What was the most important battle in world history?

[Iamthelaw]

In ancient times Alexander's battle at Gaugamela. In modern times, D-Day

 

[jhollas]

toss up- Pearl Harbor or D-DAY

Have to disagree with you about Pearl Harbour.

 

[wb3]

Pearl Harbor in and of itself was hardely a battle. More like a massacre.

I would say the most important battle would be the battle that the mongols lost against the Russians forcing the Mongols to fall back. Had the Mongols continued to conquer we may have an entire different culture. Western Europe at this point in time could not have resisted the Mongol hordes.

Sorry I can't remember the name of the battle.

If Xerxes would have conquered the Greeks we may have a slightly different culture but not overwhelmingly different. Rome's founding was a fluke, be it under the Persians or Greeks.

 

[wb3]

By the way, the West and the Rest attitude in this thread is almost disgusting. Despite what the textbooks say there has always been a world east of Poland.

 

[Xen_Antares]

By the way, the West and the Rest attitude in this thread is almost disgusting. Despite what the textbooks say there has always been a world east of Poland.

But those of us here are the west, the west has shaped our world hence why we put an emphasis on the west. Im not saying the east isnt important just the west has formed us. Im more intrested in a battle that would directly effect my world had it gone differently than a battle in China that only effects the world through "butterflies"

 

[wb3]

Perhaps the far east never had an impact on our culture until the industrial revolution but the Modern Islamic empires, the Mongols, the Chinese(under Zheng He), etc had a very real chance of drastically changing the world we know. Example: The Huns, an Asian Nomadic group, was responsible primarily for taking out the Eastern Roman Empire. If not for the Huns we may just now be entering the dark ages or we may be on Mars.

 

[Xen_Antares]

Indeed thats why I had the Battle of Vienna as the most important in my opinion. The Muslims nearly brought Europe to its knees having conquered Spain and pushing into France. Shortly before Spain was reconquered forcing the Muslims out of Western Europe the Ottomans took Constantinople and established an Islamic stronghold in the east.

Had the Muslims won at Tours in France I do believe the Christian world would have been doomed. We would be seeing the restoration of the Roman Empire only now it would be the Caliphate of Rome.

 

[Agrippa]

If Xerxes would have conquered the Greeks we may have a slightly different culture but not overwhelmingly different. Rome's founding was a fluke, be it under the Persians or Greeks.

I disagree; if Greece fell during the Persian invasions, there would be no Golden Age of Athens. Most likely, there would have been no, Socrates, no Plato and no Aristotle. Most of the playwrights (ex. Sophocles) would not have created their works. Democracy at this point was only a few decades old in Athens and it definately would not have survived a successful Persian invasion. It would have been replaced by Oriental despotism. Many of the great ideas in human history would have been stillborn. There would not have been a Hellenization to spread those ideas to the Near and Middle East. Rome probably would not have been affected much, but the Rome that arose would be very different. Rome was greatly altered by its conquest of Greece, a change that would not happen here (if it managed to conquer Greece, it would be a very different Greece).

 

[hemis]

Considering the results the battle of the Volgagrad in 1944 between Germany and Russia, the siege of the city of Stalingrad was a damaging effort by the Russian Red Army. If Hitler had maintain battlefield ambitions over his concentration camp effort, there is no imagining the capacity lost in his efforts to conquer the oilfields of the volga, Russia would have been defeated and an invasion of Britain would have been iminent. Not mention had Mousolloni held Africa a new front would not have opened for Germany.

 

[oldrooster]

Actually that was the battle of Stalingrad, and it was in 1942-1943.

 

[BIG-IRON]

That would be the battle between God and Satan of course.

 

[TScott]

Pearl Harbor in and of itself was hardely a battle. More like a massacre.

I would say the most important battle would be the battle that the mongols lost against the Russians forcing the Mongols to fall back. Had the Mongols continued to conquer we may have an entire different culture. Western Europe at this point in time could not have resisted the Mongol hordes.

Sorry I can't remember the name of the battle.

I'm not sure there was any one battle that you could point to as a turning point to the end of Tartar rule in Russia. The Battle of Kulikovo was a great victory by the Russians, but the Mongols retained control of Russia for a hundred years after that battle. Besides it took place at a point that was only a few hundred miles east of Thermopylae.

 

[NiemandheißtBoshaftigkeit]

Hmmm, I was just kinda considering the question, and I would say that most important battle was the first one ever (naturally not historicall recorded), but consider the effects such a change in a battle when the population was far less than it was now. Indo-Europeans or another peoples might not even exist...

 

[Tours732]

Indeed thats why I had the Battle of Vienna as the most important in my opinion. The Muslims nearly brought Europe to its knees having conquered Spain and pushing into France. Shortly before Spain was reconquered forcing the Muslims out of Western Europe the Ottomans took Constantinople and established an Islamic stronghold in the east.

Had the Muslims won at Tours in France I do believe the Christian world would have been doomed. We would be seeing the restoration of the Roman Empire only now it would be the Caliphate of Rome.

I think that actually the first siege of Vienna (1529) was more important than the second. At that point the Ottoman Empire was in it's golden age (though the West was gaining ground) and could have still posed a real threat to Western Europe. By 1683 however, the Ottomans were in decline, and Western Europe was very much on the rise. Even if the Turks had taken Vienna then, I doubt they could have gotten much further. The tide had already turned by that point.

As for what I think is the most important battle, I think Tours was important (big surprise ), and in modern times I think Stalingrad, Kursk, or perhaps just the German failure to take Moscow in the early stages. If the Soviets had collapsed, the best that the Western powers could have hoped for would have been a stalemate.

 

[Paladin for Christ]

Battle of Tours. If the Moors defeated the Europeans, we may all have been forced to be Muslim.

 

[Amalthea]

Kursk in modern times I think is clearly the most important as well as the biggest.

 

[ShadowAspect]

I think in modern times it would have to be the attack on the twin towers of the world trade centre.
This is history in the making. This attack is the point at which terrorism has really come of age, and proved that as a method of warfare, the little guy can take on and really hurt powerful nations.
But more importantly, this attack drew the world's only superpower into a war that cannot ever be won.

The next great battles will be the turning points in this war. The may have already happened in places such as Falluja and Najaf where America has lost control. No doubt America will counter atack after the elections, but I feel it is probably already too late and the war is lost. This could very well mean that the days of Empire building have truely come to an end. That would be a pretty big turning point in world history.

 

[Agrippa]

This could very well mean that the days of Empire building have truely come to an end. That would be a pretty big turning point in world history.

There are several constants in the human experience; one of them, in my opinion, is that humans will always try to conquer other humans.

 

[CZzyzx41]

That would be the battle between God and Satan of course.

Are you sure it wasn't the battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron? Or the battle between Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd? What about the battle between Dante and Randall?

 

[Knightmare†]

Well,all the battles mentionned above r good ones...
But for me one only interests me..it's the battle of Avarayr:
It happened in the 5th century between armenians and persians,and it is the main reason why armenians today, r still christians.
We lost the war ,but who cares...we have kept our faith,that's what we should care about....