Great Sieges in World History
Great Sieges in World History

Author: Spencer C. Tucker

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2021-02-15

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13:

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This impressive collection of 100 of the most decisive and important sieges spans human history and covers conflicts in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This engaging reference work provides readers with detailed coverage on the sieges that have had the biggest impact on world history. In addition to providing basic factual information, this encyclopedia delves into the historical context and significance of each siege. Readers will be able to identify relationships between entries and observe both the gradual evolution of siege warfare over time, and compare and contrast siege characteristics within and among different historical time periods. The encyclopedia's expansive scope will broaden readers' understanding of military history. The book begins with a preface and an introductory essay that offers a detailed overview of siege warfare throughout history. This is followed by 100 chronological entries on the most significant sieges, beginning with the Siege of Troy (1194–1184 BCE) and ending with the Siege of Mosul (October 17, 2016-July 9, 2017). Each siege entry has a Further Reading section that directs readers to additional information about the siege. Numerous illustrations and maps accompany the text.

Ancient Siege Warfare
Ancient Siege Warfare

Author: Paul Bentley Kern

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 614

ISBN-13: 9780253335463

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This book examines how siege warfare was able to unleash unrestrained violence. It shows how the methods of siege warfare devalued the skills of traditional warriors, along with the shared values of honor and prowess that limited the violence of traditional field battles.

The Great Siege, Malta 1565
The Great Siege, Malta 1565

Author: Ernle Bradford

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2014-04-01

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 1497617308

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The indispensable account of the Ottoman Empire’s Siege of Malta from the author of Hannibal and Gibraltar. In the first half of the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was thought to be invincible. Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman sultan, had expanded his empire from western Asia to southeastern Europe and North Africa. To secure control of the Mediterranean between these territories and launch an offensive into western Europe, Suleiman needed the small but strategically crucial island of Malta. But Suleiman’s attempt to take the island from the Holy Roman Empire’s Knights of St. John would emerge as one of the most famous and brutal military defeats in history. Forty-two years earlier, Suleiman had been victorious against the Knights of St. John when he drove them out of their island fortress at Rhodes. Believing he would repeat this victory, the sultan sent an armada to Malta. When they captured Fort St. Elmo, the Ottoman forces ruthlessly took no prisoners. The Roman grand master La Vallette responded by having his Ottoman captives beheaded. Then the battle for Malta began in earnest: no quarter asked, none given. Ernle Bradford’s compelling and thoroughly researched account of the Great Siege of Malta recalls not just an epic battle, but a clash of civilizations unlike anything since the time of Alexander the Great. It is “a superior, readable treatment of an important but little-discussed epic from the Renaissance past . . . An astonishing tale” (Kirkus Reviews).

Gibraltar
Gibraltar

Author: Roy Adkins

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2018-03-13

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 0735221634

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A rip-roaring account of the dramatic four-year siege of Britain’s Mediterranean garrison by Spain and France—an overlooked key to the British loss in the American Revolution For more than three and a half years, from 1779 to 1783, the tiny territory of Gibraltar was besieged and blockaded, on land and at sea, by the overwhelming forces of Spain and France. It became the longest siege in British history, and the obsession with saving Gibraltar was blamed for the loss of the American colonies in the War of Independence. Located between the Mediterranean and Atlantic, on the very edge of Europe, Gibraltar was a place of varied nationalities, languages, religions, and social classes. During the siege, thousands of soldiers, civilians, and their families withstood terrifying bombardments, starvation, and disease. Very ordinary people lived through extraordinary events, from shipwrecks and naval battles to an attempted invasion of England and a daring sortie out of Gibraltar into Spain. Deadly innovations included red-hot shot, shrapnel shells, and a barrage from immense floating batteries. This is military and social history at its best, a story of soldiers, sailors, and civilians, with royalty and rank and file, workmen and engineers, priests, prisoners of war, spies, and surgeons, all caught up in a struggle for a fortress located on little more than two square miles of awe-inspiring rock. Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History is an epic page-turner, rich in dramatic human detail—a tale of courage, endurance, intrigue, desperation, greed, and humanity. The everyday experiences of all those involved are brought vividly to life with eyewitness accounts and expert research.

Medieval Sieges & Siegecraft
Medieval Sieges & Siegecraft

Author: Geoffrey Hindley

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.

Published: 2009-05

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1602396337

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From Jericho to Troy, medieval Europe knew siege warfare as a tradition of antiquity. Long before the advent of city culture, rivaling civilizations had relied on siege tactics as a means of taking over fortified palaces, temples, and defensive walls. But the dawn of the medieval period brought the "golden age" of siege warfare, as the proliferation of formalized cities made siege tactics the ideal choice from a militaristic standpoint. In Medieval Sieges & Siegecraft, Geoffrey Hindley looks at the subject from every angle. He traces the development of strong points, castles, and fortified towns and considers the architects and masons who built them; describes the problems of medieval logistics and food supply that confronted both sides during a siege (and which often decided the outcome); and pens vivid portraits of the machinery of warfare--from towers, mines, trebuchets, and mangonels to boiling oil and Greek fire; and considers the parts played by women and camp followers in battle. With the support of fifty illustrations printed throughout the text, Hindley shows siege tactics in action through real-life case studies of famous sieges that changed the course of history in medieval Europe and the Holy Land. A definitive account of an often overlooked portion of military history, this stimulating and accessible study will be fascinating reading for medieval specialists and for anyone who is interested in the history of warfare. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

The Art of Siege Warfare and Military Architecture from the Classical World to the Middle Ages
The Art of Siege Warfare and Military Architecture from the Classical World to the Middle Ages

Author: Michael Eisenberg

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2021-01-31

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1789254094

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The papers in this book present, for the first time, the world of warfare, both defensive and offensive, from the Classical periods to end of the Middle Ages in one collection. These scholarships have attracted ancient writers and generals and nowadays historians, archaeologists and researchers poliorcetics. Military historiography and ancient manuals are well familiar from the Classical period throughout the Hellenistic great battlefields until the end of the Middle Ages, the chronological scope of this codex. The current book is the first to encompass this long array of time while trying to enrich the reader with the continuity, development and regression in the different periods and spheres of the ancient poliorcetics and beyond; the papers presented here are focusing on the physical fortifications, besieging and defense techniques, development and efficiency of ancient projectiles and sieging machinery, battlefields and the historiographical evidence. The X papers of the book, are written by some of the best scholars in their field, presenting here for the first time the results of their research, in the west and in the east.

The Medieval Siege
The Medieval Siege

Author: Jim Bradbury

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 9780851153575

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In medieval warfare, the siege predominated: for every battle, there were hundreds of sieges. Yet the rich and vivid history of siege warfare has been consistently neglected. Jim Bradbury's panoramic survey takes the history of siege warfare in Europe from the late Roman Empire to the 16th century, and includes sieges in Byzantium, Eastern Europe and the areas affected by the Crusades. Within this broad sweep of time and place, he finds, not that enormous changes occurred, but that the rules and methods of siege warfare remained remarkably constant. Included are detailed studies of some of the major sieges including Constantinople and Chateau-Gaillard. Throughout, Bradbury supports his narrative with chronicles and letters. irst-hand accounts of danger, famine and endurance bring the acute reality of siege warfare clearly before the reader.