American Civil War (1861-65)

The Civil War was rooted in the civil societies of Northern and Southern states, based in uneven national modernization. Deracinated populations sought political and cultural solutions.

It was a social and military conflict between the United States of America in the North and the Confederate States of American in the South.

Both sides had advantages and weaknesses. The North had a greater population, more factories, supplies and more money than the South. The South had more experienced military leadership, better trained armies, and the advantage of fighting on familiar territory.

Combat began on 12 April 1861 at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and intensified as 4 more states joined the South. Although many Confederate and Unionist leaders believed the war would be short, it dragged on until 26 May 1865, when the last major Confederate army surrendered.
American Civil War (1861-65)

Assyrians army

During the 13th and 12th centuries, Assyria’s kings push their boundaries ever outwards, with campaigns of conquest every summer.

The Assyrians were aggressive in battles but they always offered their enemies the chances to surrender. This tactic came handy in sieges that were usually long and expensive. Their use of brutality to intimidate enemies was to become the distinctive stamps of Assyrians warfare.

In the 12th century, Hittite power collapsed and Assyria began a three-hundred-year rose to power under direction of successive powerful kings that restored in the establishment of the Assyrian Empire in the 9th century.

It is not difficult to imagine the terror that an Assyrian attack inspired. The Assyrian army of the 8th century BC was the most sophisticated army of its time in terms of size weaponry, tactics, siege craft innovation, mobility, logistical support and over all military efficiency. They were vast, well trained and disciplined.

It had several expert commanders, and plentiful supplies of equipment for all types of combat. In 800 BC, the Assyrians could field an army of 20,000 light cavalry armed with bows and spears, and 1200 two horse chariots.

Between 890 and 640 BC, the height of Assyrians power, the Assyrians fight 108 major and minor wars, punitive expedition and other significant military operations against neighboring states. The heavy infantry, clad in coats of mail, wielded daggers, and swords of iron, the new metal which made the Assyrian’s weapon stronger than those of their opponents.

The Assyrians used iron to not only gain military advantage but also to protect their people despite the higher cost of iron and metalworking needed for building amours.

The cavalry, the early days, rode into actions on two horse chariots and dismounted to shoot from behind tail wicker shields. Gradually arches mastered the tactics of shooting accurately from horseback at full gallop.

The Assyrian Empire reached its highest peaks in the 9th, 8th and 7th centuries BC.
Assyrians army

History of rocket science

In 1232, during the war of Kai-Keng, the Chinese repelled the Mongol invaders by a barrage of "arrows of flying fire." These fire-arrows were a simple form of a solid-propellant rocket. A tube, capped at one end, was filled with gunpowder. The other end was left open and the tube was attached to a long stick. When the powder was ignited, the rapid burning of the powder produced fire, smoke, and gas that escaped out the open end and produced a thrust.

Then, the Mongols produced rockets of their own and may have been responsible for the spread of rockets to Europe. The rocket seems to have arrived in Europe around 1241 A.D. Contemporary accounts describe rocket-like weapons being used by the Mongols against Magyar forces at the battle of Sejo which preceded their capture of Buda (now known as Budapest) Dec. 25, 1241.

According to history Mongols invaded Baghdad on February 15, 1258 also used the rocket like weapon.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Sir Isaac Newton laid the understanding of physical notion of rocket science on the 17th century. He organized his findings into scientific laws.

In 1720, Willem Gravesande, a Dutch professor, built model cars propelled by jets of stream.  

Rockets were used by the British Navy to bombard Fort McHenry in 1814, inspiring the National Anthem of the United States.

In 1898, a Siberian schoolteacher and scientist, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) provided the scientific basis for modern rocketry. He proposed the idea of space exploration. Tsiolkovsky suggested the use of liquid propellants for rockets in order to achieve greater range. Tsiolkovsky stated that the speed and range of a rocket were limited only by the exhaust velocity of escaping gases.

He contributed concept of multi-stage rockets and Rocket Momentum Equation. His work inspired many early rocket pioneers, and started the ball rolling toward turning rocketry into both a science and a practical engineering effort.

American scientist, Robert H. Goddard conducted experiments in rocket science in the early 20th century and became interested in a way of achieving higher altitudes.

Robert Goddard conducted theoretical and experimental research on rocket motors using a steel motor with a tapered nozzle and achieved greatly improved thrust and efficiency for the rockets of his times. Sputnik I was the first satellite successful entry in a race for space between the two superpower Russian and United States.

