Page 14 - (DK) Smithsinian - Military History: The Definitive Visual Guide to the Objects of Warfare

INTRODUCTION

Early humans developed weapons of wood In ancient warfare, fighting methods and organization were
and stone, such as clubs, axes, spears, and simple generally more important to success than technological
bows, for hunting and fighting; the growth of superiority. The Assyrians conquered an empire with
civilizations from around 3000BCE onward led the world’s first permanent professional army, in the 1st
to advances in both technology and organization. millennium bce, and the Romans ruled the most famous
of ancient empires with an army of professional legionaries
The first military developments were slow, emerging over who also excelled as military engineers, building roads,
centuries, or even millennia. Stone weapons were gradually bridges, forts, and frontier fortifications. The Greeks,
replaced by those of more effective materials—first copper meanwhile, won renown for their tactical skills—whether
and bronze, then iron and steel; meanwhile, missile weapons as infantry in their tightknit phalanx formations, or at
increased in range and penetrative power with the advent of sea, maneuvering their lightweight galleys, the triremes.
the composite bow, and later, the crossbow. The invention None of the settled civilizations, however, were safe
of wheeled vehicles and the domestication of horses gave rise against the nomadic peoples—or “barbarians” as they were
to the war chariot, which dominated battlefields from Egypt known—outside their borders. The “civilized” technological
to China until, imitating the mounted warriors of central advantages of torsion catapults and crossbows counted for
Asia, settled civilizations learned to fight on horseback. The little against bands of mounted warriors, who were highly
building of fortifications led to the new art of siege warfare, skilled in raid and ambush. East and West Asia, India, and
and conflict also took to the sea, with oared war galleys Europe all faced severe problems from incursions by
operating in the Mediterranean by the 8th century bce. central Asian nomadic horsemen.

KEY DATES
3000bce c.3000BCE c.1600BCE 1210BCE c.1000BCE c.701BCE 632BCE of Chengpu, in China 480BCE of Salamis, off the Greek Coast 431–04BCE
The first recorded naval battle
The Hittites and Egyptians
is fought between Hittites and
Greek triremes defeat the
use chariots to carry archers
Hundreds of war chariots
The Assyrians besiege the
Persians at the naval Battle
The Assyrians establish a
Cypriots, off the coast of Cyprus
The Peloponnesian War
Bronze weapons come
are deployed at the Battle
into use in Mesopotamia
powerful military empire
Judean town of Lachish
is fought between
with composite bows
Athens and Sparta
c.400BCE
c.2500BCE
c.900BCE
c.1275BCE
The first recorded battle takes Hittite and Egyptian chariots The first iron weapons Scythians fighting on The Greek city states Cyrus the Great founds The first crossbows are Dionysius of Syracuse
c.550BCE
c.1200BCE
700BCE
c.450BCE
place between the Sumerian
clash at the Battle of Kadesh,
introduces the ballista
horseback become the
develop phalanx tactics
are produced
first known cavalry
to the battlefield
in modern-day Syria
the Persian Empire
cities of Lagash and Umma
invented, in China
KING TUTANKHAMEN—C.1300BCE THE MAHABHARATAS WAR—C.1300BCE THE SIEGE OF LACHISH—701BCE