Page 236 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

warfare, land 2013

What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and
mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill
our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate
the fair face of this beautiful world. • Robert E. Lee (1807–1870)

Early military leaders such as King Menes in Egypt could keep Sargon’s forces at bay. The arrival of Indo-
(3100 BCE) used infantry, watercraft, and siege warfare to European-speaking cattle and horse tribes also demon-
unite Stone Age Egypt. Sargon, ruler of Akkadia, did the strated the effectiveness of combined forms of nomadic
same in 2400 BCE Mesopotamia, combining his nomadic and sedentary warfare. Ancient sedentary civilizations
warfare with Sumerian city-state warfare.The result was were overrun and then retooled as combined sedentary
an army led by chariots, with composite bow archers and and nomadic warfare systems such as New Kingdom
siege engineers protected by spear and ax men in phalanx Egypt, the Gangetic Hindu states, and Zhou China
formation. Not even huge city and territory walls at Ur (1045–256 BCE).

This series of drawings shows the variety of weapons for stabbing used over time and across
cultures: (1) Sharpened flint; (2) Sharpened antler prongs; (3) Sharpened animal thigh bones;
(4) Sharpened bone and antler; (5) Sharpened and pointed stone; (6) Sharpened and pointed
blades; (7) Sharpened blade of stone, glass, or iron set in wood handle; (8) Leaf-shaped blades
of stone or metal set in wood handle with hide wrap; (9) Copper blade; (10) Bronze blades;
(11) Dagger of copper from Alaska; (12) Curved knife from Africa; (13) Dagger from Iraq;
(14) Krises from Malaysia; (15) Hinged dagger from Catalonia, Spain.