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Ninety Five Theses and the Revolution that followed
by Thomas Leckwold
Martin Luther's Ninety Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences was
nailed to the castle church in Wittenberg, in now modern day Germany, on October
31, 1517. This document was a protest that strongly criticized the practice of selling
indulgences of the Roman Catholic Church, known here after as the Church. The document
was a challenge to church authority that set forth events that permanently changed
the religious, political, and social factors of central Europe, and led to a series
of wars using the pretext of faith, and the role of the Church in the political
structure of Western Europe. Luther's document was not meant to be a call to revolution,
but the social conditions, and economic factors, along with religious convictions
did set in motion a revolution and subsequent conflicts in central Europe.
Cairo’s Fortress on the Mountain
by David W. Tschanz
Cairo residents call it the Qal'at al-Jabal, the Fortress on the Mountain, or just al-Qal'ah, the Fortress. The rest of the world simply calls it “The Citadel.” For nearly a millennium it has stood as a silent sentinel, residence, and symbol of power.
Standing on its battlements, and looking westwards provides a view of over 4500 years of architectural marvels from the mosque of Sultan Hasan, just below to the Pyramids of Giza across the Nile. From atop this fortress the awesome sweep of history is a vivid reality. It is a view that must have given even the sultans who ruled from here, cause to reflect.
Member Article: Armenian Warriors, Japanese Samurai
by Dr. Armen Ayvazyan
Armenian historiography contains considerable information about ancient and medieval Armenian military ideology.
In the works of fifth century historians Pavstos Buzand and Movses Khorenatzi, the commands and legacy of the Armenian
sparapets (commanders in chief) to their successors articulate in detail the obligations and responsibilities of
Armenian warriors. Their norms of conduct share striking similarities with the system of values of the Japanese samurai
codified during the 16th to 18th centuries, as well as with later medieval West European chivalry of the eight to 14th
centuries.
“Fight and offer your life for the Armenian World just as your brave forefathers did, consciously sacrificing their lives for this Homeland…”
Member Article: Byzantine Military Pragmatism vs. Imperial Prejudice: Possible Reasons for Omitting the Armenians from the List of Hostiles in Maurice’s
Strategikon
by by Dr. Armen Ayvazyan
The problem of the various images of the Armenians in Byzantium has already become the subject of numerous, if sketchy, historical investigations and remarks.[1] As a rule, students of this subject have focused on the images of those Armenians who resided beyond Armenia proper in the Byzantine capital and peripheral provinces as either newly-arrived immigrants or old-established inhabitants. Consequently, the shaping of the images of the Armenians in Byzantine Empire was appropriately sought and analyzed in such spheres as ecclesiastical differences between Armenian and Greek Churches, the ethnic peculiarities of everyday life as well as the rivalry in the imperial court between the Armenians and Greeks, the two major ethnic components of Byzantine elite. In contrast, this essay aims to analyze the Byzantines’ image of the Armenians of Armenia, that is, those who continued to live in and exercise military and political authority over their homeland. Accordingly, this study focuses on the geopolitical determinant in the construction of Armenian images in the imperial strata of Byzantine society.
Member Article: Lusty Stukeley: Deceiver of Princes
by Comer Plummer
The day was Monday, August 4, 1578. Sir Thomas Stukeley stood in his armor on the plain of Ksar el-Kebir, in the heart of the Kingdom of Fez, with the hosts assembling for battle around him. He had collected himself by then, having shed the ordeal of the previous night, with its discomforts and frustrations. He would have been calm and reflective, as only experienced soldiers could be at such times. Thomas probably knew that he was playing his final card. In a life of twists and turns the climactic moment had at last arrived. There was no maneuvering out of it. He was adrift among forces beyond his control. At last, on this battlefield, his destiny would be decided.
Member Article: Constantinople - The Citadel at the Gate
by Comer Plummer, III
The art of fortification is a clear reflection of our past. It bears witness to our roots as a race of mutually hostile
societies, and impresses upon us the determination of a people to defend themselves.
