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Member Article: An Analysis of the Roman Army’s Punitive
Expeditions into Dacia, 86-88 CE
by D.R. Blanchard
The Roman Army’s punitive campaigns into Dacia in 86 CE and 88 CE were part of a frightful and grueling tutorial which bore few victories at the expenditure of tens of thousands of casualties while bringing instability to the entire northern frontier and the near collapse of the Moesian frontier. Both campaigns were the culmination of a grim and lengthy learning process that had begun in the late winter of 67/68 CE when the Rhoxolani crossed the Danube and annihilated two cohorts of
auxilia.
Member Article: The Muslim Horde's Easy Invasion of Iberia
by Robert C. Daniels
After a short foray in July of 710 AD, Muslim forces from North Africa invaded
the Christian Iberian Peninsula (modern day Spain and Portugal) in the spring
of 711, and within two years, with the exception of the extreme northwestern
portion of the peninsula, had successfully overpowered and conquered the
Visigothic Christian realms of Iberia.[1] Not only did it take the Frankish
forces under Charles Martel to stop the Muslim horde at the battle of Poitiers
in 732 from further intrusions into Western Europe, it would take nearly eight
centuries for the Iberian Christians to re-take the peninsula from the Muslims.
Member Article: War Comes to the Islands
by Timothy Neeno
The enemy fleet was approaching. As dawn rose over the blue waters of the
Caribbean, the captain could see the long lines of ships getting closer, their
sails billowing. For months the fleet had sought a decisive battle. They had
been tracking the enemy for days, pursuing them northward. Now the French had
turned. The captain gave the order to beat to colors, and in a moment the deck
was a bedlam of activity. Gun ports sprang open. Experienced hands wheeled
heavy guns into position, while crewmen set cannonballs and casks of powder in
place. Marines scrambled up into the rigging, taking positions high in the
swaying masts to pick off officers and men on the opposing ships as they came
in range. Men began pouring buckets of sand across decks that would soon be
slippery and red with blood. It was 7:00 AM, April 12, 1782. The Battle of the
Saintes had begun.
Member Article: The Battle of Dunbar
by Steve Beck
The nine tumultuous years of the English Civil War, actually three separate
wars, resulted from a range of factors, economic, constitutional and religious,
all inextricably interwoven. At a time when religious differences were more
often debated with cannon balls than words, radical leaders with strong held
beliefs thought nothing of deciding the issues in battle. Charles I, attempting
to rule as an absolute monarch, quickly came into conflict with the English
Parliament, suspicious of his "Popery" and desire for absolute rule. Likewise,
the Scots resented his attempts at reforming their Presbyterian system of
religion, formulating the "National Covenant" in 1638 to resist his efforts.
The English Parliament and the Scots, therefore, combined to defeat Charles in
the first of the English Civil Wars. An attempt by Charles to regain power was
crushed by Parliamentarian forces at Preston in August 1648 and he was put on
trial for treason.
Read more...
Member Article: Governor Kieft's Personal War
by Walter Giersbach
Americans today know little about the Dutch influence in the New York region
except for odd place names like Harlem, Yonkers and Spuyten Duyvil. Or, the
tale of Rip Van Winkle. Or, the bargain in which Pieter Stuyvesant bought an
entire island for $25 worth of trinkets. For a brief period, the Dutch managed
one of the most democratic, tolerant and socially liberal settlements in the
New World. In contrast, one of its governors, Willem Kieft, will forever be
known as the spiteful tyrant of New Amsterdam. In the wake of his
administration lay more than a thousand dead Indians—men, women and children.*
Such was the viciousness of his warfare that a contemporary complained to
authorities in Holland that the Indians were being decapitated and burned alive
by Kieft's soldiers. "Young children, some of them snatched from their mothers,
were cut in pieces before the eyes of their parents, and the pieces were thrown
into the fire or into the water; other babes were bound on planks and then cut
through, stabbed and miserably massacred so that it would break a heart of
stone."
Member Article: Philip's War: America's Most Devastating Conflict
by Walter Giersbach
King Philip's War (1675-76) is an event that has been largely ignored by the
American public and popular historians. However, the almost two-year conflict
between the colonists and the Native Americans in New England stands as perhaps
the most devastating war in this country's history. One in ten soldiers on both
sides were wounded or killed. At its height, hostilities threatened to push the
recently arrived English colonists back to the coast. And, it took years for
towns and urban centers to recover from the carnage and property damage.
Member Article: The Zaporozhian Cossack Battle at Korsun
by Michael Meusz
In the mid 17th century unrest in the steppes of Ukraine was on the rise. The
Polish-Lithuanian empire dominated an area from Warsaw to Moscow, and the
Ukrainians were tired of their exploitation and abuse. At the little town of
Korsun, virtually in the middle of nowhere, an army of Zaporozhian Cossacks
supported by Crimean Tatars overwhelmed a Polish army sent to crush them, and
started a revolutionary fire that would sweep across the steppes and make
Ukraine a nation.
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