bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Military intelligence
Authors: Ferris John
Published: November 2011

Intelligence does not win wars. It can help generals do so. Intelligence has offered advantages to armies for millennia, though not consistently—here essential to events, there irrelevant. Most states have received some intelligence sometimes, but not always from permanent and specialized agencies for collection, nor through assessment by bureaucracies. They conducted intelligence through systems and traditions—means by which people gather and assess data for specific purposes, as against loose combinations of ideas and practices about how to do so if one must. In response to changes in supply and demand, intelligence might switch from systems to traditions, and back again. Advances might be abandoned by any practitioner, and overlooked by its neighbors. Until 1860, staffs were a secretariat. Kings and commanders, khans and caesars, handled even minor functions of command. They organized the collection of their own intelligence, working throughad hocmeans. This approach had advantages. Decision‐makers could direct their intelligence and receive exactly the information they wanted; on many matters, the best personalized systems matched any bureaucratized ones of the twentieth century, their effect redoubled because their enemies tended to be poor in the field. When intelligence was least common, it offered the greatest return, by making one‐sided relationships more normal. Most pre‐modern systems, however, were worse than mediocre modern ones, since intelligence was not thoroughly handled, while major gaps existed in key areas. Progress in the art was not linear, until 1400 and especially 1914.
Military religious orders
Authors: Nicholson Helen J.
Published: November 2011

The military religious orders were Christian institutions which first appeared in the early twelfth century. Their members took life time monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and promised to help defend Christians and Christian territory against non‐Christians. They won great admiration for their military discipline, but in the eastern Mediterranean they were eventually unsuccessful in holding off Muslim resurgence. In the Iberian Peninsula they played an important role in the so‐called Reconquest, and in the Baltic states and Prussia they eventually brought about, by one means or another, the conversion of the pagan peoples to Christianity. In the seven teenth and eighteenth centuries their role declined. Although some of these orders still survive today, they no longer play an active military role.
Military Revolution, the (1560–1660)
Authors: Parrott David
Published: November 2011

The “military revolution” thesis has been the key concept in interpreting the military history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and has been no less influential in shaping understanding of the role of war in the wider political and social history of early modern Europe. Moreover in the last two decades an early modern military revolution has become a paradigm for wider discussion of contemporary military transformations.
Military standards (Roman)
Authors: Dart Christopher J.
Published: November 2011

Military standards (
signa militaria
in Latin) were objects of ceremonial and religious significance and of tactical use to the Roman army. Standards were used in signaling and as rallying points in battle and had an important role in controlling morale. The diversity of types, designs, applications, and rituals associated with Roman military standards can be reconstructed from numerous references in literary sources, depictions on funerary reliefs, the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, and on coinage. However, as some aspects changed or developed across the history of the Roman Republic and Empire, care should be exercised in reconstructing the nature of Roman military standards.
Millán Astray, General José (1879–1954)
Authors: Alvarez José
Published: November 2011

Spanish soldier and founder of the Spanish Foreign Legion (
el Tercio
).
Miltiades the Younger (ca. 550–489
BCE
)
Authors: Tucci Jim
Published: November 2011

Miltiades was an Athenian aristocrat and military commander who played a key role in Hellenic history in the late sixth and early fifth centuries
BCE
. He led Athenian expansion into the Chersonese and islands of the northern Aegean. He was both a friend and foe to Persia, first an advisor to Darius on his invasion of Scythia and then a leader of the Athenian party that advocated freedom for the Ionian Greeks and rebellion against Persia. His most famous role was as an influential general in the Athenian army sent to stop a Persian invasion in 490 at Marathon.
Moltke, Helmuth von, the Younger (1848–1916)
Authors: Echevarria Antulio J.
Published: November 2011

Helmuth Johannes Ludwig von Moltke was chief of the German general staff from 1906 to 1914, and was responsible for the attack plan that launched the Reich's armies into France, Belgium, and the Netherlands in 1914. He has long been blamed for the failure of that offensive, not only from a planning perspective but also from the standpoint of execution. Indeed, he might deserve more blame than critics have given him, but not for the traditional reasons.
Mountbatten, Louis, 1st Earl of Mountbatten (1900–1979)
Authors: Ankersen Christopher
Published: November 2011

Louis Mountbatten was born in Windsor, England, on June 25, 1900. His great grandmother was Queen Victoria; his father was Prince Louis of Battenberg; and his second cousin would become King George VI. Throughout his lifetime he was referred to by the nickname “Dickie.” Mountbatten was a considerable force, renowned for his ambition, hard work, and ability to achieve results. In a career that spanned six decades and both world wars, Mountbatten participated in—indeed, shaped—several historic events that made him a figure of not inconsiderable importance to the military and political history of the twentieth century.
Muscovy, military rise of (1460–1730)
Authors: Stevens Carol B.
Published: November 2011

