All battles
134 battles on the list. Linked battles have a full record; the rest are proposed and will be written in turn.
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| Date | Battle | Sides | Why it mattered | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1457 BCE | Megiddo | Egypt under Thutmose III against Canaanite coalition under the King of Kadesh | First battle recorded in detail; opened Egypt's empire in the Levant | ME |
| 1274 BCE | Kadesh | Egypt under Ramesses II against Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II | Largest chariot battle known; led to the first surviving peace treaty | ME |
| c. 1250 BCE | Tollense Valley | Unknown against Unknown | Oldest large battlefield found in Europe; known only from archaeology | WE |
| c. 1046 BCE | Muye | Zhou under King Wu against Shang under King Di Xin | Ended the Shang dynasty and began the Zhou, source of the Mandate of Heaven idea | EA |
| c. 727 BCE | Piye's conquest of Egypt | Kush under Piye against Egyptian and Libyan princes under Tefnakht | Brought a Nubian dynasty to rule Egypt | AF |
| 632 BCE | Chengpu | Jin under Duke Wen against Chu under Cheng Dechen | Made Jin the leading state of the Spring and Autumn period | EA |
| 547 BCE | Thymbra | Persia under Cyrus II against Lydia under Croesus | Opened Anatolia to Persia and helped create the Achaemenid Empire | ME |
| 506 BCE | Boju | Wu under King Helü (Sun Tzu traditionally credited) against Chu | A small state crushed a great one; linked to The Art of War | EA |
| 490 BCE | Marathon | Athens and Plataea under Miltiades against Persia under Datis and Artaphernes | Stopped the first Persian invasion of Greece | ME |
| 480 BCE | Thermopylae | Greek allies under Leonidas I against Persia under Xerxes I | Famous delaying stand at a narrow pass | ME |
| 480 BCE | Salamis | Greek fleet under Themistocles against Persian fleet under Xerxes I | Naval victory that turned back the Persian invasion | ME |
| 371 BCE | Leuctra | Thebes under Epaminondas against Sparta under Cleombrotus I | Deep oblique attack broke Spartan military supremacy | ME |
| 331 BCE | Gaugamela | Macedon under Alexander the Great against Persia under Darius III | Decided the fall of the Persian Empire | ME |
| 326 BCE | Hydaspes | Macedon under Alexander the Great against Paurava kingdom under Porus | Alexander's last great battle; river crossing against war elephants | SA |
| c. 261 BCE | Kalinga War | Maurya Empire under Ashoka against Kalinga | Its slaughter led Ashoka to turn to Buddhism | SA |
| 260 BCE | Changping | Qin under Bai Qi against Zhao under Zhao Kuo | Broke Qin's strongest rival and cleared the way to unifying China | EA |
| 216 BCE | Cannae | Carthage under Hannibal against Rome under Varro and Paullus | The model double envelopment, studied ever since | ME |
| 202 BCE | Zama | Rome under Scipio Africanus against Carthage under Hannibal | Ended the Second Punic War; Rome became master of the western Mediterranean | ME |
| 202 BCE | Gaixia | Han under Han Xin and Liu Bang against Chu under Xiang Yu | Founded the Han dynasty | EA |
| 168 BCE | Pydna | Rome under Aemilius Paullus against Macedon under Perseus | Roman legion beat the Macedonian phalanx on rough ground | ME |
| 53 BCE | Carrhae | Parthia under Surena against Rome under Crassus | Horse archers destroyed a Roman army; set Rome's eastern limit | ME |
| 52 BCE | Alesia | Rome under Julius Caesar against Gauls under Vercingetorix | Siege inside double walls; completed Rome's conquest of Gaul | WE |
| 31 BCE | Actium | Octavian's fleet under Agrippa against Mark Antony and Cleopatra | Made Octavian sole ruler and ended the Roman Republic | ME |
| 9 CE | Teutoburg Forest | Germanic tribes under Arminius against Rome under Varus | Ambush that stopped Rome's expansion beyond the Rhine | WE |
| 208 | Red Cliffs | Sun Quan and Liu Bei under Zhou Yu against Cao Cao | Blocked the reunification of China and led to the Three Kingdoms | EA |
| 378 | Adrianople | Goths under Fritigern against Eastern Rome under Valens | A Roman emperor killed; Goths settled inside the empire | EE |
