bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Grandson, Otto of (Otton de Grandson) (ca. 1238–1328)
Authors: Marvin Laurence W.
Published: November 2011

Otto de Grandson was an influential advisor to two English monarchs. Living until age 90, he spent over fifty years in English service. Born in Savoy in 1238, Otto was the heir of a middling Savoyard noble, the oldest child of 12. Because of his large family, Otto's father sought posts and preferment for his children abroad, so Otto traveled to England with his younger brother in the late 1240s. In 1258 his father died, leaving Otto lord of Grandson, in modern‐day Switzerland. Though Otto retained the patrimony for his long life, he only episodically visited and often left its administration to various relatives.
Graziani, General Rodolfo (1882–1955)
Authors: Baratieri Daniela
Published: November 2011

Rodolfo Graziani, remembered both as “the Executioner” (Del Boca 1989: 122) or a top‐ranking general, was born into a lower‐middle‐class family in Filettino. While studying law he opted for the military profession. In 1908, the young officer was assigned to a native battalion in Eritrea and after a brief spell in Rome was stationed in Libya. During the Great War his career thrived—captain of an infantry brigade while engaged on the Carso, and then major, and finally lieutenant colonel at age 36. In 1921, he was posted to Tripolitania. The titles of Graziani's (1948) memoirs will articulate the rest of this entry.
Greco‐Turkish War (1919–1922)
Authors: Pizzo David
Published: November 2011

The Greco‐Turkish War was a conflict fought in Anatolia between the Kingdom of Greece and the new Turkish Republic in the wake of World War I. The war represented both the final stage of disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the culmination of the Greek “Megali [Great] Idea” of uniting all Greeks in the eastern Mediterranean under a single Greek state. Early Greek successes seemed to offer the prospect of a panHellenic Greek state on both sides of the Aegean, but the Turkish revolutionaries' military successes of 1921–1922 turned victory into catastrophe, resulting in the collapse of Greek irredentist dreams, large refugee flows, and the destruction of both the Greek communities in Anatolia and Turkish communities in Greece. For the Turkish national movement, on the other hand, the war represented a crucial phase of their war of independence. The negotiations that ended the war also mandated stateorganized population exchanges which profoundly changed the cultural and ethnic composition of the region.
Greene, General Nathanael (1742–1786)
Authors: Massey Gregory D.
Published: November 2011

Nathanael Greene emerged as one of the most talented of all American generals during the War of Independence. His strategic and tactical decisions were crucial to the American victory in the South, where the major fighting took place after 1778.
Grotius, Hugo (1583–1645)
Authors: Neff Stephen C.
Published: November 2011

Hugh de Groot (commonly Latinized as Hugo Grotius) was by no means the first legal writer to treat war in a systematic manner. John of Legnano had done so in the fourteenth century. More notably, in 1598 the Italian writer Alberico Gentili published a large treatise on the laws of war. But these works had relatively little impact on later writers, in sharp contrast to Grotius. Grotius also differed from these predecessors in carefully explaining the reasons for rules that he expounded, relating them to broader principles of natural law.
Guan Yu (d. 219) and Zhuge Liang (181–234)
Authors: Crespigny Rafe De
Published: November 2011

In the romantic tradition of China, the state of Shu‐Han (220–266
ce
) of the Three Kingdoms is regarded as the true heir of the Han Dynasty (206
bce
–220
ce
). In historical fact, it was the weakest of the rivals, far smaller than the empire of Wei (220–266) founded by Cao Cao (155–220), which dominated the north, and inferior also to the warlord state of Wu (220–280) founded by Sun Quan (182–252), on the lower and middle Yangzi. Shu‐Han controlled present‐day Sichuan and part of Yunnan, just one of the 12 provinces of the Han Dynasty, but its founder Liu Bei (161–223) claimed descent from the old imperial house, and many have accepted his legitimacy.
Guevara, Ernesto (“Che”) (1928–1967)
Authors: Herrera José María
Published: November 2011

An iconic Latin American revolutionary figure. One of the original members of Fidel Castro's successful invasion and rebellion in Cuba, Guevara gained prominence in his own right as a military and ideological leader. By the time of his death in 1967, Guevara had become the
beau idéal
of the revolutionary leader to countless leftist‐oriented youths worldwide.
Gungunhana (Gungunyane) (ca. 1850–1906)
Authors: Vandervort Bruce
Published: November 2011

Known as the Lion of Gaza, Gungunhana, ruler of the indigenous Kingdom of Gaza in the Limpopo River Valley in the hinterland of the Portuguese East African colony of Mozambique, was one of the great figures of African resistance to European imperialism. The kingdom had been founded in the 1820s by remnants of the Ndwandwe people, who had lived between the Mkhuze and Black Mfolosi rivers in South Africa, following a crushing defeat in 1819 at the hands of a Zulu army led by Shaka Kasenzangakhona Zulu (ca. 1787–1828). The commander of the defeated army, Gungunhana's grandfather, Soshangane, led the Ndwandwe north on a long trek into the Limpopo valley. The newcomers, who would be known as Gaza Nguni (since they spoke an Nguni language very similar to that of their Zulu conquerors) or Shangane (the Portuguese called them
Vátuas
), quickly brought neighboring Chope, Ronga, and Shona peoples under their sway. Never more than a minority of the population of their new realm, the Gaza Nguni nonetheless constituted its dominant element. While their Ronga subjects became “nguniized” over time and would provide the bulk of the warriors for the army of the Gaza Kingdom, the Chope were restive under Gaza Nguni rule, which gave the Portuguese an opening to pursue a “divide and conquer” strategy in their war against Gungunhana.
Gunpowder
Authors: McLay K. A. J.
Published: November 2011