United States launched its first satellite Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958. In October of that year, the United States formally organized its space program by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
History of rocket science 

The Celts: Northern Europe Warrior 500 BC – 100 AD

In the 5th century BC the Greek writer Ephoros described the Celts as one of the four great barbarian peoples, together with the Scythians, the Persians and the Libyans, who lived beyond the confines of the Classical Mediterranean world.

Fighting was an obsession with the Celts, whether in bands against enemy forces or in the brawling combats that erupted incessantly between individual warriors.

Drunk on strong beer and lust for glory, the Celts did battle with a fierce exhilaration that seasoned Roman soldiers even found alarming. They were careless of life and limb, often going into battle naked but for a torque or neck ring. The stele shows that by the fifth century BC Celtic foot-warriors, wielding straight swords, dared to face enemy horsemen even in single combat.

To the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome, the Celtic warrior was the archetypal barbarian: huge in stature, immensely strong and bloodthirsty beyond description.

Charging naked into battle, impervious to wounds and wielding a terrible sword with which to take the heads of his enemies, he was antithesis of the drilled and disciplined soldiers of the Greek hoplite phalanx or the Roman legion. The Roman historians Tacitus describing an attack by the legions on Anglesey, wrote: ‘On the shore stood the opposing army with its dense array of armed warriors, while between the ranks dashed women in black attire like the Furies, with hair disheveled, waving brands.’

It was in 390 BC that the Romans first encountered Celtic cavalry, when they were faced by invasion from the area of the Po Valley and Rome was sacked by a huge Celtic army with thousands of horseman.

Celtic men were tall by Mediterranean standards; the skeleton of warrior discovered near Milan, Italy was 6ft 5in in height. Even the women were large and fearsome brawlers. Boudicca, the rebel queen of the Iceni who died in AD60, was describe as huge of frame, harsh voiced and with a great mass of bright red hair falling to her knees. She was the most outstanding Celtic woman warrior.

Celtic warriors often cut off the heads of their foes and dangled these grim spoils from their belts and saddles, or bore them aloft on spears.
The Celts: Northern Europe Warrior 500 BC – 100 AD

Peace of Augsburg

Promulgated on September 25, 1555, the Peace of Augsburg brought an end to years of religious tension and conflict in Germany and established the basis for the legal coexistent of Catholicism and Lutheranism in the Holy Roman Empire.

The peace was announced during a ceremony in the Guildhall. One of the immediate consequences was the development of narrow Protestant dogmatism, not least because only the Lutheran confession was given legal recognition.

The provision of the Peace of Augsburg included the guarantee of personal and legal security to the imperial of both parties which included rights of worship and church polity for the adherents of the Augsburg Confession; the recognition of princely sovereignty over religion on the principle that ‘where there is one ruler; there should be one religion’.

The Peace of Augsburg also specified that Protestants could keep the possessions of Catholic estates confiscated before 1552.

The origins of the Peace of Augsburg can the traced not only to earlier attempts to resolve the religious within the Holy Roman Empire but also to the compromises that the Holy Roman Empire emperor Charles V agreed to in order to gain the support of the Lutheran princes in his campaign against the Ottoman Turks and also against the French.
Peace of Augsburg

Napoleon at war

In 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte managed to capture Italian city states such as Venice, Milan and Mantua and by 1798 Napoleon finally conquering the entire Italian peninsula. At the end of 1799, he sized power by force.

Napoleon was at war or preparing for war during his entire reign. He certainly seemed up to the task of defeating the European powers. He created a sprawling empire in Europe between 1802 and 1812 through military conquest and alliances.

As the wars with leading powers of Europe continued, Napoleon proved to be a brilliant military strategist and political leader.

By 1802, he had signed favorable treaties with both Austria and Great Britain. He appeared to establish France as a dominant power in Europe. But the peace was short-lived.

In 1803 France embarked on an eleven year period of continuous war: under Napoleon command, the French army delivered defeat after defeat to the European powers. Austria fell in 1805, Prussian in 1806, and the Russian armies of Alexander I were defeated at Friedland in 1807.

In August of 1806, while in Germanies, Napoleon dismantled the old Holy Roman Empire. In October, two separate French armies, one directly under Napoleon’s field command – defeated two Prussian armies, one at Jena in Thuringia and the second near Auerstadt. By month’s end, the French marched into the city of Berlin, the Prussian capital.

In 1807 Napoleon invaded Spain and he drive out British expeditionary forces intent on invading French. Spain became a satellite kingdom in French Empire, although the conflict continued.

By 1810, the French leader was a master of the continent. French armies had extended revolutionary reforms and legal codes outside French and brought with them civil equality and religious tolerance. At that times Great Britain was the only remaining European power at war with Napoleon.