Over the period 1460–1730 Muscovy grew from a large principality in central European Russia to a Eurasian empire stretching from the Baltic to the Pacific. Its growth was not only a military rise to power; it also involved major political and military reorientation, from dominant concerns with the world of the Eurasian steppe in the post‐Mongol era to those of an eighteenth‐century European Empire.
Mussolini, Benito (1883–1945)
Authors: Finaldi Giuseppe
Published: November 2011

Benito Andrea Amilcare Mussolini was born in Predappio in the Romagna region of northeastern Italy. His family was not poor, his father being a blacksmith and very minor landowner and his mother a primary school teacher. Between 1903 and 1914 Mussolini espoused an eclectic and radical socialism and was active in the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and a variety of worker organizations. His activity as a journalist began in various socialist newspapers in Romagna, Switzerland (where he lived between 1903 and 1904), and Trento (1909), then in the Austrian Tyrol. In 1910 Mussolini became editor of one of the most important socialist newspapers in Romagna and had established a firm reputation as a fiery and uncompromising radical, rejecting all forms of collaboration (advocated by some socialists) with Giovanni Giolitti's moderate and reforming liberal governments.
Namur, Sieges of (1692 and 1695)
Authors: Lenihan PáDraig
Published: November 2011

The Spanish Netherlands was the biggest theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697) and siege was the most common operation there. Louis XIV's armies generally thrust northwest following the general line of the Sambre and Meuse rivers. Namur nestled strategically at their confluence. The French took it in 1692 and lost it in 1695. Indeed, the Allied recapture amounted to the biggest operation of the war when, towards the end, about a quarter of a million men lay within two hours' march of the town.
Napoleonic invasion of Russia (1812)
Authors: Mikaberidze Alexander
Published: November 2011

A major war between France and Russia, also known under its Russian name of the “Patriotic War” or “Fatherland War” of 1812. Following the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, relations between France and Russia became increasingly tense. Emperor Alexander I of Russia did not forget the painful lessons of 1805–1807 and was aware of the widespread displeasure prevailing in Russia over the “ignominious” Peace of Tilsit. Although Bonaparte and Alexander seemed to confirm their relations at Erfurt in 1808, the fissures became evident the following year, when Russia took half‐hearted steps to support France against Austria. Russia was also concerned by Bonaparte's aggressive policy in the Germanic states, as well as the creation of the duchy of Warsaw, which threatened Russian interests in Poland. In addition, the Continental Blockade, which Russia was forced to join in 1807, proved extremely disadvantageous to the Russian economy. Russia's decision to open its ports to British goods was a direct threat to Bonaparte's efforts to defeat Britan.
National liberation, wars of
Authors: Stapleton Timothy J.
Published: November 2011

The term war of national liberation is problematic and biased. It is often adopted by armed groups seeking to mobilize supporters on the basis of an imagined sense of national identity, usually defined in terms of common language, ethnicity, origin, or culture. These groups struggle to expel foreign occupation and achieve self‐determination or overthrow objectionable internal regimes. It could be argued that the rebellions of ancient Jews against the Roman Empire in the first and second centuries were some of the first wars of national liberation. However, the term is more generally understood to apply to conflicts fought in Europe and the Americas during the Enlightenment period of the late 1700s and early 1800s, and to wars of independence fought in Asia and Africa during the Cold War of the second half of the twentieth century. Wars of national liberation, particularly since 1945, could be described as asymmetrical conflicts in that they typically began as small insurgencies using hit‐and‐run tactics against large conventional occupation forces. These conflicts are almost always civil wars in that nationalist fighters characterize local people working for the state as traitors to the nation and target them for violence. Wars of national liberation, especially during the Cold War, were often proxy wars, as rival superpowers not wanting to confront each other directly backed opposite sides in regional conflicts. They also usually required insurgents to maintain a sanctuary and staging area in a neighboring territory. Perspective is important, as members of national liberation movements often celebrate themselves as freedom fighters, while their enemies deride them as terrorists or separatists.
New Model Army
Authors: Wanklyn Malcolm
Published: November 2011

The New Model Army, 21,000 strong, was established by parliament on February 15, 1645, two and a half years after the outbreak of the First English Civil War, by combining the best elements of the armies formerly commanded by the earls of Essex and Manchester and Sir William Waller and filling the gaps by a press. The 1644 campaigning season, which in July had looked like ending in outright victory, had ended in disappointment and dissent. In the autumn the three armies had united to attack the king's armies in the Thames Valley theater of war but, despite outnumbering the royalists by almost two to one, the generals had missed several opportunities to destroy them, most notably at the Second Battle of Newbury. In the ensuing row the old high command and the old armies and regiments were swept away. The new force was to be led by officers sufficiently competent and committed to win the war quickly.
Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970)
Authors: Stapleton Timothy J.
Published: November 2011

During the colonial period the British ruled the large and populous territory of Nigeria as three separate regions. Although Nigeria has a vast number of ethnicities, each region was associated with a major ethnic group; the Igbo in the east, the Yoruba in the west, and the Hausa‐Fulani in the north. The two coastal southern regions, east and west, became relatively more prosperous, predominantly Christian and with a significant western educated elite. Comparatively poor and marginalized, the predominantly Muslim north was controlled by conservative local elites.
Nimitz, Admiral Chester (1885–1966)
Authors: Bradford James C.
Published: November 2011