A material which had a profound impact upon the history of warfare, gunpowder was originally developed in China during the first millennium both as the incendiary for fireworks and as propellant for catapult bombs. It arrived in the West and Europe from the mid‐thirteenth century onwards via the Middle East where Arab use had been similar to that of the Chinese. European application was, however, more closely focused on its evolution and harnessing as the principal propellant explosive in firearms and shells. European success in this regard was not exclusive, however. By the mid‐sixteenth century the principal powers of the Far East—the Chinese and the Japanese—and the Ottoman Empire had all developed and perfected the manufacture of gunpowder in weapons technology. Gunpowder's historical significance rests on its geographic diffusion and its relative longevity: its function in weapons technology across the world obtained until the late nineteenth century when it was progressively replaced by cordite.
Gurkhas
Authors: Peers Douglas M.
Published: November 2011

Gurkhas (also spelled Gorkha, Goorka, Ghoorka) are Nepalese soldiers who began serving under the British in the early nineteenth century, and following Indian Independence in 1947 continued to be recruited into the British and Indian armies (known as Gorkhas in the latter). More than two hundred thousand Gurkhas have served in the British army since the beginning of the twentieth century. The symbol with which they are most often associated is the
kukri
, as evidenced in their coat of arms. It is an 18‐inch‐long curved knife that is still carried into battle by Gurkhas. Around it has emerged an urban myth that a Gurkha would never sheath his blade without first drawing blood. While
kukris
have certainly been used as weapons, they were, according to Gurkhas, more often used for cooking.
Gwynedd, Owain (r. 1137–1170)
Authors: Brough Gideon , Marsden Richard
Published: November 2011

Owain Gwynedd, also called Owain ap Gruffudd ap Cynan, succeeded his father as king of Gwynedd in 1137 and styled himself “King of Wales” from the early 1140s. He was an able military leader and exceptional diplomat who expanded his territories, defied King Henry II of England, built coalitions with other Welsh rulers, and opened diplomatic relations with France.
Haig, General Douglas (1861–1928)
Authors: Woodward David R.
Published: November 2011

As commander in chief (1915–1918) of the largest British army ever sent abroad, in a war in which British casualties considerably exceeded those of any previous conflict, Douglas Haig has become a scapegoat in popular culture for these massive casualties.
Hannibal (247–ca. 183 BCE)
Authors: Hoyos Dexter
Published: November 2011

Eldest son of Hamilcar “Barca” (Carthage's
de facto
leader from 240 to 229
BCE
), Hannibal aged 9 went with him to Spain, where Carthage conquered its rich southern regions thanks to Hamilcar and then his son‐in‐law Hasdrubal (237–221). These new territories more than offset losing Sicily and Sardinia to Rome after the First Punic War. Hannibal was a born leader, well educated in both Punic and Greek culture. After serving under Hamilcar and Hasdrubal, he in turn became Carthage's chief general, in 221. His rapid conquest of central and northwestern Spain in 221–220 attracted Rome's previously indifferent attention, and an unsubtle Roman attempt followed to rein him in diplomatically. Viewing it as a threat, he challenged Rome by besieging her ally Saguntum on the Mediterranean coast (219).
Harris, Arthur (1892–1984)
Authors: Green Dominic
Published: November 2011

“Bomber” to the public, “Bert” to his friends, and “Butcher” to his crews, Marshal of the RAF Sir Arthur Travers Harris commanded Bomber Command from February 1942 to September 1945. Harris did not devise the policy of “area bombing” the industrial cities of Nazi Germany, but implemented it ruthlessly, dropping nearly a million tons of bombs, losing nearly 57,000 airmen, and killing over 600,000 German civilians. Blunt, aggressive, and utterly loyal to his crews, Harris dismissed ethical qualms as “unctuous rectitude.” Apocryphally, stopped for speeding and warned, “If you drive like that you will kill someone,” he replied, “Young man, I kill hundreds of people every night.”
Henry II, King (of England) (1133–1189)
Authors: Hosler John D.
Published: November 2011

Henry II was the first of the Angevin kings of England. The grandson of Henry I (through his mother Matilda) and son of Count Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou, Henry II bested King Stephen in war and was named heir to the English throne in the 1153 Treaty of Winchester. Over the course of his 35‐year reign (1154–1189) he transformed the Anglo‐Norman kingdom into a state of tremendous wealth, power, and hitherto unheard‐of extent.
Himmler, Heinrich (1900–1945)
Authors: Ryan Joseph W.
Published: November 2011

The second son of Joseph Gebhard Himmler, a Munich schoolmaster and tutor to a Bavarian prince, and his devout Catholic wife Anna Maria, Heinrich Himmler grew to become a meticulous student, a lover of plants and animals, and the greatest organizer of state oppression and mass murder yet to be seen.
Hoplite warfare (Greece)
Authors: Sage Michael
Published: November 2011

