Battle of Hastings voted most influential battle in history agree?

[minionofmidas]

I think the list is missing out two important wars (though I can't name the decisive battle within each war):
1. The second Punic War, which made Rome the dominating power in the central and western Mediterranean.

That's because there wasn't one, the huge pitched battles (except Zama, but while that ended the war it merely confirmed - ratified, you might say - the Roman victory) being won by the eventual loser. All Hannibal's talent as a military strategist and leader of men could do is drag the inevitable out endlessly... which just goes to show Rome was the dominant power in the central and western Mediterranean already.

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Ourique? Las Navas? The conquest of Toledo changed the dynamics forever before that, firmly establishing the Christians as the dominant force in the peninsula, but it wasn't caused by a decisive battle.

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Having the biggest of their princes also control another, if smaller, entire kingdom arguably had more effect on French history than it did on English. Where, really, except for the extent of French borrowing in legalese, not much happened that wouldn't or mightn't have happened very similarly otherwise.
Though of course, the centralizing impetus of the later wars in France is as crucial in English history as in French... hmmm...

[minionofmidas]

The Russian conquest of Turkmenistan and the massacre at Geok Tepe happened after the Russians had subjugated the great cities to the east ... it's the coda to Russia's conquest of Central Asia, not the opening act. It obviously massively affected Turkmen history, and also determined the location of Iran's modern northeastern border, but nothing else.

But this is a great picture.



They could be medieval knights, or unusually realistic cosplayers, but they're Turkmen warriors of the era. Yes, they're wearing chain mail.

[minionofmidas]

Stalingrad, Cajamarca and Waterloo have no reason to be on that list. They are popular because they meant supposed "last stands" or where the largest battles in a certain theater of operations, but they where almost meaningless in the strategic scale.

Stalingrad? Hardly. If you're looking for a meaningless last stand in that war you want the Bulge (though much of its popularity is simply due to the other side being Americans.) Germany was on the losing side before, of course, but Stalingrad ended all realistic hopes of a turnaround or an eventual Russian collapse. And also ended Hitler's popularity in Germany in a single swoop.

[minionofmidas]

without the deaths of all the German officer corps during WWI it's quite possible Hitler would have been stopped.

Wut?