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

After the Battle of Talas in 751, the Abbasid Caliphate and Tang China established a mutually beneficial trading relationship that greatly enriched both empires.

The Siege of Jerusalem, during the First Crusade, ended in victory for Crusaders and the forces of Christendom. It also ended in a violent massacre, as the entire Muslim and Jewish population of the city was mercilessly slaughtered.

The Islamic civil war was fought in the mid-seventh century between the Sunni forces of the Umayyad Caliphate and the Shiite forces loyal to Mohammed’s descendant Ali. The civil war ended in victory for the Sunni and the formation of the Umayyad Caliphate as the ruler of the Islamic world. Ali was killed in the war, but the Shiite continued to follow his descendants and remained outside of the Sunni community.

The Battle of Ain Jalut was fought in 1260 between the Mongols and the Mamluk dynasty of North Africa and the Middle East. The battle ended in victory for the Mamluks and halted the Mongol expansion into the Middle East.

In medieval Europe, the Pope had the authority to declare a crusade. A crusade was a holy war that was meant to advance the cause of Christianity and strengthen the power of the Catholic church. The most famous crusades are those launched against the Muslim kingdoms of the Middle East that were generally intended to recapture Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

While the crusades were a constant back and forth between European and Islamic forces, the crusaders were unable to ever permanently drive Islamic armies out of Jerusalem and other Holy Lands.

The Islamic civil war of the mid-seventh century led to a permanent split between the Sunni majority and the Shiite minority in the Islamic world. The Sunni majority were united under the authority of the Umayyad Caliph, whereas the Shiite minority followed Ali and his descendants.

Genghis Khan conquered the Seljuks, a Turkish tribe predominant in Anatolia from the 11th to the 13th centuries, and the Persians in the 13th century.

The First Crusade was waged from 1096-1099 and ended with the brutally violent conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders. The Crusaders established a series of small Crusader States on the Mediterranean coast of the Middle East, which they would rule with varying degrees of control for the next two centuries.

Saladin was a Kurdish general and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty who ruled in the twelfth century. He is most famous for the reconquest of Jerusalem, which sparked the Third Crusade, and the subsequent defense of the city against the forces of Christendom.

Most of the so-called Crusader States (sometimes also called Latin States) were created in the aftermath of the First Crusade. They were generally small, militarized kingdoms located on the Mediterranean coast of the Middle East. They gradually declined or were conquered by the forces of Islam, however, and the last Crusader State was abandoned by the Europeans towards the end of the Thirteenth Century.

In the late-eleventh century, at the time of the First Crusade, the Islamic world was highly fragmented and resistance was weak and poorly organized. The Abbasid Caliphate was very weak at this time and incapable of coordinating resistance. However, over time the Islamic resistance grew much stronger and by the time of the Third Crusade (1189 - 1212), they were able to hold off the Christian advance on Jerusalem.

The Battle of Talas was fought between the Islamic forces of the Abbasid Caliphate and the forces of Tang China in 751. It halted the eastward expansion of the Abbasid Caliphate and the westward expansion of Tang China.

The Battle of Talas was fought between the Arab Abbasid Caliphate and the Chinese Tang Dynasty in 751 CE. Prior to the battle, Chinese forces had been spreading rapidly westward and facing little opposition; however, at the Battle of Talas, they were defeated by the Arab forces, and Chinese expansion was halted for several centuries. The battle is considered important for transferring control over the “Silk Road” from Chinese to Arab hands and for turning back the massive forces of the Tang Dynasty. Also, it is sometimes said that Arabs learned the art of paper making from the Chinese prisoners they captured in the battle, thus spreading paper-making technology to the Middle East and eventually Europe.

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 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.

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.