| 451 | Catalaunian Plains | Rome and Visigoths under Aetius and Theodoric I against Huns under Attila | Turned back Attila's invasion of Gaul | WE |
| 636 | Yarmouk | Rashidun Caliphate under Khalid ibn al-Walid against Byzantium under Vahan | Byzantium lost Syria; opened the early Islamic conquests | ME |
| 636 | al-Qadisiyyah | Rashidun Caliphate under Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas against Sasanian Persia under Rostam Farrokhzad | Began the Muslim conquest of Persia | ME |
| 732 | Tours | Franks under Charles Martel against Umayyad Caliphate under Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi | Ended the northward Umayyad advance into Francia | WE |
| 751 | Talas | Abbasid Caliphate under Ziyad ibn Salih against Tang China under Gao Xianzhi | Marked the edge of Chinese power in Central Asia | SA |
| 1066 | Hastings | Normans under William the Conqueror against Anglo-Saxon England under Harold II | Norman conquest of England | WE |
| 1071 | Manzikert | Seljuk Turks under Alp Arslan against Byzantium under Romanos IV | Opened Anatolia to Turkish settlement and led to the Crusades | ME |
| 1185 | Dan-no-ura | Minamoto clan under Minamoto no Yoshitsune against Taira clan | Naval battle that ended the Genpei War and led to the shogunate | EA |
| 1187 | Hattin | Ayyubids under Saladin against Kingdom of Jerusalem under Guy of Lusignan | Destroyed the Crusader field army; Jerusalem fell | ME |
| 1192 | Second Tarain | Ghurids under Muhammad of Ghor against Rajput confederacy under Prithviraj Chauhan | Opened northern India to Muslim rule | SA |
| c. 1235 | Kirina | Mandinka under Sundiata Keita against Sosso under Sumanguru Kanté | Founded the Mali Empire (known from oral tradition) | AF |
| 1241 | Mohi | Mongols under Batu and Subutai against Hungary under Béla IV | Mongol envelopment at a river crossing devastated Hungary | EE |
| 1242 | Lake Peipus | Novgorod under Alexander Nevsky against Livonian Order | Stopped the crusading orders' push east into Rus | EE |
| 1260 | Ain Jalut | Mamluks under Qutuz and Baibars against Mongols under Kitbuqa | First major defeat of the Mongols; saved Egypt | ME |
| 1274 and 1281 | Mongol invasions of Japan | Kamakura shogunate against Yuan dynasty under Kublai Khan | "Both invasions failed; source of the ""kamikaze"" storms" | EA |
| 1314 | Bannockburn | Scotland under Robert the Bruce against England under Edward II | Secured Scottish independence; spearmen beat knights | WE |
| 1346 | Crécy | England under Edward III against France under Philip VI | Longbow defeat of French knights in the Hundred Years' War | WE |
| 1363 | Lake Poyang | Ming forces under Zhu Yuanzhang against Han forces under Chen Youliang | One of the largest naval battles ever; led to the Ming dynasty | EA |
| 1380 | Kulikovo | Muscovy under Dmitry Donskoy against Golden Horde under Mamai | First major Russian victory over the Mongols | EE |
| 1410 | Grunwald | Poland and Lithuania under Jogaila and Vytautas against Teutonic Order under Ulrich von Jungingen | Broke the power of the Teutonic Knights | EE |
| 1415 | Agincourt | England under Henry V against France under Charles d'Albret | Outnumbered English archers beat French men-at-arms in mud | WE |
| 1453 | Fall of Constantinople | Ottoman Empire under Mehmed II against Byzantium under Constantine XI | Ended the Byzantine Empire; siege guns beat ancient walls | ME |
| 1514 | Chaldiran | Ottoman Empire under Selim I against Safavid Persia under Ismail I | Guns and Janissaries beat cavalry; fixed the Ottoman-Persian border | ME |
| 1521 | Fall of Tenochtitlan | Spain and Tlaxcalan allies under Hernán Cortés against Aztec Empire under Cuauhtémoc | Ended the Aztec Empire | AM |
| 1525 | Pavia | Habsburg Spain and the Empire under Lannoy and Pescara against France under Francis I | Arquebusiers beat knights; a French king captured | WE |
| 1526 | First Panipat | Mughals under Babur against Delhi Sultanate under Ibrahim Lodi | Founded the Mughal Empire; early use of field guns in India | SA |
| 1526 | Mohács | Ottoman Empire under Suleiman I against Hungary under Louis II | Ended the independent Kingdom of Hungary | EE |