They also drained defeated countries of their resources and had inflicted the horrors of wars with army’s occupation, force billeting and pillage. Napoleon’s empire extended across Europe, with only a diminished Austria, Prussia, and Russian remaining independent.

Napoleon was successful on the battlefield because he developed tactics which brought him victories. His men move d about without connections to supply lines, living off the land. This allowed his army to move swiftly without being hindered by slow moving supply wagons.

Napoleon at war

Greco-Turkish War 1920-1922

The allies were confident that they had completely over powered the Turks and proceeded ruthlessly to implement their pre-planned schemes. They instigated Greece to occupy Izmir and recognized the rights of Greece over Southern Albania, Thrace, Istanbul and Western Anatolia.

In 1919 the Greeks landed in Smyrna and the following year began ambitious military campaign to extend Greek territorial holdings into those portions of Western Anatolia having significant numbers of Greeks.

Accordingly Greece started preparations to make attack on Thrace. Under the pressure of the Allies, the Caliphate was not prepared for confrontation. The nationalists were in Ankara where from, it was not possible to depute the army.

Mustafa Kamal responding to Greek ambitions, allied support o f the Christian countries and western imperialism, had take advantage of and channeled Turkish nationals against both the Greeks and the Caliphate.

The Greeks after occupation of Adrianople and Izmir resorted to unprecedented tyranny. The Allies appointed a Joint Commission of Inquiry. The commission expectedly held Greece responsible for exceeding the limits of the civilized Government.

The commissioned proposed that, Greece should vacate Anatolia and hand it over to the Allies. While these matters were considered, Greece with the help of British and French fleets proceeded again Nationalists.

The Nationalists initially heavily outnumbered and disorganized, reorganized into a strong fighting force and regained the territory taken by Greece, Because the war had been fought largely to regain Muslim lands taken by Greece forces, the Turkish victory increased Pan-Islamic feeling in many Muslim countries.

The Allies met at London. The object was merely to gain time. Soon after Greece made fresh attacks in Asia Minor, the nationalists again confronted and defeated the Greeks. In 1921, Prince Andrey, brother of the Greek King Constantine was killed in the battle.

By the spring of 1922 Mustafa Kamal had routed the Greeks. The settlement that followed provided for the compulsory exchange of Greek and Turkish populations. Some 1.3 million Greeks were moved from Turkey to Greece and 500,000 Turks from Greece to Turkey.

Greco-Turkish War 1920-1922

October 1912 Balkan War

The Balkan Wars were a sharp and bloody series of conflicts fought in southeastern Europe during the autumn of 1912 and the winter, spring and summer of 1913.

Before the war of Tripoli came to an end, Bulgaria and Serbia declared war against Ottoman Empire.

Shortly thereafter Greece also declared war. The objective of all power was to drive out the Turks from Europe.

In October 13 the alliance delivered an ultimatum to the Turkish government, demanding radical and overdue reforms in the European provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The alliance of Bulgarian, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro presented a demand to Turkey that Macedonia should be made self governing.

The Balkan Christian slaughtered Muslims ruthlessly. Temporary peace was concluded at London. Bulgaria had occupied of Edirne as a pre-requisite to permanent peace.

This condition was not acceptable to Ottoman Empire when in 1913 January the big powers advise Khalifah to relinquish Edirne in favor of Balkan States.

The Grand Vizier, Kamil Pasya who was an ally of Britain, agreed to accept the advice. The advise was about to be accepted when Anwar Pasya who has just returned from Tripoli campaign entered the Grand Vizier’s palace and shot Nazim Pasya dead.

Kamil Pasya had to resign and Mahmud Shaukat Pasya was appointed Grand Vizier. After the change of the Grand Vizier the temporary peace came to an end and war started.

When all the Balkan states bordering Turkey put aside their rivalries and combined for an attack on Turkey, Germany and Austria gave some what moral support they could to Turkey. However, the Ottoman armies were defeated against the Bulgarians.

Greece also made fresh attacks and occupied Samos Island. In 1913 March Bulgaria occupied Edirne. In April a temporary peace was again concluded between the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.

In the Treaty of London in May 3, 1913, Turkey surrendered all her dominions in the Balkan peninsula. The young Turk leaders took advantage of this national disaster to stage a coup d’état and establish a military dictatorship headed by Enver.
October 1912 Balkan War

War in Europe in 16th century

“War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men”, wrote Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642), the French Minister who played no small part in spreading the scourge.

War usually undertaken to gain additional territory or to reclaim lost territory, with rights of inheritance and claims through marriage or treaty given as the reasons for fighting when negotiations failed to produce a settlements of conflicting claims.