Hoplites served as heavy infantry. Their full defensive equipment consisted of a bronze helmet, a cuirass of bronze or other material, greaves, and a large, strongly convex shield three to four feet in diameter. Their main offensive weapon was a heavy thrusting spear about eight feet long with a wooden shaft and a bronze leaf‐shaped head approximately a foot in length. The spear often had a bronze butt‐spike to allow it to be set upright in the ground and for use in combat if the spear shaft shattered. In addition, they carried a short sword about two feet long as a secondary weapon. It has been estimated that the total weight of this equipment was between fifty and sixty pounds (20–27 kg).
Humanitarian action and intervention
Authors: Badsey Stephen
Published: November 2011

Humanitarian action involves the armed forces of one or more countries entering the territory, air space, or territorial waters of another country, with the primary objective of rendering humanitarian assistance to the inhabitants, either directly or by assisting organizations whose principal role is the delivery of humanitarian assistance. A formal agreement made in Stockholm in 2003, to which many countries that practice humanitarian action were signatories, set out its objectives as “to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity during and in the aftermath of man‐made crises and natural disasters, as well as to prevent and strengthen preparedness for the occurrence of such situations,” and its key principles as “humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence.” Humanitarian action on a small scale is, and has been throughout history, one of the most common activities undertaken by many armed forces, ranging from assistance at sea given by navies of all nationalities, to soldiers helping with building projects. In the decade 2001–2010 the United States, the largest single practitioner of this form of humanitarian assistance, mounted on average more than five hundred military humanitarian actions a year in a hundred different countries. On this scale, humanitarian actions are largely uncontroversial, as an extension of diplomacy and international goodwill.
Hundred Years' War (1337–1453)
Authors: Rogers Clifford J.
Published: November 2011

On May 24, 1337, Philip VI, first Valois king of France, declared he was confiscating the duchy of Aquitaine from his cousin Edward, for default of his feudal obligations. Philip knew full well that the duchy would not be tamely surrendered to him. Since Duke Edward was also King Edward III of England (1312–1377), that meant war with a major foreign power, as well as war within his own kingdom. Philip probably expected, however, that the war would be short and successful, like the three similar conflicts of the past four decades. This time was different, though: except for a brief peace that lasted from 1360 to 1369, England and France remained at war from 1337 to 1453, when the English were driven from Bordeaux for a second and final time. Even in 1453 there was no peace treaty, only a suspension of hostilities due to the impracticality of further campaigning. When Edward VI invaded France in 1475, it was in many respects a resumption of the old war, rather than the outbreak of a new one.
Hussite Crusades (1420–1431)
Authors: Fudge Thomas A.
Published: November 2011

After the execution of Jan Hus (1415) and the refusal of his followers to submit to the Latin Church, and upon the order of Pope Martin V, a Crusade was proclaimed against the Czech heretics (1420), fulfilling a desire expressed three years earlier. The implementation was assigned to Emperor Sigismund. The imperial initiative met strong resistance. Battles fought inside Bohemia included five separate Crusade advances. These were countered decisively at Prague (1420),
Žatec (1421), Kutná Hora
and the
Sázava River Valley
(1421–1422), Tachov (1427), and Domazžlice (1431). On each occasion the Crusaders were spectacularly defeated by peasant armies commanded by Jan Žižka and later Prokop Holý. Parallels with the anti‐Cathar campaign in the thirteenth century are obvious. The goal of the Crusade was the eradication of heresy and submission to the official church, together with restored social stability and political control in the Czech lands. Crusades against Hussites are part of that medieval chapter of European history wherein the church took aim at enemies within Christendom, especially in southern France and eastern and northern Europe. Fifteenth‐century Hussitism cannot be considered Protestant.
Iphicrates (d. ca. 353
BCE
)
Authors: Krasilnikoff JENS A.
Published: November 2011

Iphicrates, citizen of Athens and demesman of Rhamnous, served as a successful and innovative general and
condottiere
from the 390s BCE almost until his death in the late 350s BCE. Iphicrates became renowned for reforming the peltast‐type of light‐armed infantry into a well‐trained, disciplined, and operational unit (Diod. 15.44.3). Iphicrates also created the fortified camp, which further improved the efficiency and maneuverability of campaigning (Polyaenus
Strat
. 3.9.17–18).
Irish Revolution (1912–1923)
Authors: Kautt W. H.
Published: November 2011

From 1912 to 1923 the people of Ireland experienced a traumatic period of political unrest and violence now known as the Irish Revolution. Whilst it was not as overtly violent as others, its effects were as wide‐spread in Ireland as any other revolution. There were three constituent conflicts during this time: the 1916 Easter Rebellion, the War of Independence (1919–1921), and the Civil War (1922–1923). This era ended with the partitioning of Ireland in 1921 andthe creation of the Irish Free State in 1922.
Italo‐Abyssinian Wars (1887–1896, 1935–1936)
Authors: Finaldi Giuseppe
Published: November 2011