| 1532 | Cajamarca | Spain under Francisco Pizarro against Inca Empire under Atahualpa | Capture of the Inca emperor began Spain's conquest of Peru | AM |
| 1571 | Lepanto | Holy League under Don John of Austria against Ottoman fleet under Ali Pasha | Last great galley battle; checked Ottoman naval power | ME |
| 1575 | Nagashino | Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu against Takeda Katsuyori | Massed musket volleys beat samurai cavalry | EA |
| 1578 | Alcácer Quibir | Saadi Morocco under Abd al-Malik against Portugal under Sebastian I | Portuguese king killed; led to Spain taking Portugal's crown | ME |
| 1588 | Spanish Armada | England under Howard and Drake against Spain under Medina Sidonia | Stopped Spain's invasion of England | WE |
| 1591 | Tondibi | Saadi Morocco under Judar Pasha against Songhai Empire under Askia Ishaq II | Firearms destroyed the Songhai Empire | AF |
| 1597 | Myeongnyang | Joseon Korea under Yi Sun-sin against Japanese fleet under Tōdō Takatora and others | 13 ships beat a far larger fleet in a narrow strait | EA |
| 1600 | Sekigahara | Eastern army under Tokugawa Ieyasu against Western army under Ishida Mitsunari | Decided who ruled Japan for 250 years | EA |
| 1619 | Sarhū | Jurchens under Nurhaci against Ming China under Yang Hao | Defeated Ming columns one by one; start of the Qing rise | EA |
| 1631 | Breitenfeld | Sweden and Saxony under Gustavus Adolphus against Catholic League under Tilly | Flexible Swedish formations beat the tercio | WE |
| 1643 | Rocroi | France under the Duke of Enghien against Spain under Francisco de Melo | Ended the reputation of the Spanish tercio | WE |
| 1645 | Naseby | Parliament's New Model Army under Fairfax and Cromwell against Royalists under Charles I and Prince Rupert | Decided the English Civil War | WE |
| 1665 | Mbwila | Portuguese Angola against Kingdom of Kongo under António I | King of Kongo killed; the kingdom broke apart | AF |
| 1683 | Vienna | Holy League under John III Sobieski against Ottoman Empire under Kara Mustafa Pasha | Largest cavalry charge in history; Ottoman advance into Europe ended | EE |
| 1704 | Blenheim | Britain and Austria under Marlborough and Prince Eugene against France and Bavaria under Tallard | First major French defeat in decades; saved Vienna | WE |
| 1709 | Poltava | Russia under Peter I against Sweden under Charles XII | Ended Sweden as a great power; Russia rose | EE |
| 1757 | Plassey | East India Company under Robert Clive against Bengal under Siraj ud-Daulah | Start of British rule in India; won largely by bribery | SA |
| 1757 | Leuthen | Prussia under Frederick the Great against Austria under Charles of Lorraine | Classic oblique-order flank attack | WE |
| 1759 | Plains of Abraham | Britain under James Wolfe against France under the Marquis de Montcalm | Led to the fall of New France | AM |
| 1761 | Third Panipat | Durrani Empire under Ahmad Shah Durrani against Maratha Empire under Sadashivrao Bhau | One of the bloodiest battles of the century; halted Maratha expansion | SA |
| 1777 | Saratoga | American Continental Army under Horatio Gates against Britain under John Burgoyne | Brought France into the American Revolutionary War | AM |
| 1781 | Yorktown | America and France under Washington and Rochambeau against Britain under Cornwallis | Effectively ended the American Revolutionary War | AM |
| 1798 | Battle of the Pyramids | France under Napoleon Bonaparte against Mamluks under Murad Bey | Divisional squares beat Mamluk cavalry | ME |
| 1798 | The Nile | Britain under Horatio Nelson against France under François-Paul Brueys | Stranded Napoleon's army in Egypt | ME |
| 1803 | Assaye | East India Company under Arthur Wellesley against Maratha Confederacy under Scindia's commanders | Wellesley's hardest-won victory, the future Wellington | SA |
| 1805 | Trafalgar | Britain under Horatio Nelson against France and Spain under Villeneuve | Gave Britain control of the sea for a century | WE |
| 1805 | Austerlitz | France under Napoleon against Russia and Austria under Kutuzov and the two emperors | Napoleon's masterpiece; ended the Third Coalition | WE |
