Origins II

[JOHN THURSTON]

As noted, as discovering the roots of western Martial History, we must reach into the Mid East

As previously posted on the Forum some time ago, Egypt and Sargon I and II of Ur seemed to have been the place where dending your Community reached, organization wise, beyond just having a group of willy nilly armed mobs duke it out with another.

The following is noted in "The Great Battles of Antiquity" (Richard Gabriel and Donald Boose Jr.)



"The Battle of Megiddo (from which it is beleieved we derived our Emglish word Armageddon) 1479 BC between Egypt and a coalition of Cannanite and Syrian armies in Central Palestine. is the FirstBattle in History for which we have both a name and a sufficiently accurate account of events from which to reconstruct a portrait of Strategy and tactics used by both antagonists .

Of course warfare of a sophisticated scale and scope has a much longer history------"

"The local militias continued ----(in Egypt)----to exist but the Nomarchs --(local governors) had lost the power to challenge national Policy of withold troop levies"

The armament of Egyptian troops consisted of "all of the new weapons -chariots, helmets, armor, penetrating ax, composite bow " of the Hyksos, from whom Egypt had learned a hard and bitter lesson.

Pharoah Thutmose III "produced the most important military revolution ever seen in Egypt" .

It is astounding that Egypt at that time could project its power well into Modern Day Syria. While Egypt was not the first "Imperial" Power, she did manage to be the first to leave behind a record of tactics and strategy to which we can draw conclusions to the present day.

I will post more on this event under this thread or another as soon as I am able.

Suffice it to say, for now, that Egyptian military organization was astoundingly precise.

Nonetheless the battle illustrates the continuing effect of the 'fog of war' and mere chance on the outcomes of Battles and History in General.

JT