Top 10 Most Decisive Battles in History

At Marathon in 490 BC, 10,000 Athenian and Plataean hoplites repelled the invading Persian army of Darius I against odds that should have overwhelmed them. The victory preserved Athenian democracy at its most fragile moment, allowing the Golden Age of Athens to produce Socrates, Plato, Sophocles, Herodotus, and the democratic ideas that still underpin Western civilisation. The messenger who ran to Athens to announce victory gave us the marathon race.

Wellington and Blucher's defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 ended 23 years of nearly continuous European warfare, dissolved the Napoleonic Empire, and established the Concert of Europe that maintained great-power peace for nearly a century. Napoleon's subsequent exile to St Helena permanently ended French imperial expansion, reshaping European borders in ways that endured until World War I.

The Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 to February 1943) was the bloodiest battle in human history with an estimated 1.8 to 2 million total casualties on both sides. Germany's defeat here — the first major reversal of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front — is widely considered the turning point of World War II in Europe. It shattered the myth of German invincibility and began the long Soviet advance toward Berlin.

William the Conqueror's victory over Harold II at Hastings on 14 October 1066 transformed England from a Germanic society speaking Old English into a realm where Norman French dominated government and culture for two centuries. The result was a hybrid language — Middle English — richer than either parent, and a ruling class that maintained close ties to France, giving England its ambivalent European identity for centuries.

The Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942) is considered the most decisive naval battle in history and the turning point of the Pacific War. The US Navy, having broken Japanese radio codes, ambushed and sank all four Japanese fleet carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbour, losing only the Yorktown. Japan never recovered its offensive capability. Without Midway, an East Asia under Japanese dominance would have been a plausible outcome of World War II.

The First Battle of the Marne (September 1914) stopped the German advance through France that had been so rapid it threatened Paris. Joffre's counter-attack — famously using 600 Paris taxicabs to rush reinforcements to the front — forced German forces to retreat to the Aisne river, ending the Schlieffen Plan and condemning both sides to four years of trench warfare. Had Germany broken through, World War I might have ended in months.

Themistocles' Greek fleet destroyed the Persian navy of Xerxes I in the narrows of Salamis in 480 BC, ending Persia's attempt to conquer Greece. The Athenian democratic city-state survived, allowing the subsequent flowering of philosophy, drama, science, and art that defines classical antiquity. If Persia had conquered Greece, the intellectual tradition from which the European Renaissance descends might never have taken root.

The three-day Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) was the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War with 50,000 to 51,000 casualties. Lee's failure to break Union lines at Cemetery Ridge on Pickett's Charge ended the last major Confederate offensive in the North and effectively ensured the eventual Union victory. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, delivered at the battlefield cemetery four months later, redefined American democratic ideals.

The Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine in 1260 saw the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt defeat the Mongol army that had swept through Persia, Iraq, and Syria — the first major defeat of the Mongols in open battle and their permanent westward limit. Had the Mongols prevailed, their advance into Egypt and North Africa might have continued, potentially destroying the cultural infrastructure of the Islamic world that preserved ancient knowledge through the Dark Ages.

At Marathon in 490 BC, 10,000 Athenian and Plataean hoplites repelled the invading Persian army of Darius I against odds that should have overwhelmed them. The victory preserved Athenian democracy at its most fragile moment, allowing the Golden Age of Athens to produce Socrates, Plato, Sophocles, Herodotus, and the democratic ideas that still underpin Western civilisation. The messenger who ran to Athens to announce victory gave us the marathon race.

Wellington and Blucher's defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 ended 23 years of nearly continuous European warfare, dissolved the Napoleonic Empire, and established the Concert of Europe that maintained great-power peace for nearly a century. Napoleon's subsequent exile to St Helena permanently ended French imperial expansion, reshaping European borders in ways that endured until World War I.

The Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 to February 1943) was the bloodiest battle in human history with an estimated 1.8 to 2 million total casualties on both sides. Germany's defeat here — the first major reversal of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front — is widely considered the turning point of World War II in Europe. It shattered the myth of German invincibility and began the long Soviet advance toward Berlin.

William the Conqueror's victory over Harold II at Hastings on 14 October 1066 transformed England from a Germanic society speaking Old English into a realm where Norman French dominated government and culture for two centuries. The result was a hybrid language — Middle English — richer than either parent, and a ruling class that maintained close ties to France, giving England its ambivalent European identity for centuries.

The Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942) is considered the most decisive naval battle in history and the turning point of the Pacific War. The US Navy, having broken Japanese radio codes, ambushed and sank all four Japanese fleet carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbour, losing only the Yorktown. Japan never recovered its offensive capability. Without Midway, an East Asia under Japanese dominance would have been a plausible outcome of World War II.

The First Battle of the Marne (September 1914) stopped the German advance through France that had been so rapid it threatened Paris. Joffre's counter-attack — famously using 600 Paris taxicabs to rush reinforcements to the front — forced German forces to retreat to the Aisne river, ending the Schlieffen Plan and condemning both sides to four years of trench warfare. Had Germany broken through, World War I might have ended in months.

Themistocles' Greek fleet destroyed the Persian navy of Xerxes I in the narrows of Salamis in 480 BC, ending Persia's attempt to conquer Greece. The Athenian democratic city-state survived, allowing the subsequent flowering of philosophy, drama, science, and art that defines classical antiquity. If Persia had conquered Greece, the intellectual tradition from which the European Renaissance descends might never have taken root.

The three-day Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) was the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War with 50,000 to 51,000 casualties. Lee's failure to break Union lines at Cemetery Ridge on Pickett's Charge ended the last major Confederate offensive in the North and effectively ensured the eventual Union victory. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, delivered at the battlefield cemetery four months later, redefined American democratic ideals.

The Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine in 1260 saw the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt defeat the Mongol army that had swept through Persia, Iraq, and Syria — the first major defeat of the Mongols in open battle and their permanent westward limit. Had the Mongols prevailed, their advance into Egypt and North Africa might have continued, potentially destroying the cultural infrastructure of the Islamic world that preserved ancient knowledge through the Dark Ages.