In 1885 Italy occupied the Red Sea port of Massawa. Partly to make up for the French occupation of Tunis in 1882, which many Italians thought should have been appropriated by Italy, Foreign Minister Pasquale Mancini, encouraged by the British who aimed to limit French expansion in the area, declared that “the keys to the Mediterranean,” in an infamous phrase of the Italian politician's, were to be “found in the Red Sea.” Egyptian power had collapsed along that sea's coast since the Mahdist rebellion in the Sudan and Britain's 1882 intervention in Egypt proper, but there is little doubt that Mancini's decision was made with an eye to Ethiopia, where for more than 20 years Italian missionaries, explorers, and emissaries had been particularly active. The occupation of Massawa, which in fact gave Italy a strip of land running almost the entire length of the territory between the Ethiopian highlands and the sea, was cause for alarm at the court of Ethiopian emperor Johannes IV, who realized an ambitious European power had replaced a decaying Egypt on his kingdom's lowland borders. For the time being Johannes banked on the Hewitt Treaty signed with Britain in 1884 and supposedly guaranteeing Ethiopian territorial invulnerability with the might of the British Empire. Johannes's vassal Menelik (king of Showa to the south and west of Johannes's territories) was more amenable to the Italians, seeking to profit from their presence to strengthen his claim to Johannes's throne. Ensconced on the Red Sea coast, the Italian military sought to make something of the uneasy relationship between emperor and vassal, favoring Menelik with arms, ammunition, and flattering embassies.
Ivan IV (“the Dread,” “the Terrible”) (1530–1584)
Authors: Filjushkin Alexander
Published: November 2011

Ivan the Terrible was grand prince of Moscow from 1533 and Russian tsar from 1547. He set both the absolute and relative record for the number of wars in which Russia participated. Throughout the 51 years of his reign, Russia was at war for 37 years—and nearly all the years of peace (1533–1547) occurred during his childhood. Between 1547 and 1584 Russia was at peace for only three years. Ivan the Terrible was not a famous military leader (he himself took part in some military marches, but as a sovereign, not a commander). He was a great, cruel, bloody statesman and politician. Ivan's foreign policy influenced the establishment of a domestic terrorist regime in Russia in 1565–1572, the so‐called
oprichnina
. Some believe that
oprichnina
was intended to mobilize all human and material resources for continuation of the Livonian War. Terror was the chief tool of this effort. Some operations within the country looked like military campaigns against its own population (e.g., the attack on Greater Novgorod in 1569–1570).
Jackson, Andrew (1767–1845)
Authors: Holden Reid Brian
Published: November 2011

The paradoxes of the career of Major General Jackson, seventh president of the United States (1829–1837), are represented in his heroic equestrian statue in New Orleans. Napoleonic and grand, it is not cold and imposing. Jackson's career combined the values of aristocrat and pioneer, regular and volunteer, imperious proconsul and humble servant of the people. The usually disapproving Mrs. Trollope caught sight of him in 1829 and wrote in her Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832) that he looked like a “gentleman and a soldier” but felt appalled by his approachability. Born on March 15, 1767, this “first generation aristocrat” from Waxhaw, South Carolina, was the son of a draper.
Jacobite Rising (1745–1746)
Authors: Marsden Richard
Published: November 2011

The rising of 1745–1746 against the Hanoverian government of Britain was the last military manifestation of Jacobitism. This movement supported a Stuart restoration following the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688, in which James II was deposed and replaced by William III. Unsuccessful Jacobite risings and abortive French and Spanish invasion attempts had occurred in 1689–1690, 1715, and 1719. Invasions and rebellions had also been planned but abandoned in 1708 and 1744–1745. Following this last cancellation by the French, Charles Edward Stuart, grandson of James II, decided to win back the throne without foreign support.
James I of Aragon (Jaime, “the Conqueror”) (1208–1276)
Authors: Smith Damian J.
Published: November 2011

One of the great military leaders of the Spanish Reconquest and the longest‐reigning king of the Middle Ages, James became king at the age of 5 when his father, Peter II (r. 1196–1213), having been drawn into the Albigensian Crusade, was defeated and killed at the Battle of Muret. An orphan, in the hands of his enemies, with his kingdom facing financial collapse and factions forming throughout his land, James survived through the loyalty of some of his barons, the efforts of Pope Innocent III (r. 1198–1216), and through sound administration and fiscal management, where Templars and Jews played a notable part.
Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai‐shek) (1887–1975)
Authors: Reist Katherine
Published: November 2011

Jiang Jieshi is best known as the leader of the Guomindang party and government from the mid 1920s to his death in 1975. His reputation as a military leader began with his attempts to unify China and reduce or eliminate the provisions of the unequal treaties. The Guomindang was organized initially for one‐party rule, which was to lead to a democratic system. Under Jiang, the one‐party rule continued, indeed became at times the domination of a single individual and his ideas. Such domination was not without challenge by a number of factions within the party, several smaller parties, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). With foreign advisors Jiang was able to consolidate control of much of China during the warlord era (1916–1927). He led the government through the War of Resistance to Japan (1937–1945) and was recognized as one of the Big Four at the Cairo Conference during the war. Frictions with American advisors and the success of the United States Pacific campaign reduced the importance of the Chinese theater in overall Allied strategy. Post‐war, Jiang had to reoccupy territory lost to the Japanese, arrange the repatriation of Japanese military and civilians, revive a devastated economy, both industrial and agricultural, and prevent the CCP from further expanding their bases of operations. He would later attempt to defeat them militarily in the civil war (1946–1949). He lost prestige and power in the post‐war conflicts, taking many loyal troops and officials to Taiwan where he reestablished the Republic of China, again serving as president until his death.
Jinchuan campaigns (1747–1776)
Authors: Dai Yingcong
Published: November 2011

