Single most important battle in History?

[aronnax]

Battle of Talas imho.If this battle didnt happen...Well I dont know.

Lets see...If The battle would not fought, CHinese Presence would have increased and remain in Central Asia. Who knows, maybe a Sinonized Central Asia may appear and push forward and west into Europe for control of Trade Routes and Diplomatic Dominance. However this would alarm the Caliphate which would most likely fight China, which would lead to a battle at the edge of both empires which bewteen two Giants which may end in total defeat on both sides, which may end both Chinese and Islamic presence in the region.

Without this battle, paper may not been transferred over to the Arabs who subsequently wont transfer to Europe. No paper, no need for the printing press, slower Reinassce, no quick spread of the Reformation, no Protestant England, no protestant England, no extremist protestant English running to America to escape them, no english colony founded, no American Nation.

Conclusion, Huge effects

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

The answer to this question is extremely difficult because alot of it depends on your point of view. I'll just throw out one that never gets mentioned, but ended up being extremely important.

The Battle of Sedan. The outcome of that single battle set in motion the events right up until the end of the Cold War. It is often overlooked, but the world would have been an entirely different place for the next 120 years had the French Empire not been destroyed basically on the spot there and managed to go on to win the war.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Wow, no one else said Salamis? Interesting, or is that too far back for you guys.

My votes would be for Salamis and Zama because those battles determined control of modern western culture(not sure about Zama, but certain about Salamis).

My main issue with Salamis is that I find that a lot of people really underestimate the influence of Germanic & Celtic civilization on the modern western world. This is especially true for those of us who either reside in or are descendants of North-Western Europeans. I have many doubts that the Persians could effectively conquer all of Europe when the Romans who were better equipped, organized, more numerous and closer to the action (Italy vs. Iran) failed to do so. Roman culture may have been different, but a Persian victory at Salamis probably doesn't change Rome's later domination of the Mediterranean either, only they end up conquering Persians instead of Macedonians. Christianity is Hebrew, not Greek in origin.

It was an extremely important battle for its time and for the next thousand years, but the ancient world was wiped away by the conquests of the Germanics in the West and Muslims in the East in the middle of the first millenium so I don't think our lives would really be that different today had the Greeks lost Salamis and been conquered by the Persians.

 

[EnlightenmentHK]

Roman culture may have been different, but a Persian victory at Salamis probably doesn't change Rome's later domination of the Mediterranean either, only they end up conquering Persians instead of Macedonians. Christianity is Hebrew, not Greek in origin.

The bolded part is kind of the key though isn't it? Modern western culture has multiple influences, but arguably the most prominent and influential was Hellenic culture and thought. Much of which was adopted by the Romans and codified within their lands for a thousand years. Eliminate Greece before this happens and maybe Rome still rises, but it rises as something substantially different. And the repercussions reverberate down through the generations.

 

[Sir Matzee]

battle of Stalingrad
siege of Costantinople
battle of Yorktown
battle of El- Alamein

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

siege of Costantinople

Which one? 1204 or 1453?

battle of Yorktown

There was no battle at Yorktown, only a siege and a surrender.

 

[Sir Matzee]

Which one? 1204 or 1453?

the second

 

[Elta]

The Battle of Singapore was pretty important.

It help thrash the image that the Europeans were "Invinceble" leading to sucessive independence of several countries.

However the most important would be.... When Caveman Ugg killed Caveman Jega

I've gotta agree, there were only like 50 humans alive from 100,000 b.c. to 70,000 b.c.

Ugg killing Jega is a big deal.

 

[Mirc]

I've gotta agree, there were only like 50 humans alive from 100,000 b.c. to 70,000 b.c.

Ugg killing Jega is a big deal.

You must mean something like 50 thousand.

 

[LightSpectra]

the second

Eh. Byzantium was already doomed at the time. Even if the Ottomans were defeated in 1453, there's no reason to think they would've failed again in a second chance.

