War and Civil Conflict 600 CE to 1450 - AP World History: Modern

Prior to the invention of the cannon in the fourteenth century, the most useful weapon a lord or a king could have was a castle. Castles were built of stone and could withstand constant barrage from trebuchets and catapults provided they were sufficiently manned; however, the invention and subsequent improvement of the cannon gradually rendered castles obsolete as the additional firepower of a cannon could blast right through the stone walls of a castle. This changed not only military life, but also social, economic, and political life in Europe as the feudal system, predicated in many ways on the protection offered by the lord's castle or stronghold, became gradually obsolete.

Charlemagne worked very closely with the Papacy, and both believed the expanding Muslim influence to be a threat to Christendom. In the Mid-Eighth Century, Charlemagne began a war with the Muslims under the Umayyad Caliphate to stop their expansion.

Genghis Khan's empire stretched from China to Western Asia but his advance into Africa was arrested by Mamluks, a group of slaves who freed themselves and then immediately fought off the Mongol army.

The Red Guards were young Maoists during the Cultural Revolution in China, they existed hundreds of years after Genghis Khan's empire had already collapsed.

The Vietcong were Communist Vietnamese in the 20th century who fought against the United States, they existed hundreds of years after the Mongol empire had already collapsed.

The Confederates were a group of southern planters and soldiers who attempted to break away from the American union in order to protect their slavery based economy.

The Boxers were 19th century anti-Western fighters, they existed long after the Mongol empire had already collapsed.

The Hundred Years’ War, which lasted, off and on, from 1337 to 1453, and was fought between England and France, was caused by a perfect storm of motivations. Taken together, various social, economic, and political factors conspired to push these two nations ever deeper into the throes of military and nationalistic conflict. One of the main causes was a long history of disputed ownership of the territory of Flanders – a prosperous center of cloth manufacturing, France technically owned Flanders, but many of the territory’s citizens and funds were far more loyal to England, which provided the territory with the wool it needed for its cloth industry. The English King Edward III also administered several former French pieces of land – but these lands were still nominally owned by the French crown, which had loaned the territories to England since the Norman Conquest. By the time of the outbreak of the Hundred Years’ War, neither nation was content with this system of land loaning, because each side believed that it deserved sole control over these territories. Relations were worsened when Edward III declared that he was the rightful heir to the French King Charles IV, who died in 1328 without a male heir. Enraged by the English king’s pretensions, the French nobility selected Philip VI as their new ruler, which outraged Edward III in turn. The long tradition of hatred between these two nations, nurtured within both English and French societies for centuries, at last came to a violent head.

The Greco-Persian wars were fought between the Greek city states and the The Achaemenid Empire of Persia in the 400s BCE. The wars began after Cyrus the Great conquered Ionia. Eventually, the Greeks overcame the Persians, with the result of renewed independence of the previously conquered areas.

While France wielded several advantages over England during the Hundred Years’ War, the strength of the French military cannot be counted as one of them. In fact, when it came to overall strength, the English military was by far more superior, especially in terms of both their level of training and their weaponry (English archers were known for their keen use of the treacherous longbow). By contrast, the French army, although larger – which reflected the overall greater size of the French population – was not nearly as well trained as their English counterparts. However, the French government was much richer than their English foes, which helped them to be able to procure more replacements (of both men and weapons) after every English victory, while the English army had a more difficult time finding replacement weapons and fighting men. Perhaps most crucially, France possessed the defensive advantage – because most of the fighting ended up occurring on French lands, the French soldiers were automatically able to benefit from their knowledge of the terrain and the support of the local peasant population. The English army, meanwhile, was forced to navigate across unfamiliar territory, coming up against obstacles put in their way by both nature and the local populace. Lastly, French morale received a substantial boost from the inspiration presence, speeches, and military engagement of the famous Joan of Arc. The so-called Maid of Orleans, with her courageous fighting spirit, encouraged the French people to fight onward, even after devastating defeats.

The Hundred Years’ War, with its forty-four nonconsecutive years of actual combat, finally came to an end in 1453, with a decisive French victory. France’s military position had been strengthened with a newly-formed alliance with Burgundy, allowing the French forces to concentrate all their military might on ousting the English. Eventually, the English army could hold on no longer, and with the declaration of French victory, England was forced to relinquish nearly all the French territory that it had once held under King Edward III. Only the coastal region of Calais was left under English control. Due to the overwhelming expenses run up by the war, both England and France raised taxes upon their respective populations, with the greatest burden falling, once again, upon the already struggling peasant class. The French king took special advantage of these circumstances and moved to shore up the monarchy’s position of dominance over the nobility, so that the French crown exercised more and more political, social, and even economic control.