Fleet admiral, Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CinCPOA), and Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet (CinCPac) during World War II, Nimitz administered the expansion and operations of the vast American fleet and directed the execution of Allied strategy in the defeat of Japan.
North Yemen Civil War (1962–1970)
Authors: Witty David M.
Published: November 2011

The North Yemen Civil War began in 1962 following a coup against the state's royalist government and was fought between the supporters of the state's new republic and those who supported the old order. The war lasted until 1970 and involved the military intervention of Egypt on the side of the republic, and the material and diplomatic support of several countries, most notably Saudi Arabia, for its opponents. The conflict, often viewed as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, is noted for its brutality and the Egyptian army's inability to defeat insurgents.
Pacific, War of the (1879–1883)
Authors: Farcau Bruce
Published: November 2011

When Latin Americans talk of the War of the Pacific, they do not refer to Pearl Harbor or Iwo Jima. They mean the grueling war in the late nineteenth century in which Chile, “the Prussia of South America,” severed Bolivia's access to the sea and also seized the southernmost provinces of Peru, creating bitterness that still sours relations between the three nations to this day.
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
Authors: Green Dominic
Published: November 2011

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is a political umbrella for paramilitary groups and, latterly, political parties, seeking to establish a Palestinian Arab state. Originally determined to erase Israel and its Jews “from the river [Jordan] to the [Mediterranean] sea,” between amending its charter (1988) and the Oslo Accords (1993), the PLO endorsed the “two‐state solution”; however, a series of negotiations has not yet produced this outcome.
Palmach
Authors: Chazan Meir
Published: November 2011

The Palmach (acronym from the Hebrew words
Plugot Machatz
, meaning “strike forces”) was set up on May 19, 1941 as a military unit in the Haganah (“The Defense”) organization. The Palmach was an elite volunteer military force comprising crack troops, and it functioned as the primary and decisive military arm of the Yishuv (Jewish community in Palestine) in its struggle to establish a Jewish state in Palestine in the 1940s. The Haganah was both the main and the largest paramilitary organization in the Yishuv. It was designed to function like an underground militia. Its activities were subject to the authority of the Yishuv's central national institutions and the Zionist movement.
Paraguayan War (1864–1870)
Authors: Herrera José María
Published: November 2011

The Paraguayan War (also known as the the War of the Triple Alliance) was the largest and most costly conflict in the postindependence history of South America. The war pitted the highly regimented society of Paraguay against the combined forces of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. The origins of the conflict are rooted in unresolved border questions, interference by Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay in the internal affairs of Uruguay, and the personal ambitions of Paraguay's dictator, Francisco Solano López. The war would have disastrous consequences for Paraguay, resulting in the loss of almost 80 percent of its male population, large‐scale destruction of its infrastructure, and the ceding of land to both Argentina and Brazil.
Parma, Alessandro Farnese, Duke of (1545–1592)
Authors: Bonney Richard
Published: November 2011

In 1576, on the death of Don Luís de Requesens, the delay in appointing a successor as governor general of the Low Countries combined with substantial arrears of pay, led to a significant mutiny in the Spanish army of Flanders (the “Spanish Fury”). No such disaster occurred two years later following the death of Don John of Austria, Requesens's successor, in October 1578. Alessandro Farnese was an obvious successor as governor general: he was the son of Margaret of Parma, Philip II's aunt and a previous governor general; though only 34 years of age, he was popular with the troops, having served with Don John at the victory of Gembloux over the rebel forces in January 1578, a victory which demonstrated his military genius (Kossman and Mellink 1974: 28). Above all, he was already present in the Low Countries, so there was no break in the continuity of command. Parma was presented with a favorable opportunity to exploit the divisions in the Low Countries. A Catholic Malcontent movement, led by the baron of Montigny, had thrown in its lot with a union of Catholic Walloon provinces. Gradually, by January 1579, this was broadened into the Union of Arras, which inaugurated serious negotiations with Parma. By May there was a definitive agreement, ratified by Philip II in September 1579. Parma secured the support of the Catholic nobility because he offered them not only rewards, but also satisfaction for their more general political objectives. They were not interested in the States General, the national representative institution, which in their mind was linked with rebellion. What they wanted was power in the council of state, which they continued to enjoy on a reduced scale. Eventually all the great nobles—with the exception of the house of Orange‐Nassau—returned to allegiance to Philip II. There was no obvious alternative to Parma's leadership of the Catholic nobility. Matthias, the rival governor general appointed by the States General, failed miserably and left the Low Countries in June 1581, as did Anjou—Orange's proposed successor for Matthias's role, with increased powers—in June 1583.
Philip
II
of Macedonia (382–336
BCE
)
Authors: Dmitriev Sviatoslav
Published: November 2011