 

[Cutlass]

I wouldn't put Stalingrad on this list. While it was a truly massive battle, it was not a decisive one. Had the Russians lost, they would have been badly hurt, but the Germans would not have been strengthened. And there is little that would have changed in the final ending of the war.

 

[joycem10]

The bolded part is kind of the key though isn't it? Modern western culture has multiple influences, but arguably the most prominent and influential was Hellenic culture and thought. Much of which was adopted by the Romans and codified within their lands for a thousand years. Eliminate Greece before this happens and maybe Rome still rises, but it rises as something substantially different. And the repercussions reverberate down through the generations.

"No Glory That Was Greece" by Victor Davis Hanson in the book What If? adrresses that very issue. He posits a different Roman Empire that with substantial Persian influence, including Zoroastroism.

 

[EnlightenmentHK]

"No Glory That Was Greece" by Victor Davis Hanson in the book What If? adrresses that very issue. He posits a different Roman Empire that with substantial Persian influence, including Zoroastroism.

Eh...I take Hanson's history about as seriously as I do Harry Turtledove. Not saying that his ideas on this matter are off by any means, but he's more 'light entertainment with a Western bias' than serious historian. Still, might give it a read. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Elta]

You must mean something like 50 thousand.

No in fact I don't!!!

All women (if we estimate the average age of birth was 18 years) come from one women 100,000 years ago

And all men from one man 70,000 years ago.

We know this from blood test.

When they test your blood you can only see your fathers line (if you are a man) and vis versa for girls.

Any way the gist of it is, there probably only like 50 people or less from 100,000 to 70,000.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

It is true that we are all descended from one woman 100,000 years ago, but she isn't our only female descendant from that time, just the only one who gave us our mtDNA. In other words, we are all descended from that one woman plus lots of other women from that time, but not the same other women for everyone.

 

[Elta]

It is true that we are all descended from one woman 100,000 years ago, but she isn't our only female descendant from that time, just the only one who gave us our mtDNA. In other words, we are all descended from that one woman plus lots of other women from that time, but not the same other women for everyone.

This confuses and hurts Elta's brain

In any case yes, I had heard from the discovery channel that in between 70k and 100k we went through an extreme population bottle neck where we were whittled down to like 50 people.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

I know there was a bottleneck, but I don't think it was that tight.

 

[BCLG100]

Quite a lot of historians argue that the Battle of Poitiers/ Tours is the most important battles post Classical Europe.

Im unsure why people are using Thermoplyae as the most important battle as that in itself wasn't entirely key perhaps more so Platae that followed it and Salamis which happened at a similar time.

Constantinople 1453- whilst it would have course fallen at a later date it was still very important, not only did it signal the switch in religions, near destruction of byzantine empire but also arguably led to the success that the ottoman Empire would have with its decent capital rather than the poorer city of Bursa.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Im unsure why people are using Thermoplyae as the most important battle as that in itself wasn't entirely key perhaps more so Platae that followed it and Salamis which happened at a similar time.

Or Marathon for that matter. Saying Thermopylae was more important than Salamis is like saying Stamford Bridge was more important than Hastings or that the Alamo was more important than San Jacinto. It just isn't accurate.

The bolded part is kind of the key though isn't it? Modern western culture has multiple influences, but arguably the most prominent and influential was Hellenic culture and thought. Much of which was adopted by the Romans and codified within their lands for a thousand years. Eliminate Greece before this happens and maybe Rome still rises, but it rises as something substantially different. And the repercussions reverberate down through the generations

The idea that I was getting at is that it was important to Roman culture for most of its existance, but the Rome that fell in the 5th Century had become something very different and its lasting legacy in Western Europe was Roman Catholicism rather than Greek ideas. It is in the east that Greek influence was of much more critical importance, at least until the Arabs & Turks conquered the region.

 

[Archbob]

I was confused why people were saying Thermopylae was more important than Salamis also. The spartans lost there, it didn't really change the course of anything.

Salamis was the major battle that determined things in the Persian-greek wars. You could argue Marathon but Salamis I think is more important.