The two Jinchuan campaigns were fought between the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) of China and the Gyalrong tribes on the north‐western marches of Sichuan province in the mid‐eighteenth century. The first Jinchuan campaign (1747–1749) was inconclusive, although the belligerent chieftain of Great Jinchuan surrendered to the Qing. The second Jinchuan campaign (1770–1776) lasted for nearly six years and ended with the complete Qing conquest of the Jinchuan area. It was the most expensive war that the Qing Dynasty had ever fought in its frontier expansion.
Joan of Arc (1412–1431)
Authors: Fudge Thomas A.
Published: November 2011

Born at Domrémy around 1412, Joan became a famous military leader by age 17. Her career was extraordinary. From age 13 she heard voices, ostensibly Saints Michael, Catherine, and Margaret. This phenomenon continued throughout her life. These alleged spiritual visitations made Joan the recipient of instructions propelling her into major political and military affairs. Joan became convinced she had a divine mandate. The context of her life was shaped by the Hundred Years' War and the protracted papal schism. The former was a complex event fraught with political and military problems, a struggle between the French and English. Her meteoric career helped create a posthumous mythology that has understood Joan as a religious figure, saint, heretic, witch, nationalist, and feminist. Chiefly, she was a military personality.
Joffre, Marshal Joseph (1852–1931)
Authors: Prete Roy A.
Published: November 2011

French World War I general, famous for victory in the Battle of the Marne, September 9, 1914. Joseph Jacques‐Césaire Joffre was born in Rivesaltes, France (near Pau) in 1852, the son of a prosperous barrelmaker of peasant ancestry. Joffre entered the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1869 at age 17. His education was interrupted for a year by the Franco‐Prussian War, for which he was marshaled but did not see action. Upon completion of an additional term at the École Polytechnique in 1871 (his class emerged
non‐breveté
), he served for several years as a military engineer, upgrading and constructing fortresses in northern France. He was promoted to captain in 1876.
John VI Kantakouzenos (ca. 1292–1383)
Authors: Kyriakidis Savvas
Published: November 2011

John VI Kantakouzenos was a Byzantine general, emperor, and author. He was the most prominent fourteenth‐century Byzantine military leader.
Kellogg–Briand Pact (1928)
Authors: Webster Andrew
Published: November 2011

The International Treaty for the Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy, more commonly known after its two main creators as the Kellogg–Briand Pact but also as the Treaty of Paris and the Paris Peace Pact, was signed in the French capital on August 27, 1928. Its mere three articles were dramatic in their brevity and simplicity. Article 1 consisted of a solemn declaration that the signatory states “condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another.” Under Article 2 they agreed that “the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means.” Under Article 3 the treaty was to remain open “as long as may be necessary for adherence by all the other Powers of the world” (Friedman 1972: 468–469). War was no longer to be a legitimate means for states to settle disputes or to advance their own national interests.
Kennan, George F. (1904–2005)
Authors: Miscamble Wilson D.
Published: November 2011

George F. Kennan's significance derives mainly from his role in formulating the so‐called containment doctrine during the early Cold War and from his service as director of the policy planning staff in the state department in 1947–1949. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Kennan attended Princeton University and joined the United States Foreign Service in 1926. Over the next two decades he labored as a diplomat in relative obscurity at postings in Riga, Moscow, Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. He earned some reputation for expertise on the Soviet Union, but had minimal influence on foreign policy.
Khalkhin Gol, Battle of (1939)
Authors: Glantz David M.
Published: November 2011

The Battle of Khalkhin Gol, named after the Khalkhin River by the Soviets and after the nearby village of Nomonhan by the Japanese, was the second and more serious of two border conflicts between the Soviet Union and the Japanese Empire during the late 1930s. Both clashes resulted from conflicting Soviet and Japanese territorial interests in northeastern Asia. The Japanese Empire, which began pursuing an aggressive policy of expanding its territory on the Asian continent in the 1930s, occupied the Chinese province of Manchuria by force in 1932, ostensibly to protect its economic interests in the region, in particular, the Chinese Eastern Railroad. Japan then transformed the former province of China into the puppet state of Manchukuo. Although Manchukuo had its own emperor, Henry Pu‐i, in reality it remained under the control of the Kwantung Army, the Japanese army's most powerful ground force. Urged on by this army to expand its territories further, Japan invaded China in 1937, beginning a war that would last for eight years. The Kwantung Army, which espoused a continental military strategy in opposition to the Japanese navy's maritime (Pacific) strategy, then “flexed its muscles” in the late 1930s by provoking a series of border incidents with Manchukuo's neighbors, two of which produced significant armed clashes. The first of these clashes took place in July and August 1938 in the Lake Khasan region situated along the border between the USSR's Far East province and Japanese‐occupied Korea, when a small Japanese force crossed the border and seized several small hills in territory claimed by the Soviet Union. After both sides escalated the brief armed clash, the incident ended in stalemate, when the two sides signed an armistice.
King Philip's War (1675–1678)
Authors: Pulsipher Jenny Hale
Published: November 2011