War affected every, member of the society from combatants to civilians. There were no innocent bystanders.

The early part of the century had witnessed the dynastic struggle between the Hapsburgs and the House of Valois as well as beginnings of the religious struggle between Catholic and Protestants.

But the wars that dominated Europe from 1555 to 1648 brought together the worst of both of these conflicts. War was fought on a larger scale, it was more brutal and more expensive, and it claimed more victims.

It brought ruin, misery, and displacement to innocent masses, especially to the poor and deprived. Some of the major wars were: Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) between England and France, Germany experienced three different civil wars within three decades (1522-1555), the Dutch fought the Spanish (catholic) occupation for nearly nine hundred years and finally won independent in 1648.

During this century war extended thorough out the Continent.

Military technology increased in sophistication and expense following the ‘gunpowder revolution’ in the 14th-16th centuries and the oceanic explorations of 15th century and as highly trained and costly state based standing armies and navies were developed from the 16th century.

In the 16th century, the rulers of France, England and the Holy Roman Empire – who during part of the 16th century included the King of Spain, dominated warfare in international military campaign.

By end of the 16th century there were three great , centralized, gunpowder kingdoms in Europe, France, Spain, England, a diffuse but powerful Habsburg empire in central Europe and a number of smaller states - Sweden, The Netherlands – whose local power could not be ignored.
War in Europe in 16th century

The Aceh War

The Dutch colonial government declared war on Aceh on 26 March 1873; the apparent immediate trigger for their invasion was discussions between representatives of Aceh and the U.S. in Singapore during early 1873.

An expeditionary force left Batavia in 22 March 1873 under the command of Major General Köhler.

The expedition was able to occupy most of the coastal areas. It was the intention of the Dutch to attack and take the Sultan's palace, which would also lead to the occupation of the entire country.

The Netherlands East India army, the KNIL, bombarded the town of Banda Aceh (Kota raja), Acehnese capital.

The Sultan requested and possibly received military aid from Italy and the United Kingdom in Singapore: in any case the Aceh army was rapidly modernized, and Aceh soldiers managed to kill Köhler (a monument of this achievement has been built inside Grand Mosque of Banda Aceh). Köhler made some grave tactical errors and the reputation of the Dutch was severely harmed.

The Dutch force left on 25 April with a loss of eighty men and the general. The expedition had been organized in haste because do the impending monsoon.

A second expedition led by General Van Swieten return to Aceh in November 1873 with 13,000 troops managed to capture the kraton (sultan's palace): the Sultan had however been warned, and had escaped capture. Intermittent guerrilla warfare continued in the region for ten years, with many victims on both sides.

Between November 1873 and April 1874 as many as 1400 men died in the colonial army. The Acehnese decided to abandon Banda Aceh and the Dutch moved in in January 1874.

As the Dutch advanced, bombarding and burning villages, the population fled to the hills and maintained their resistance.

Around 1880 the Dutch strategy changed, and rather than continuing the war, they now concentrated on defending areas they already controlled, which were mostly limited to the capital city (modern Banda Aceh), and the harbor town of Ulee Lheue. On 13 October 1880 the colonial government declared the war was over, but continued spending heavily to maintain control over the areas it occupied.

The guerilla resistance came to be dominated by religious leaders, the ulamas, among whom the most famous was Teungku Cik di Tiro.

In 1881, the religious leadership in Aceh declared the war a jihad, or ‘perang sabil’ (holy war) and this undoubtedly gave a new lease of life to the struggle and strengthened the local influence of the ulamas.

War began again in 1883, when the British ship Nisero was stranded in Aceh, in an area where the Dutch had little influence. A local leader asked for ransom from both the Dutch and the British, and under British pressure the Dutch were forced to attempt to liberate the sailors.

After a failed Dutch attempt to rescue the hostages, where the local leader Teuku Umar was asked for help but he refused, the Dutch together with the British invaded the territory. The Sultan gave up the hostages, and received a large amount in cash in exchange.

The Dutch Minister of Warfare Weitzel now again declared open war on Aceh, and warfare continued, with little success, as before. The Dutch now also tried to enlist local leaders: the aforementioned Umar was bought with cash, opium, and weapons. Umar received the title panglima prang besar (upper warlord of the government).

Umar called himself rather Teuku Djohan Pahlawan (Johan the heroic). On 1 January 1894 Umar even received Dutch aid to build an army. However, two years later Umar attacked the Dutch with his new army, rather than aiding the Dutch in subjugating inner Aceh. This is recorded in Dutch history as "Het verraad van Teukoe Oemar" (the treason of Teuku Umar).