| 1812 | Borodino | France under Napoleon against Russia under Mikhail Kutuzov | Bloodiest day of the Napoleonic Wars; led to the retreat from Moscow | EE |
| 1813 | Leipzig | Russia, Prussia, Austria, Sweden against France under Napoleon | Largest battle in Europe before 1914; Napoleon driven from Germany | WE |
| 1815 | Waterloo | Britain and Prussia under Wellington and Blücher against France under Napoleon | Ended the Napoleonic Wars | WE |
| 1824 | Ayacucho | Patriots under Antonio José de Sucre against Spanish royalists under José de la Serna | Secured independence for Spanish South America | AM |
| 1827 | Navarino | Britain, France, Russia under Codrington against Ottoman and Egyptian fleet | Last battle of sailing ships; secured Greek independence | ME |
| 1854 | Balaclava | Britain, France, Ottomans under Raglan against Russia under Liprandi | Charge of the Light Brigade; command failure studied since | EE |
| 1857 | Siege of Delhi | East India Company against Rebel sepoys under Bakht Khan and Bahadur Shah II | Turning point of the Indian Rebellion; led to direct British rule | SA |
| 1863 | Chancellorsville | Confederacy under Robert E. Lee against Union under Joseph Hooker | Lee split his army to beat one twice its size | AM |
| 1863 | Gettysburg | Union under George Meade against Confederacy under Robert E. Lee | Turning point of the American Civil War | AM |
| 1863 | Vicksburg | Union under Ulysses S. Grant against Confederacy under John C. Pemberton | Gave the Union the Mississippi and split the Confederacy | AM |
| 1866 | Königgrätz | Prussia under Helmuth von Moltke against Austria under Ludwig von Benedek | Railways and breech-loaders; Prussia led Germany | WE |
| 1870 | Sedan | Prussia and German states under Moltke against France under MacMahon and Napoleon III | Captured a French emperor; led to the German Empire | WE |
| 1877 | Plevna | Russia and Romania against Ottoman Empire under Osman Pasha | Entrenched rifles held off far larger forces for months | EE |
| 1879 | Isandlwana | Zulu Kingdom under Ntshingwayo kaMahole against Britain under Lord Chelmsford | Worst British defeat by an indigenous force | AF |
| 1894 | Yalu River | Japan under Itō Sukeyuki against Qing China under Ding Ruchang | First steam-ironclad fleet battle; Japan became Asia's naval power | EA |
| 1896 | Adwa | Ethiopia under Menelik II against Italy under Oreste Baratieri | Kept Ethiopia independent | AF |
| 1898 | Omdurman | Britain and Egypt under Kitchener against Mahdist Sudan under Abdallahi ibn Muhammad | Machine guns against massed charges | AF |
| 1905 | Mukden | Japan under Ōyama Iwao against Russia under Aleksey Kuropatkin | Largest land battle before WWI | EA |
| 1905 | Tsushima | Japan under Tōgō Heihachirō against Russia under Zinovy Rozhestvensky | First modern power beaten by an Asian navy | EA |
| 1914 | Tannenberg | Germany under Hindenburg and Ludendorff against Russia under Alexander Samsonov | Encirclement using radio intercepts and railways | EE |
| 1914 | First Marne | France and Britain under Joseph Joffre against Germany under Helmuth von Moltke the Younger | Stopped the German advance on Paris; began trench warfare | WE |
| 1914 | Tanga | German East Africa under Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck against Britain and India under Arthur Aitken | Start of a four-year guerrilla campaign | AF |
| 1915 | Gallipoli | Ottoman Empire under Liman von Sanders and Mustafa Kemal against Britain, France, ANZAC under Ian Hamilton | Failed amphibious landing; made Atatürk's name | ME |
| 1916 | Verdun | France under Pétain and Nivelle against Germany under Erich von Falkenhayn | Attrition as a strategy; longest battle of WWI | WE |
| 1916 | Jutland | Britain under Jellicoe and Beatty against Germany under Scheer and Hipper | Largest battleship fight; Germany's fleet stayed in port | WE |
| 1916 | Brusilov Offensive | Russia under Aleksei Brusilov against Austria-Hungary and Germany | Broad-front surprise attack nearly knocked Austria out | EE |
| 1918 | Megiddo | Britain under Edmund Allenby against Ottoman Empire under Liman von Sanders | Breakthrough and cavalry pursuit; ended Ottoman rule in the Levant | ME |