King Philip's War has been called the bloodiest conflict in American history, based on the proportion of the Indian and English population killed, wounded, or driven from the area. Named for the Indian sachem (leader) who instigated it, the war involved Native Americans and English colonists across much of colonial New England; by its end, the English had established lasting dominance over Indians in the region. While King Philip's War has often been described as a racial conflict, Indian combatants fought on both sides.
Kitchener, General Horatio Herbert, 1st Earl Kitchener (1850–1916)
Authors: Woodward David R.
Published: November 2011

Field Marshal Kitchener was Britain's most acclaimed soldier prior to World War I. With the outbreak of war, the government chose him as secretary of state for war and quickly produced a recruiting poster depicting a stern‐looking Kitchener, his right arm extended and one finger pointing above the words “Your Country Needs You.” This recruiting poster became the most popular ever circulated by a British government.
Korean War (1949–1953)
Authors: Lee Steven Hugh
Published: November 2011

The ideological foundations of the Korean War lie in the pre‐1945 era, in the evolution of diverse and divisive strands of Korean nationalism, efforts by Koreans to eliminate Japanese colonial rule from the Korean Peninsula, the impact of the Russian Revolution on Asia, and the influence of Christianity and ideas of constitutional governance on Koreans. The conjunction of forces that led to the Korean conflict, however, were rooted in the immediate post‐World War II era, in Soviet and American objectives toward Korea, the global beginnings of the Cold War, and the creation and consolidation of two rival Korean regimes.
Kuropatkin, General Aleksei Nikolaevich (1848–1925)
Authors: Schimmelpenninckvan Der Oye David
Published: November 2011

Russian general, minister of war, colonial administrator, and military writer. He commanded Russia's forces during the Russo‐Japanese War, where his indecisive and overly cautious leadership did much to contribute to the tsarist defeat.
Landwehr
Authors: Wilson Peter H.
Published: November 2011

The wordLandwehris an old German term associated with local defense. During the Middle Ages it often applied to physical defenses, like boundary ditches, but was later also used as one of several designations for the militias organized by the German territories. It assumed real significance during the Napoleonic Wars as the label given to the Prussian and Austrian response to the French ideal of universal military service exemplified by thelevée en masse.Prussia and Austria had recruited their regular armies from volunteers supplemented by conscripts drawn from their poorer rural and urban subjects. The scale of France's success and the difficulty of matching French numbers prompted reformers to suggest broadening military service by abolishing the economic and social exemptions from conscription. These suggestions were immediately controversial, as they occurred alongside calls for proposed universal conscription to sustain a large regular army commanded by professional officers. In Germany, this version was closely associated with the defense of absolute monarchy and the socioeconomic preeminence of the landed aristocracy who continued to dominate the officer corps. The liberal alternative envisaged patriotic citizens‐in‐arms who would mobilize only when their homeland was threatened. The Landwehr came to represent this liberal ideal in both Prussia and Austria, but its actual implementation was steered by conservative political and military objectives.
Latter Three Years' War (1083–1087)
Authors: Friday Karl
Published: November 2011

The Latter Three Years' War, a dramatic sequel to the Former Nine Years' War of 1051–1062, laid the foundations for a four‐ generation near‐satrapy in northeastern Japan under the Ōshū Fujiwara family. Like the insurrections of Taira Masakada (?–940) and Taira Tadatsune (?–1031) in the mid‐ tenth and eleventh centuries, the conflict began as an intra‐familial squabble that drew the attention of the provincial govern‐ ment. In contrast to these earlier incidents, however, the imperial court remained reso‐ lutely on the sidelines throughout, rendering the Latter Three Years' War a private affair from start to finish—in spite of repeated efforts by the provincial governor to obtain state sanction for his involvement.
Lawrrence, Thomas Edward (1888–1935)
Authors: Hughes Matthew
Published: November 2011

Thomas Edward Lawrence, sometimes referred to as Lawrence of Arabia, was a British adventurer, soldier, and author. Born in Wales on August 16, 1888, one of five boys, two of whom would die in World War I, Lawrence grew up in Oxford, where his parents settled in 1896. Schooled at Oxford City High School (1896–1907), in October 1907 Lawrence went up to Jesus College Oxford to study for his bachelor's degree; he secured a First in Modern History in 1910.
Laws of War
Authors: Green James A.
Published: November 2011

The term “laws of war” is generally used to refer to the two related but distinct areas of international law applicable to warfare: the
jus ad bellum
, also known as the “law on the use of force,” and the
jus in bello
, also known as either “international humanitar‐ ian law (IHL)” or the “law of armed con‐ flict.” These two areas of law are together crucial for the regulation of warfare.
Lay of Igor's Campaign (twelfth century)
Authors: Shepard Jonathan
Published: November 2011