Philip II turned Macedonia from a kingdom filled with discord and suffering from invasions into the strongest centralized state in the Greek world. By using his newly gained financial resources, the might of the reorganized army, and personal military and diplomatic skills that paired charm with reasoning, Philip eventually established some form of control over all of mainland Greece, which he organized as a military alliance against Persia. These and other achievements by Philip served as the foundation of the future glory of his son and successor Alexander III (“the Great”). The Macedonian rule that Philip established over Greece would continue until the early second century BCE, when it was overthrown by the Romans.
Philip IV of France (“the Fair”) (1268–1314)
Authors: Marvin Laurence W.
Published: November 2011

Philip IV remains famous not for his military exploits but for his showdown with a pope over taxing French clergy and his suppression of the Templars. A skillful administrator, Philip earned his sobriquet “the Fair” because of his physical attractiveness, not for his actions. A second son, he became heir upon his older brother's death in 1276. When his father died in 1285, the 17‐year‐old Philip abandoned some of his father's interventionist policies in order to increase and consolidate his power domestically. Throughout his reign, Philip maintained a consistent policy of strengthening himself at home — one of the reasons he arrested the Templars, in order to seize their wealth and remove them as crown treasurers. Even his major wars were not technically with foreign kingdoms but with territories that recognized the king of France as their suzerain: Aquitaine and Flanders.
Philip V of Macedonia (r. 221–179 BCE)
Authors: Dmitriev Sviatoslav
Published: November 2011

The reign of Philip V saw in quick succession the rise of Macedonian might to a level unparalleled since the reigns of Philip II and Alexander III (the Great), and its decisive defeat by the Romans in the Second Macedonian War (200–197
BCE
). As the Romans freed the Greeks from Macedonia's two centuries‐long domination and dashed any hopes for resurrecting her former superiority, Philip's reign paved the way to the eventual abolition of the Macedonian kingdom (168) and its conversion into a Roman province (148 or 146).
Philip VI of France (“the Fortunate”) (1293–1350)
Authors: Teutsch Christian
Published: November 2011

Philip VI of France, known to future generations as “the Fortunate,” was king of France from 1328 to 1350. His reign encompasses one of the most turbulent times in medieval France, more due to extraordinary external influences than to his own failings. Philip's ascension to the throne ushered in the Valois Dynasty and triggered the start of the Hundred Years' War with England. Throughout his reign he strove to centralize the independent duchies that would eventually form modern France, but had to focus much of his energies on combating invasions led by Edward III of England and his lieutenants. In the last few years of his life he suffered legendary defeats at the Battle of Crécy and the Siege of Calais, and was burdened by civil war in Brittany and the onset of the Black Death. Despite all of these calamities, the kingdom survived and flourished under his descendents; his dynasty would rule France for the next two and a half centuries.
Polish Succession, Wars of the (1733–1735)
Authors: McLay K. A. J.
Published: November 2011

The Wars of the Polish Succession represent a typical example of an eighteenth‐century European dynastic conflict. Although the trend can be overblown, religious and confessional origins of war had declined since the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), during which Cardinal Richelieu persuaded Louis XIII to fight with the Protestant Swedes against the Catholic League of the Holy Roman Empire for the
raison d'état
. Thereafter, territorial and familial—in other words, dynastic—interests increasingly became the key diplomatic currency. The promotion of such ambitions frequently led to disputes and wars within the European states system, especially where the succession was uncertain or where it might be readily contested. Elective monarchies such as existed in Poland were particularly vulnerable to the latter circumstance. Ever since its adoption at the creation of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania in 1569, and then subsequent revision upon the death of Sigismund II in 1572, the elective foundation of the Polish monarchy had proved generally unstable. The upper and lower nobility possessing the franchise clearly had no political or personal interests in conferring favor and longevity upon one dynasty. At the same time, the neighboring European powers might gain obvious geo‐strategic influence in placing their preferred candidate upon the throne of a country which was one of the largest monarchical domains in early modern Europe. During the eighteenth century, therefore, Poland was often the plaything of the European states system.
Privateers
Authors: Starkey David J.
Published: November 2011

Attacks upon seaborne trade and shipping have been a feature of human maritime activity since the seas were first used for the transport of goods and people. Such violent assaults have assumed various forms, some being sanctioned by states and therefore deemed legitimate, whereas others have been perpetrated by unauthorized commerce‐raiders, often described as pirates. Among those empowered by states was the privateer, an individual who set forth his or her own vessel—also known as a privateer—to attack the seaborne properties of foreign citizens. Such predatory activity promised to generate significant benefits. To the state, which authorized the practice by the issuance of a license—variously known as a privateer commission, letter of marque,
lettre de marque
, or
kaperbrief
—the privateer might provide inexpensive military services, as well as serving as an instrument of economic warfare by damaging a rival's maritime interests. To those individuals who equipped and manned these privately owned ships‐of‐war, the rewards were chiefly economic, for privateering was essentially a form of enterprise in which shipowners and seafarers risked their capital and their lives in a quest to take properties that would subsequently be conveyed to their ownership by due process of prize law.
Proportionality in War
Authors: Shue Henry
Published: November 2011