In 1233, Genghis Khan, with a massive force of highly skilled Mongol warriors behind him, attacked Russia. By this time, the Mongols had invaded and conquered various parts of China and the Middle East, and Moscow found itself hard-pressed to withstand the ruthlessly targeted invasion of its territory, as Genghis Khan gained control of more and more swathes of Russian land. With the final fall of Russia to Mongol forces in 1240, the country came under firm Mongol control and would remain a part of the Mongol Empire for almost three centuries (until Ivan the Great’s liberation of his people in 1480). As a Mongol-controlled state, Russia adopted a curious mixture of Christian, Mongol, and Islamic practices, although the Russian people were allowed to preserve a great deal of their religious and political policies. The Mongols moved the center of Russian political, social, economic, and cultural primacy from Moscow to Kiev; the city would remain a potent force within Russian life for centuries to come.

In 1096 C.E., Pope Urban launched the First Crusade in order to take back control of Jerusalem from the Seljuk Turks. The many crusades that followed all professed a desire for Christian control of the Holy Land, a place that both Christians and Muslims saw as an essential part of their religious identity. Although a Latin Empire was established in Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, this development ultimately distracted from the crusaders' goals and deepened the schism between the two Christian churches. While the most positive result of the Crusades was arguably the European rediscovery of ancient ideas, this development was also unintended.

Mahmud of Ghazni ruled over an empire in modern-day Afghanistan in the eleventh century. His empire grew immensely wealthy from the riches his armies plundered from northern India. He conquered or weakened many northern India states and paved the way for the Islamic conquest of India a few centuries later.

The stated goal of the crusades was reclaiming Jerusalem from Muslim armies and spreading the "true faith" of Christianity. In addition to the religious goals, the crusades provided significant opportunities for political gain. In the middle ages, land was power and a war meant the opportunity to gain land. Noblemen from across western Europe flocked to the Middle East in an effort to gain the glory that would lead to greater power abroad that would translate back to their homelands. The Europeans saw anyone who was not of the Christian faith as a pagan or a heretic who was living in sin, they had little to no regard for the inhabitants of the cities they were fighting for.

Temujin is the given name of the warrior ruler Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan united the Mongol tribes in the twelfth century under his rule and soon led his horde on a series of conquests across Eurasia. In the generations immediately following his death the Mongols conquered the largest land empire ever seen in human history - stretching from China all the way to the gates of Vienna, and including much of northern India and the Middle East.

Slavery in Africa was very common even before the arrival of Europeans. Rival communities would often go to war and the survivors of the losing party would often be enslaved by the victors; however, the arrival of the Europeans significantly increased the demand for slaves and accelerated the rate of enslavement. It also meant more and more coastal kingdoms were dedicating themselves to capturing slaves from the interior of the continent to sell to European traders.

Pope Urban II was Pope from 1088 to 1099. He is most frequently remembered for initiating the First Crusade, which led to the temporary conquest of Jerusalem by the forces of Christendom and led to centuries of conflict between Christian Europe and the Islamic world.

The Battle of Tours was fought in modern-day France in the eighth century between the forces of Christian Europe, led by Charles Martel, King of the Franks and the forces of Islam. Since its formation a century earlier, Islam had spread rapidly throughout the Middle East and North Africa. By the early eighth century much of the Iberian peninsula was under Arab control and it seemed as if soon all of Western Europe would succumb to the Islamic invasion. Victory at the Battle of Tours stopped the tide of Arab conquest and preserved the rule of Christendom in Western Europe.

William the Conqueror was a Duke of Normandy when he invaded England in 1066. He defeated the recently crowned British King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, and in so doing took control of the Kingdom of England. This period of time is known in English history as the Norman conquest. It had dramatic consequences in English history, including the adoption of European style feudalism in Britain.

All of these statements about the Song Dynasty are accurate, except that it began with the overthrow of Mongol invaders. The Song Dynasty came to power in 960 CE and brought to an end the period of Chinese history known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It reigned until 1279 CE when it was overthrown by Mongol invaders (who established the Yuan Dynasty). The Song Dynasty featured significant military conquest and territorial growth, a rapidly growing population, and an abundant food surplus. The Song, in reaction to a severe financial crisis, were the first to issue paper bank notes. Gunpowder and the compass were both also invented during the Song Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty was conquered by the Mongols during the second-half of the thirteenth century. The Mongols, led by Kublai Khan, established the Yuan Dynasty in China.

The War of the Roses was one of many bloody civil wars fought over the issue of succession. After the death of Henry V in 1422, the lack of a strong Lancaster heir (the crowned successor, Henry VI, was an infant) led to a conflicting claim by Richard, Duke of York. After some initial successes by the House of York, the Lancasters eventually won out and reclaimed the throne.