In 1185 a host of Polovtsy wiped out a Rus' expedition led by Prince Igor Sviatoslavich not far from the Donets River. The belligerence of this nomad grouping, based on the Donets and on the Lower Don, had led the Rus' to dub them “Wild Polovtsy.” This was in contrast to the rather more amenable Polovtsy, who occupied the steppes on the west bank of the Dnieper River, and some of whom served as borderers for princes of Kiev.
Lee, General Robert E. (1807–1870)
Authors: Holden Reid Brian
Published: November 2011

The premier general of the Confederacy, Lee was born on January 19, 1807, the fifth child of the Revolutionary cavalry commander and politician, Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee, and Ann Hill Carter. He was educated at the Alexandria Academy and the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating second in his class in 1829 (returning as superintendent, 1852–1855). In 1831 he married Mary, the daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, the first president's adopted son. The high‐water mark of his early career came in Mexico where he served with distinction in 1847 on the staff of Winfield Scott during the advance on Mexico City.
Legnano, Battle of (1176)
Authors: Berwinkel Holger
Published: November 2011

At Legnano, a militia army from the city republics of northern Italy won a decisive victory over German knights. This proved the efficiency of their combined armed tactics and paved the way for further development of infantry.
Lieber, Francis (1798–1872)
Authors: Neff Stephen C.
Published: November 2011

Born in Berlin, Francis Lieber had his first experience of war as a teenaged volunteer in the Prussian army during the final stages of the Napoleonic Wars—experience that included participation in the Battle of Waterloo. In the post‐war period, he joined various patriotic student societies, which supported German unification. As a result, he was imprisoned when these societies were suppressed in a crackdown in 1819 and also prohibited from entering any Prussian universities. (He attended the University of Jena, which was in the Grand Duchy of Saxe‐Weimar.) His liberal tendencies then took him to Greece in 1821, in the cause of Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. He then spent nearly two years in Italy. Following a brief return to Germany, and further incarceration there, he departed for Great Britain in 1826 and then for the United States the following year, where he remained for the rest of his life.
Llywelyn the Great (ca. 1173–1240)
Authors: Brough Gideon , Marsden Richard
Published: November 2011

Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, called Llywelyn the Great after his death, was prince of Gwynedd in north Wales. He was a skilled diplomat and gifted war leader who shrewdly handled King John of England, established an alliance with Philip Augustus of France, and brought most of the native Welsh nobility under his influence. He also extended the territories of Gwynedd to a greater extent than any leader of the previous two hundred years.
Longbow
Authors: Phillips Gervase
Published: November 2011

The longbow is a wooden bow, generally measuring 1.82–2.13 meters in length, constructed from a single stave of wood and distinguished from other bow staves by its deep D‐shaped section. The bow's performance is largely dependent on the quality of wood used in its manufacture and medieval bowyers particularly favored yew; the springy sapwood, able to resist considerable tension, lay on the “back” of the bow (away from the archer, on the outside of the bend), while the “belly” of the bow was composed of the strong, dark hardwood. This gave the longbow naturally occurring composite characteristics that contributed mightily to its formidable range and power.
Louis XIV of France (1638–1715)
Authors: Bonney Richard
Published: November 2011

Louis XIV's martial interests were probably inherited from his grandfather, Henri IV, rather than his father, Louis XIII — who disliked the idea of commanding the army in person and mostly avoided doing so. As early as 1654, at the age of 15, Louis XIV displayed rather too much interest in the exchange of cannon fire along the border with the Spanish Netherlands for the liking of his guardian, Cardinal Mazarin, who was concerned at the personal danger involved.
Lyautey, Marshal Louis Hubert (1854–1934)
Authors: Dean William Thomas
Published: November 2011

Lyautey was born to an upper‐middle‐class family in Nancy in 1854. He attended an elite Jesuit college and the military academy at Saint Cyr. From the late 1870s until 1894 he spent most of his time with French metropolitan cavalry units. He did serve a two‐year tour in Algeria where Lyautey developed a lifelong respect for Arab civilization. In 1891 he wrote an influential article, “The social role of the officer in universal military service,” for the
Revue de Deux Mondes
. Here he argued that the French army was too rigid and formal and missed an opportunity to use the army to regenerate the young. His superiors were not pleased and sent him to Indochina.
MacArthur, General Douglas (1880–1964)
Authors: Wells Anne Sharp
Published: November 2011

As supreme commander for the Allied Powers, Douglas MacArthur accepted the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, marking the end of World War II. He then headed the Allied occupation of Japan and in 1950, at the age of 70, received the additional charge of directing the United Nations' response to the North Korean invasion of the South. Less than one year later, President Harry S. Truman abruptly removed the general from his commands, causing a huge uproar in the United States, where MacArthur addressed a joint session of Congress and congressional committees investigated his dismissal. The controversy and drama that surrounded MacArthur's removal were far from unprecedented in his long career: as a general officer in peace and three major wars, he was frequently in the public spotlight and the focus of sharply differing opinions.
Maji Maji Uprising (1905–1907)
Authors: Moyd Michelle R.
Published: November 2011