The requirement of proportionality in the conduct of war, as distinct from the resort to war, now in force in conventional and customary international law treats disproportionate attacks as one species of indiscriminate attacks, that is, as a particular way of violating the prohibition on attacks on civilians expressed by the principle of discrimination. Current law, as a result of a substantively meaningless diplomatic maneuver during the negotiations over the Geneva Protocol I (1977), always uses the term “excessive” instead of “disproportionate,” but the terminological switch has no non‐political significance whatsoever. Thus, what most people would simply call a disproportionate attack is, strictly speaking, indiscriminate in that it may be expected to cause excessive civilian harm. In Protocol I indiscriminate attacks are prohibited and next defined in general terms: “Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are … of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without discrimination” (Art. 51(4)). Then, one important sufficient condition of an indiscriminate attack is stated: “Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate: … an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated” (Art. 51(5) (b)). Thus, an attack is indiscriminate in the sense of disproportionate if the losses of civilian life, injuries to civilians, or damage to civilian objects are predictably “excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.” Importantly, the strongest military power, the United States, has officially and expressly recognized this fundamental treaty article concerning proportionality, Article 51, as expressive of customary international law, even though the United States has never ratified Protocol I as a whole (Matheson 1987: 426).
Pydna, Battle of (168
BCE
)
Authors: Hoyos Dexter
Published: November 2011

The last and decisive engagement of Rome's Third Macedonian War, which ended the kingdom of Macedon's existence as a great power and even as a unified state.
Reconquista (711–1492)
Authors: Smith Damian J.
Published: November 2011

“Reconquista” is the term which, from the early nineteenth century, has been used to describe the Christian recovery of the lands conquered by the Muslims during the Arab conquest of the Iberian Peninsula which began in 711. The process lasted until 1492, with the defeat of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada. The territorial recovery was motivated by political and religious ideas of restoration to varying degrees in various places at various times. During long periods many people lived at peace and there were often alliances between Christian and Muslim rulers.
Roman legions
Authors: Gilliver Kate
Published: November 2011

The legion, consisting of around five thousand infantry and a small cavalry contingent, was the principal military unit of the Roman army. Traditionally, service in the legions required both Roman citizenship and property ownership, assessed through the five‐yearly census, though the latter qualification was gradually reduced to the point that it had become almost meaningless by the late second century
BCE
, and had been completely abolished before Augustus established the Roman army as a permanent, professional organization a century later. Though citizenship remained a requirement for legionary service throughout the remainder of Rome's history, until the general grant of citizenship to all free adult males under Caracalla in 212
CE
, suitable recruits without the status, such as the illegitimate sons of serving soldiers, would be granted it on enlistment to maintain the ideal that only citizens served in the legions. Legions on campaign were usually accompanied by non‐citizen units drawn from states allied to Rome, which provided heavy and light infantry, cavalry, and missile troops, so that armies were flexible forces containing a variety of different troop types. Legions during the Roman Republic were raised for specific campaigns, often only a few months long, and disbanded at the completion of military operations, but with the establishment of an overseas empire, legions might be retained for longer periods of time, leading to increased periods of continuous service on the part of legionaries; Augustus finally established the individual legions on a permanent basis, so that some legions were in existence for several centuries. While the citizen legionary units are given considerably more emphasis in the surviving literary sources than the non‐citizen units, and a wealth of archaeological evidence illustrates legions of the imperial period, there is still much uncertainty about the organization of the legions.
Roses, Wars of the (1455–1487)
Authors: Hicks Michael
Published: November 2011

The Wars of the Roses are renowned from the plays of William Shakespeare, who traced them from the deposition of Richard II in 1399 by the Lancastrian Henry IV, to the defeat at Bosworth in 1485 of the last Yorkist king, Richard III, by the first Tudor, Henry VII. Shakespeare portrayed them as dynastic conflicts between the Lancastrian and Yorkist claimants to the crown. It had been a mistake in 1399 to crown Edward III's heir male, the son of his third son John, rather than Edmund Mortimer, great‐grandson through the female line of his second son Lionel and his direct heir. Never, before or since, were English governments so insecure: there were three regional revolts and thirteen fullscale battles, at least tencoups d'étatsand attempted coups, sixteen invasions (including four that succeeded), five usurpations, five kings, seven reigns, and five changes of dynasty. Yet the Wars of the Roses should be viewed as a single phenomenon (Carpenter 1997: i). There were particular circumstances especially conducive to civil war that explain why the wars began, why they twice recurred, and why they ceased.
Russo‐Finnish War (1939–1940)
Authors: Ailes Mary Elizabeth
Published: November 2011