It has existed ever since man first came to realize the value of natural obstacles to his common defense, and evolved
as he sought to invoke his own methods to fully exploit this advantage. The building of barriers rapidly evolved from
the simple mud parapets and mountain top abodes of the Neolithic Age to the construction of linear and point stone
obstacles of the Bronze Age, best represented by the Hittite capital of Hattusas.
Member Article: The Battle of Poyang Lake
by Joshua Gilbert
In late August 1363 AD the two main contenders for control of China,
Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang, faced off on Poyang (also called Boyang)
Lake, the largest freshwater body of water in China.
In the end Zhu Yuanzhang would win the battle and go on to found one of
China’s greatest dynasties: the Ming.
Member Article: Apocalypse Then: The
Battle of the Three Kings
by Comer Plummer
Don Sebastian, the twenty-four-year-old King of Portugal, rose early on the
morning of August 4, 1578. He was restless as they dressed him under the silken
tent in new armor, over which was applied a leather tunic to guard against the
heat of the Sun. Outside, the din of the camp was building as the army too
girded for battle. On the hills facing them, the Moroccan army was also
stirring.
Member Article: The Emergence of Seapower in the Yuan Dynasty
by John J. Trombetta and Steven C. Ippolito
John Keegan views the Mongolian war-making polity[1] as a fusion of the "horse
and human ruthlessness[.]" The great khans, Chinggis, Ogodei, Mongke, and
Khublai Khan, gathered the martial energies of the steppe nomad in the quest
for Empire, and released them like so many dogs of war upon Asia, Europe,
China, Korea, the Middle East of Persians and Arabs, and Japan. Results were
startling: extraordinary political changes that reworked the map of the
thirteenth century Asia, and a transformation of war in the Asian steppe
"making it for the first time," in the view of Keegan, "'a thing in
itself.'"[2]
Member Article: The Hundred Years War: An Analysis of the Causes and Conduct of the Longest
European War
by Patrick J. Shrier
The Hundred Years War between England and France from 1337-1453 is best viewed
as a series of interconnected wars with the same basic objective instead of as
one long war. There was not continuous fighting during the period nor did
England and France keep armies constantly in the field, rather it was almost a
game between the two countries with clearly defined rules as to when to fight
and when to rest. The period was marked by many truces some for just a season
and some lasting years. The most striking thing when one studies the wars of
the period is how the English army was almost invariably superior to the French
in capabilities yet somehow the English managed to lose the war.
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: The Orin War
by Joshua Gilbert
The Onin War, (so called because it occurred in the regnal year Onin 1), was
the catalyst that sparked the century long period of Japanese history known as
the Sengoku Jidai, the "Age of the Country at War". What began originally as a
dispute between a father and his son-in-law, became an eleven year war that
trashed the once great city of Kyoto and sparked an era of bloodshed that
remains famous to this day.
The Onin War began because of the weakness of one Shogun. In 1464, Ashikaga
Yoshimasa, the 8th member of the Ashikaga clan to hold the title
Seii-Taishogun, and a man renowned for his focus on tea parties and poetry,
wanted to retire but had no son. He decided to instead make his younger
brother, Yoshimi, his heir. However Yoshimi was a Buddhist monk, so the Shogun
had to first drag his brother out of the monastery in order to make him his
heir.
Member Article: The Battle of Shrewsbury
by John Barratt
By the beginning of the 15th century, the English longbowman was one of the
most effective killing machines in Western Europe. For over half a century he
had dominated the battlefields of France and Northern Spain, winning for
England’s Plantagenet monarchy an extensive continental domain. The battle of
Shrewsbury, described by a contemporary writer as “the sorry bataille of
Schrvesbury between Englysshmen and Englysshmen”, witnessed the dawn of a new
and more terrible era in English warfare, when, for the first time in a major
engagement, the English longbowman turned their deadly power against each
other. It was a foretaste of the bloodbath which would follow half a century
later in the Wars of the Roses, and would also provide William Shakespeare with
the inspiration for one of his greatest plays - King Henry IV Part One.
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