The Maji Maji Uprising is one of the best known cases of mass anti‐colonial resistance in African history. It began in the southeastern portion of German East Africa (today's Tanzania) in July 1905, and spread rapidly across southern and central regions of the colony. Maji Maji fighters had some initial successes against the German colonial army (Schutztruppe), but the Schutztruppe's turn toward scorched earth tactics and summary executions led not only to the rebels' military defeat, but also to massive famine and general devastation in the southern highland region. Maji Maji was remarkable in its geographic scope, as well as in the diversity and number of peoples who became involved in armed resistance against German colonialism. Many joined Maji Maji because of grievances against the German colonial labor regime, taxation practices, and myriad other abuses. Its scope and the perceived unity of purpose among those who fought led nationalist historians of the 1960s and 1970s to describe Maji Maji as a protonationalist moment in Tanzanian history. More recent scholarship reveals, however, that the range of participation in Maji Maji resulted from multiple local circumstances and influences.
Malayan Emergency (1948–1960)
Authors: Farrell Brian P.
Published: November 2011

The Malayan Emergency is widely seen as the most successful counterinsurgency campaign in modern warfare. The Emergency was an armed struggle launched by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) in June 1948 to drive British colonialism out of Malaya and ignite socialist revolution. It was officially terminated in July 1960, although intermittent violence broke out again in later years, and a definitive peace settlement was only concluded in 1989. British, Malayan, and Commonwealth security forces comprehensively defeated armed insurrection in a conflict that made the phrase “hearts and minds” an axiom of counterinsurgency.
Mantuan Succession, War of the (1628–1631)
Authors: Wilson Peter H.
Published: November 2011

The origins of the War of the Mantuan Succession lie in the intersection of tension between major European powers, whose interests lay primarily outside Italy, and rivalry between ambitious minor princes directly concerned with the fate of the duchy of Mantua. At one level, the war was another stage in the long‐running strife between France and the Habsburg Dynasty in Austria and Spain for predominance in western Europe. Habsburg possessions in northern Italy, centered around the duchy of Milan, had been assigned to Spain when the dynasty split in the mid‐sixteenth century. Spain was soon preoccupied with its rebellious Dutch subjects in what became the Eighty Years' War after 1568. While 17,600 soldiers were sent to reinforce the Spanish Army of Flanders by sea before 1620, another 123,000 marched overland from Milan along a 1,000 km route known as the Spanish Road across the Alps, down the Rhine to the southern Netherlands. France tried to disrupt this route, hoping to forestall a possible Spanish invasion by keeping Spain busy against the Dutch. These efforts had succeeded by 1610 when the defection of the duke of Savoy from his Spanish alliance severed the southern section of the Road.
Marathon, Battle of (490 BCE)
Authors: Potts Samuel
Published: November 2011

The Battle of Marathon was fought between the hoplite‐based army of the Athenians, along with their Plataean allies, against a much larger and more mixed force of soldiers from the Persian Empire. The stunning and unlikely victory achieved by the Athenians became a central part of their self‐identity in the following centuries. In modern times, a legend concerned with the aftermath of the battle is more famous than the battle itself; the Athenian soldier Pheidippides supposedly ran the 26 miles between the plain of Marathon and the city of Athens, and died at once having delivered news of the victory.
Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange (1567–1625)
Authors: Schweizer Karl
Published: November 2011

Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, Dutch general and statesman, was born at the castle of Dillenburg, Nassau on November 14, 1567, the son of William I (“the Silent”) and Princess Anna of Saxony. Raised by his uncle, Maurice studied briefly, first at Heidelberg and then Leiden, but without earning a degree.
Maya warfare
Authors: Francis J. Michael
Published: November 2011

In 1937 the great Maya scholar Eric J. Thompson concluded that the Maya “were one of the least warlike nations who ever existed” (Aoyama 2009: 4–5). While Thompson's “peaceful model” of Maya society was never universally accepted, it has had a lasting influence on Maya scholarship and on popular perceptions of the Maya. Only recently have scholars moved beyond the outdated and erroneous assumption that warfare was rare among the pre‐Columbian Maya. Instead, the argument has shifted from a discussion of whether or not the Maya engaged in warfare, to a far more sophisticated debate over the intensity, variability, purpose, and legacy of violence in the historical development of pre‐Columbian Mesoamerica. Warfare is now commonly cited as one of, if not the most important factors that ushered in the “collapse” of the Classic Maya (ca. 900–1000
CE
). Yet despite the general acceptance that warfare was common throughout the course of Maya history, it is also widely acknowledged that military campaigns were less intense and battles less destructive than the warfare practiced in other regions of the world, such as central Asia, Japan, China, and medieval and early modern Europe (Inomata and Triadan 2009: 73–74).
Mercenaries
Authors: Alexandra Andrew
Published: November 2011

Mercenary soldiers are a feature of war from early in its history. Paradigmatic examples of mercenaries include groups such as the Greek Xenophon and his Ten Thousand in the service of the Persian Cyrus the Younger in the fifth centuryBCE, thecondottieriof fourteenth‐century Italy, or the private military company Executive Outcomes, employed by the Sierra Leone government in the early 1990s to fight against insurgents. (The latter two are discussed further below.) However, it is not always easy, practically or conceptually, to distinguish mercenaries from, on the one hand, brigands, pirates, and the like, who use their skills in coercive force to prey on those around them, and, on the other hand, “regular” troops. Three criteria help identify mercenaries and distinguish them from regulars: financial reward, affiliation, and integration. Let us consider them in turn.