The Russo‐Finnish War, also known as the Winter War, began on November 30, 1939 when Soviet forces invaded Finland. Beginning in 1938, the Soviet government pressured Finland to allow it to build a military base on the Finnish coast to guard the maritime approaches to Leningrad. The Soviet leadership feared that Germany would invade the Soviet Union through Finland and that the Finnish military could not withstand such an attack. The Finnish government denied this request. It believed that such an action would make it difficult for Finland to resist further Soviet expansion in the future. Throughout 1938 and 1939 the Soviet government continued to make territorial demands of Finland. The signing of the Nazi–Soviet Non‐Aggression Pact in August 1939 led the Soviet government to increase its diplomatic pressure upon Finland as it believed that Germany would not react to a Soviet invasion of its western neighbor.
Russo‐Turkish War (1877–1878)
Authors: Van Der Oye David Schimmelpenninck
Published: November 2011

The nineteenth century's last major European war and the fourth clash between Russia and the Ottomans. The campaign focused on Bulgaria, while the Caucasus served as a secondary theater. Russia eventually prevailed on the battlefield, but many of its gains were lost at the bargaining table after the other European powers intervened at the Congress of Berlin in 1878.
San Martín, José Francisco de (1778–1850)
Authors: Racine Karen
Published: November 2011

José de San Martín was born in 1778 into a well‐connected military family. His father Juan de San Martín was a Spanish soldier posted to the Río de la Plata region as a lieutenant governor; his mother Gregoria Matorras was the niece of Gerónimo Matorras, a famous general in the Gran Chaco campaign of 1774. At the age of 7, San Martín journeyed to Spain with his family and enrolled at the Real Seminario de Nobles in Madrid while his father took up a new government post at Málaga. Even as a young boy, San Martín was impatient to begin his career as a soldier; in 1789, when he was only 11 years old, he successfully petitioned to be released from school in order to join the Murcian infantry as a cadet.

Young José de San Martín entered the Spanish military service just as Europe descended into decades of turbulence. In 1793 he participated in the battle against French forces at Roussillon in northern Catalonia, and eventually went on to serve with an important regiment attached to the frigateDoroteawhich patrolled the Mediterranean in 1797–1798. Three years later, in 1804, San Martín participated in the so‐called War of the Oranges, in which Manuel Godoy's Spanish forces supported Napoleon's demand that the Portuguese abandon their centuries‐old alliance with Great Britain and cede their territory to France. Later that year, while he was posted as an infantry captain at Cádiz, the port city most closely associated with the Americas, he exploited its well‐stocked libraries to read new Enlightenment histories, geographies, political philosophy, and especially treatises on military science. Not surprisingly, San Martín began to consider questions of liberty, sovereignty, nationality, and empire while gaining practical experience in modern warfare by serving throughout the Iberian Peninsula.
Sandino, Augusto C. (1895–1934)
Authors: England Shawn
Published: November 2011

Born May 18, 1895, in Niquinohomo, Nicaragua, Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino was the illegitimate son of a wealthy landowning merchant and an impoverished household servant. He later dropped his mother's name and shortened his own to Augusto C. Sandino. Raised in grinding poverty by his mother until the age of 9, Sandino was subsequently taken into his paternal household and treated well, although never as favorably as his legitimate siblings. He enjoyed a limited formal education, training as a mechanic, and apprenticing for a time in his father's business enterprises. After a violent altercation in June of 1921 (the actual cause of which remains unclear), Sandino fled the country to avoid prosecution for shooting his adversary. He arrived first in Honduras, working under hard conditions at a sugar cane plantation before moving on to Guatemala, where he worked for the United Fruit Company. In 1923 he moved to Mexico and found employment in the foreign‐owned oil fields near Tampico.
Santa Cruz de Marcenado (1684–1732)
Authors: Heuser Beatrice
Published: November 2011

Don Alvaro Navia‐Oroso y Vigil, third Marquis Santa Cruz de Marcenado y Vizconde de Puerto, was a Spanish aristocrat who followed both a military and diplomatic career. He received an education in rhetoric, philosophy, and grammar at a monastery and later the University of Oviedo. At the same time, he was put in charge of the local militia in Santa María de Vega in Asturia in Spain. In his twenties, he saw military action on the side of the Bourbons in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), especially at the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo (1706) and Tortosa (1709), and in Sicily. In 1715 he was sent to Ceuta, a Spanish‐occupied territory, as inspector of the Spanish forces. Three years later he was assigned the command over the Spanish forces in Sardinia. By the time he was 34, he had succeeded to the title of marquess, and in 1718 became inspector of the Spanish forces both in Sardinia and Sicily, and governor of Cagliari, where he stayed until 1722. From 1722 to 1727 he was sent to Turin as Spanish ambassador, to the court of Victor Amadeus, where his own house became a cultural center. Here he had leisure to study, accumulated a remarkable library, and began to write his 11‐volume work on war, but also a work on economics.
Saxe, Hermann Maurice, Comte de (1696–1750)
Authors: Tallett Frank
Published: November 2011

