare. Often these pastoral warriors parlayed the skills they learned on the steppes into an overwhelming military dominance that led to the conquest of their more civilized neighbours. These peoples came from a variety of ethnic and linguistic groups including various Indo-European Iranian tribes and Turkish peoples. Regardless of their ethnic origins or language, all of these groups were tied together by a common cultural tradition and lifestyle.
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Warfare between the Byzantine and the Islamic Empires: Intra- or Inter- cultural Warfare?
The focus of this week will be twofold: First, we will concentrate on the organisation of the Byzantine and Arab armies of the period following the seventh century and the main Muslim conquests in the Middle East. More specifically, we will analyse the recruitment and tactical structure of both armies, the different categories of troops – either professional or “part-time” – their motivations for joining the army and their social, cultural and religious status in each society. Great attention will be paid on the different nationalities that were enlisted in the Byzantine and Arab armies, their status and tactical role, their fighting techniques (Armenian, Rus, Bulgar, Iranian, Sudanese and Turkish mercenaries).
Secondly, we will bring to the discussion the notion of “Grand Strategy” of the Byzantine Empire in the eastern operational theatres of war (Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Armenia and Syria) and will explain the different aspects of it, as this can be discerned from the primary sources of the period, and emphasize on the kind of warfare that dominated the geographical area under consideration, the strategic goals of both the Muslims and the Byzantines, and the consequences of this incessant warfare for the local population and the economy.
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| 9 |
Warfare between the Byzantine and the Islamic Empires: Intra- or Inter- cultural Warfare?
The focus of this week will be twofold: First, we will concentrate on the organisation of the Byzantine and Arab armies of the period following the seventh century and the main Muslim conquests in the Middle East. More specifically, we will analyse the recruitment and tactical structure of both armies, the different categories of troops – either professional or “part-time” – their motivations for joining the army and their social, cultural and religious status in each society. Great attention will be paid on the different nationalities that were enlisted in the Byzantine and Arab armies, their status and tactical role, their fighting techniques (Armenian, Rus, Bulgar, Iranian, Sudanese and Turkish mercenaries).
Secondly, we will bring to the discussion the notion of “Grand Strategy” of the Byzantine Empire in the eastern operational theatres of war (Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Armenia and Syria) and will explain the different aspects of it, as this can be discerned from the primary sources of the period, and emphasize on the kind of warfare that dominated the geographical area under consideration, the strategic goals of both the Muslims and the Byzantines, and the consequences of this incessant warfare for the local population and the economy.
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The Crusades in the East
Throughout the history of the Latin East, pride of place was assigned to the heavily armed mounted warrior, the knight. The Westerners brought with them to the East ideas of how to wage war and how to build and utilize fortifications, and during the two centuries under consideration their practices continued to be affected by contemporary changes in the West. But they also learnt from their experiences of warfare with their Muslim and Byzantine neighbours, and in the process they were able to work out for themselves their own solutions to problems of recruitment, strategy, and castle design.
This week we will focus our attention on the Latins’ decisions not just where to give battle in the Levant, but whether or not they should offer battle to their enemies – based on Smail’s tripartite division of military campaigns in the region and period in question. Furthermore, we will discuss the military function and form of the Crusader castles in the Levant.
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| 11 |
Chivalry and Chevauchee: irony or pragmatism?
The ravaging of the enemy's countryside was the most common manifestation of medieval warfare, and arguably the most fundamental of all its forms. The importance of ravaging lies not only in the extent of its application, but also in the methods of its implementation. For unlike the other principal expressions of aggression in war, it consisted of an assault on the material and psychological basis of an opponent's lordship, achieved by the seizure or destruction of the central components of his landed wealth - his chattels, crops, livestock and peasantry. Historians of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries have, particularly, associated the chevauchee with the Hundred Years War, but its importance for medieval military history goes back many centuries before. What then were the aims, mechanisms and the effects of ravaging?
But, again, there has been a tendency, particularly among historians of the Hundred Years War, to assume that the killing of defenceless peasantry and the burning of crops and dwellings was essentially 'unchivalric' . Hence, what was the relation between chivalry and its values with warfare and the chevauchée?
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| 12 |
Women at War
Women’s importance to wars during the Middle Ages was significant. Although the sphere of war at that time was clearly one dominated by men, women were involved in many conflicts throughout this period. Time and again, we find examples of women – noble and non-noble alike – engaged in or affected by military activities, whether willingly or not. What is particularly striking is the disparity that seems to have existed between theory and reality, between what legal, philosophical, and political tracts said of women’s military potential and the actual role medieval women played in military affairs. This week we will have a careful evaluation of the roles and functions which women actually performed throughout England, France, and the Holy Land.
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The social impact of the Infantry and Artillery Revolutions of the 14th century
This week we will see that twice over the course of the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) new developments revolutionized the conduct of war in Europe, in each case with consequences very significant for the history of the world. The first was the transition that I shall refer to as the “Infantry Revolution.” The second, the “Artillery Revolution,” occurred when gunpowder weapons reversed the long-standing superiority of the defensive in siege warfare. Each of these transformations fundamentally altered the paradigm of war in Europe, with far-reaching consequences for the structures of social and political life, and thus each truly deserves to be termed a “military revolution” in itself.
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Presentations
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