The Battle of the Marne was one of the earliest battles in the First World War, and ended in a decisive victory for the Allies on the Western Front. Prior to this battle, German troops had been advancing relentlessly across Western Europe, sweeping through France and Belgium in spite of the latter's neutrality. This all changed with the counter-attack by British and...
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The Battle of Thermopylae pitted the Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, against the mighty Persian Empire under Xerxes I as Xerxes' army attempted to invade mainland Greece. Although the battle ended in victory for the Persians, the heroic resistance of Leonidas' 300 Spartans as they fought to the death to defend their land captured the European imagination and...
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The Battle of Verdun was one of the most significant engagements of the First World War, and is widely recognized as one of the most brutal and costly battles in history. Like many of the battles in the four-year war of attrition, it was fought largely through trench warfare, with devastating human and material losses. Indeed, many historians now agree that...
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The Crusades were a religious, political and miltary conflict between the three great powers of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries: Catholic Europe, the Muslim world and the Orthodox Byzantine Empire. The birth of Islam had a profound effect on the beginning of the Crusades, as the Muslim faith began to spread to the West and Muslim troops began to invade...
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The Hundred Years’ War was one of the most significant conflicts of the Middle Ages and spanned several generations. Known in particular for its scale (it involved many different factions and five generations of kings), the war marked the height and the decline of chivalry. It had a considerable impact on Europe, bringing European monarchies into the age of modernity...
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The Iran-Iraq War, which took place between 1980 and 1988, was one of the deadliest conflicts since the Second World War. It involved two ambitious and headstrong leaders: Saddam Hussein, who wanted to make his Republic of Iraq a powerful force in the region, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, who planned to export his Islamic Revolution beyond the borders of Iran....
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The Korean War was an internal war which led to a major confrontation between the Western Bloc and the Communist Bloc. The conflict lasted for three years and ended with no real winner, so the Korean Peninsula was divided into two states. In just 50 minutes, you will gain an understanding of why the war broke out and find out...
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On 6 June 1944, Allied forces, carried on ships along with weapons and tanks, landed on the beaches of Normandy. The Normandy landings, also known as the D-Day landings, were one of the major operations of the Second World War and paved the way for the Allied victory on the Western Front. In the largest seaborne invasion in history, some...
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The Six-Day War in 1967 was a major crisis in the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and caused outrage across the Arab world. After a tense period in which the Israelis and Egyptians exchanged threats, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike and destroyed the Egyptian air force in a matter of hours. The Israeli forces then continued their advance, and by the...
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The Trojan War was a legendary period of fighting which took place in Greece and Asia Minor. It was the largest military campaign ever led by the Greeks against Troy, and began after the Queen of Sparta, Helen, was kidnapped by Paris, the son of the King of Troy. This event has been told through many different works of Greek...
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The Yom Kippur War was fought in 1973 between a coalition of Arab countries, led by Egypt and Syria, and Israel. On the day of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Egyptian and Syrian troops attacked the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, which had been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967. The Yom Kippur War contributed to the...
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World War I, which lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918, was one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history, and led to massive upheaval in international politics: new states were established and several empires fell. This book explores the beginnings of the war, including the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the influence of fear on the sudden outbreak of fighting. In just...
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