Marshal Saxe was outstanding both as a field commander and as a military thinker. His
Mes rêeveries
represents probably the best summation of warfare as it was practiced and understood in the first half of the eighteenth century.
Seeckt, General Hans von (1866–1936)
Authors: Strohn Matthias
Published: November 2011

Friedrich Leopold von Seeckt, who answered to the name “Hans,” was the most influential German soldier in the years of the Weimar Republic and had an important influence on German military thought and doctrine.
Septimius Severus (145–211)
Authors: Meckler Michael
Published: November 2011

The Roman emperor Lucius Septimius Severus, who came to power in a period of civil war, strengthened the Roman army and expanded the empire's boundaries. His policies brought rising financial and military burdens to Rome's government. While his ruthless but prudent administration allowed these burdens to be fulfilled during his eighteen years on the throne, the policies created increasing problems for future emperors.
Shamyl, Imam (1797–1871)
Authors: Vandervort Bruce
Published: November 2011

Imam Shamyl was the leader of a generation‐long campaign of Islamic resistance to Russian conquest of Daghestan, in the eastern Caucasus between Chechnya and Azerbaijan, in the mid‐nineteenth century. Though unsuccessful in the long term, the struggle he and his Avar people waged would inspire romantic stories by Mikhail Lermontov and Alexei Tolstoy, who had fought in the conflict as young Russian soldiers, and continues to inspire Muslim separatist movements in the Caucasus today. In its heyday, Shamyl and the resistance of his people to Russian conquest also attracted a following in government circles and even among the public in western Europe, particularly in Britain, where it was believed that the Imam's warriors served as a vital bulwark against Russian progress toward India.
Sikhs
Authors: Peers Douglas M.
Published: November 2011

Sikhs are followers of the Sikh religion, which began as a reform movement in the volatile region of India known as the Punjab. This fertile region, straddling a number of the tributaries of the Indus and Ganges rivers, and lying between Delhi on the east and the mountainous region separating present‐day Pakistan from Afghanistan on the west, lay astride several of the key invasion routes through which waves of invaders had passed into India from central Asia. Consequently, the region has historically experienced considerable social, economic, and political tumult. The religion's founder, Guru Nanak (1469–1539), challenged many of the practices associated with Hinduism while simultaneously rejecting many of those which had been introduced through Islam. Initially pacific in orientation, it eschewed otherworldliness in favor of forging strong community links. As more converts were drawn to it, successive gurus found themselves caught up in the turbulence of Mughal politics and a number of its key leaders, including several gurus, came under attack. While this persecution was largely political in nature, resistance came to be articulated through a much more militant form of socio‐religious organization, namely the
khalsa
, or army of the pure, which was instigated by the tenth and final guru, Gobind Singh (1666–1708). Membership in the
khalsa
is by baptism and is symbolized by the five K's: unshorn hair (
kes
), a comb (
khanga
), a dagger (
kirpan
), a steel bracelet (
kara
), and a pair of breeches (
kachh
). The increasingly militarized nature of Sikh society was often directed toward Islam on account of its association with the Mughal ruling classes as well as it being the religion of their Afghan neighbors with whom there was a long history of border conflict. And as a proselytizing religion, Islam was often viewed as a threat to the social and political fabric of the Punjab.
Sioux Wars (1854–1891)
Authors: Lookingbill Brad D.
Published: November 2011

Between 1854 and 1890 the US Army conducted a series of military operations against the Lakota Sioux and their Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho allies. Also known as the Teton or the Western Sioux, the Lakota were a coalition of seven bands or councils: the Oglala, the Brulé, the Minneconjou, Sans‘ Arcs, Two Kettles, Blackfeet, and the Hunkpapa. The Sioux Wars began with small raids near the North Platte River and ended with a tragic massacre at Wounded Knee.
Spanish–American War (1898)
Authors: Watson Samuel
Published: November 2011

The Spanish–American War was rooted in the growth of American power and the proximity of Spanish colonial possessions to the United States. Historians have assigned a variety of reasons for the US declaration of war against Spain, from humanitarian altruism to popular jingoism, a flight from the domestic divisions of the 1890s, or the influence of sugar planters, to a vision of national power that demanded stable pro‐American regimes in nearby nations and along major trade routes. The answer is a mix of all these factors, but the decision to go to war, the United States' first international war in more than half a century, certainly signaled a new national assertiveness.
Special forces
Authors: Schweizer Karl
Published: November 2011

Special forces is a generic term for elite, highly trained, and superbly equipped tactical teams that conduct specialized missions in harsh, hostile terrain. Operations include but are not limited to reconnaissance, surveillance, unconventional (i.e., guerilla) warfare, foreign internal defense, counterin surgency, and, increasingly, counterterrorist actions with a global focus.
Stalingrad, Battle of (1942–1943)
Authors: Glantz David M.
Published: November 2011