In 1892 and 1893 Aceh remained independent, despite the Dutch efforts. Major J.B. van Heutsz, a colonial military leader, then wrote a series of articles on Aceh. He was supported by Dr Snouck Hurgronje of the University of Leiden, then the leading Dutch expert on Islam.

Hurgronje managed to get the confidence of many Aceh leaders and gathered valuable intelligence for the Dutch government. His works remained an official secret for many years.

In Hurgronje's analysis of Acehnese society, he minimized the role of the Sultan and argued that attention should be paid to the hereditary chiefs, the Ulee Balang, who he felt, could be trusted as local administrators. However, he argued, Aceh's religious leaders, the ulema, could not be trusted or persuaded to cooperate, and must be destroyed.

This advice was followed: in 1898 Van Heutsz was proclaimed governor of Aceh, and with his lieutenant, later Dutch Prime Minister Hendrikus Colijn, would finally conquer most of Aceh.

They followed Hurgronje's suggestions, finding cooperative Ulee Balang that would support them in the countryside. Van Heutsz charged Colonel Van Daalen with breaking remaining resistance.

Van Daalen destroyed several villages, killing at least 2,900 Acehnese, among which were 1,150 women and children. Dutch losses numbered just 26, and Van Daalen was promoted.

The letters which Colijn wrote at the time to his wife make no effort to hide the atrocities in which he was personally involved: “I have seen a mother carrying a child of about 6 months old on her left arm, with a long lance in her right hand, who was running in our direction. One of our bullets killed the mother as well as the child. From now on we couldn't give any mercy, it was over. I did give orders to gather a group of 9 women and 3 children who asked for mercy and they were shot all together. It was not a pleasant job, but something else was impossible. Our soldiers tacked them with pleasure with their bayonets. It was horrible. I will stop reporting now."

Colijn's wife wrote in the margin: “How terrible!!"

By 1904 most of Aceh was under Dutch control, and had an indigenous government that cooperated with the colonial state. Estimated total casualties on the Aceh side range from 50,000 to 100,000 dead, and over a million wounded.

According to Paul van’ t Veer, up to 1914, no less than 17,500 people were killed in the Dutch side and about 70,000 on Aceh’s side.

It is thought that between 10,000 to 20,000 Acehnese fled to the Malay Peninsula, while at least 10,000 more became refugees within Aceh.

The Aceh War against Dutch colonialism lasted according to conservative estimates, thirty five years, and according to the Acehnese, for over a half century in a succession of guerilla wars: the first war (1873), the second war (1874-1880), the third war (1884-1896), the forth war (1889-1942).
The Aceh War

Operation Barbarossa-Battle of Stalingrad

During World War II (1939-1945), hundred of battles took place. None of these battles were as deadly as the Battle of Stalingrad.

From August 1942 to February 1943, Germany fought against the Soviet Union to control the city of Stalingrad.

Hitler launched his invasion in June 1941. It was code named Operation Barbarossa.

On June 22, 1941, the German Army poured across the borders of the Soviet Union, initiating nearly 4 years of the most savage and brutal warfare humanity ever experienced.

Three Army Groups penetrated Russia on a front extending from the Baltic coast to the Black Sea. One and a half million soldiers of the Wehrmacht obeyed the Fuehrer's directive to destroy the Red Army and the Soviet Union.

According to Nazi view, German soldiers were advancing into Russian to protect western European civilization against Bolshevism.
Western military experts gave the Russians 6 weeks, perhaps 8 at the most, before suffering total military disaster at the hands of the Germans. Battered by one defeat after another, the poor performance of the Red Army gave no one reason to believe otherwise.

With their officer corps decimated by Stalin's purges, the badly equipped , poorly trained and demoralized Red Army sustained losses and gave ground which would have defeated any other country in a matter of days.

German surprise and success was so overwhelming in the first few weeks that few would have disagreed with that assessment. On top of the disasters suffered by the Red Army, the Soviet government itself seemed to fall into disarray.

The battle of Stalingrad cost more lives than any other battle of the Second World War. The Germans and their allies suffered 800,000 casualties, while Russian losses were 1.1 million. It was a turning point in this world war and is considered the bloodiest battle in human history, with more combined causalities suffered than any battle before or since.

On 2 February 1943 the battle was over.

For Soviets, who suffered great losses during battle, the victory at Stalingrad marked the started of the liberation of the Soviet Union and leading to eventual victory over Nazi Germany.
Operation Barbarossa-Battle of Stalingrad