The Battle of Stalingrad, fought from August 21, 1942, to February 2, 1943, on Germany's Eastern Front during World War II, proved to be the climactic struggle determining the fate of German Operation Blau (Blue), the strategic offensive Adolf Hitler's Third Reich conducted against Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union (USSR) in the summer and fall of 1942. Operation Blau, the second strategic offensive Germany conducted in the war, began on June 28, 1942, when the German Wehrmacht's (Armed Forces) Army Group South, soon split into Army Groups A and B, supported by forces from Germany's Axis allies, Italy and Romania, launched an offensive eastward across the southern Soviet Union to reach and conquer the oil‐rich Caucasus region and create favorable conditions for winning the war. After Axis forces successfully defeated the Red Army's forces in the Donbas region and captured the city of Rostov in late July, Hitler expanded Operation Blau's objectives to include the seizure of Stalin's namesake city, Stalingrad, on the Volga River. The Führer assigned Army Group A the task of securing the Caucasus region and Army Group B the mission to seize Stalingrad.
Strategic bombing
Authors: Perry May Michael
Published: November 2011

Strategic bombing—often defined as the direct aerial attack on moral and material means of resistance—has changed warfare. Strategic bombing fundamentally shifted modern combat from the fields, where armies collided, to the cities, where civilians resided. In doing so, it clouded traditional moral lines between combatants and non‐combatants, which held that civilian non‐combatants were illegitimate targets in war. It extended
de facto
legitimacy to targets such as factories, rail yards, and important buildings that housed civilian professionals and skilled laborers, which had previously been out of the reach of an enemy's military power. These once non‐combatants, civilian targets became essential military targets as they increased both the moral and material means of resistance against an enemy and converted regular domestic functions into “war‐making potential.” Therefore, the real attraction to strategic bombing was the ability to project power and influence across both battlefields and borders by targeting, or demonstrating an ability to target, precious areas once out of the range to most fielded armies that were vital to a nation's political, military, social, and economic well‐being. The final essential element to the ability to project power was payload. Payload was how much ordnance—whether it was high explosives, chemical agents, or nuclear kilotons—an aircraft could carry over a particular distance to target an enemy city or to compel that government to change behavior through demonstrating the ability to target an enemy city. In this way, the ability to bomb strategically significantly increased a nation's military power, thereby furthering the ends of their national policies.
Suchet, Marshal Louis Gabriel, Duke of Albufera (1770–1826)
Authors: Gallaher John G.
Published: November 2011

Born into a bourgeois industrial family, young Suchet was educated at the College of the Île‐Barba near Lyons, France. As the Revolution engulfed the nation, he enlisted in the Lyons National Guard (1791). When France went to war in 1792, he enlisted in a volunteer company that became a part of the 4th Battalion of Ardèche and was quickly given the rank of second lieutenant. Promoted to lieutenant colonel (September 20, 1793), Suchet joined the Army of Italy and took part in the siege of Toulon, commanded by the young Napoleon Bonaparte. As a committed republican he believed in the revolutionary cause and took pride in helping to defeat men he saw as traitors and rebels.
Taira Tadatsune insurrection (1028–1031)
Authors: Karl Friday
Published: November 2011

Like Taira Masakado's (?–940) insurrection during the previous century, Taira Tadatsune's (?–1031) uprising illustrates the ties that bound center and periphery in the mid‐Heian (794–1185) period, even in the case of ostensibly revolutionary upheavals. The key players—Taira Naokata (dates unknown), Minamoto Yorinobu (968–1048), and Tadatsune himself—were all bridging figures between the court and the countryside, not incipient provincial warlords chafing under courtier domination. Even Masakado and Tadatsune, whose insurrections are marked among the most momentous events of the period, were not willfully in defiance of central government authority—at least not initially. Their quarrels were local, not national; their insurgencies aimed at specific provincial officials and their subordinates and policies, not the national polity. And even then, their first—and most enduring—instincts were to seek reconciliation with the state, through the offices of their patrons at court. In this respect, they were more like unruly adolescents testing the limits of court patience than revolutionaries seeking a new order.
Thermopylae, Battle of (480
BCE
)
Authors: Potts Samuel
Published: November 2011

The Battle of Thermopylae took place during the Greco‐Persian Wars (498–448), and specifically during the invasion of the Greek mainland by the Persian Great King, Xerxes I (519–465). The battle was fought between a small army of Greek soldiers, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, who failed to hold the Pass of Thermopylae against the far larger Persian army. This defeat allowed the Persian army to march on into the heart of Greece and burn Athens to the ground, though the Greeks were eventually able to repel the Persian invasion following victories in the naval battle of Salamis (480) and the land battle of Plataea (479). It is one of the most famous encounters in all of history, achieving a reputation and renown far out of proportion to its tactical or strategic significance. The three hundred Spartans who fought to the death against the oncoming Persian army became legendary figures almost at once. The heroism of their last stand, and perhaps as importantly the anecdotes associated with their somewhat futile self‐sacrifice, made a significant contribution to the enduring image of the Spartans as red‐cloaked super‐soldiers. It was an image that was consciously perpetuated almost immediately after Thermopylae, not least by the Spartans themselves.