| 1932 | Boquerón | Paraguay under José Félix Estigarribia against Bolivia | Opening battle of the Chaco War | AM |
| 1937 | Shanghai | China under Chiang Kai-shek against Japan under Iwane Matsui | First major battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War | EA |
| 1939 | River Plate | British cruisers under Henry Harwood against German cruiser Graf Spee under Hans Langsdorff | First naval battle of WWII | AM |
| 1940 | Sedan 1940 | Germany under Guderian and von Rundstedt against France under Charles Huntziger | Armored breakthrough in the Ardennes; France fell in six weeks | WE |
| 1940 | Battle of Britain | RAF Fighter Command under Hugh Dowding against Luftwaffe under Hermann Göring | First battle decided in the air; stopped the invasion of Britain | WE |
| 1941 | Keren | Britain and India under William Platt against Italy under Nicolangelo Carnimeo | Decided the East African campaign | AF |
| 1942 | Midway | U.S. under Nimitz and Spruance against Japan under Yamamoto and Nagumo | Four Japanese carriers sunk; turned the Pacific war | EA |
| 1942 | Second El Alamein | Britain under Bernard Montgomery against Germany and Italy under Erwin Rommel | Ended the Axis threat to Egypt and Suez | ME |
| 1942–43 | Stalingrad | Soviet Union under Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Chuikov against Germany under Friedrich Paulus | Encirclement of a German army; turned the war in the east | EE |
| 1943 | Kursk | Soviet Union under Zhukov and Rokossovsky against Germany under Manstein and Model | Largest tank battle; last German offensive in the east | EE |
| 1944 | Imphal and Kohima | Britain and India under William Slim against Japan under Renya Mutaguchi | Worst Japanese land defeat; opened the reconquest of Burma | SA |
| 1944 | Normandy | Allies under Eisenhower and Montgomery against Germany under Rundstedt and Rommel | Largest amphibious invasion; opened the Western Front | WE |
| 1944 | Leyte Gulf | U.S. under Halsey and Kinkaid against Japan under Kurita and Ozawa | Largest naval battle in history; end of the Japanese fleet | EA |
| 1944–45 | The Bulge | U.S. and Britain under Eisenhower and Bradley against Germany under Model and Manteuffel | Last German offensive in the west | WE |
| 1945 | Iwo Jima | U.S. under Holland Smith against Japan under Tadamichi Kuribayashi | Defense in depth made attackers pay heavily | EA |
| 1950 | Inchon | UN under Douglas MacArthur against North Korea | Amphibious landing behind the enemy reversed the Korean War | EA |
| 1950 | Chosin Reservoir | U.S. under Oliver P. Smith against China under Song Shilun | Fighting withdrawal in extreme cold | EA |
| 1954 | Dien Bien Phu | Viet Minh under Võ Nguyên Giáp against France under Christian de Castries | Ended French rule in Indochina | EA |
| 1956 | Budapest | Soviet Union under Ivan Konev against Hungarian revolutionaries | Crushed the Hungarian Revolution | EE |
| 1956 | Suez | Britain, France, Israel against Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser | Military success, political failure; end of British imperial power | ME |
| 1961 | Bay of Pigs | Cuba under Fidel Castro against Cuban exiles (Brigade 2506) backed by the U.S. | Failed invasion that strengthened Castro | AM |
| 1965 | Asal Uttar | India against Pakistan | Largest tank battle since WWII; Indian ambush in flooded fields | SA |
| 1965 | Ia Drang | U.S. under Harold Moore against North Vietnam | First major helicopter air-mobile battle | EA |
| 1967 | Six-Day War (Sinai) | Israel under Moshe Dayan and Yitzhak Rabin against Egypt, Jordan, Syria | Surprise air strike then rapid armored advance | ME |
| 1968 | Huế | U.S. and South Vietnam against North Vietnam and Viet Cong | Hardest city fight of the Tet Offensive; turned U.S. opinion | EA |
| 1971 | Longewala | India under Kuldip Singh Chandpuri against Pakistan | A company held off an armored brigade with air support | SA |
| 1973 | Chinese Farm | Israel under Ariel Sharon and Avraham Adan against Egypt under Saad el-Shazly | Crossing of the Suez Canal reversed the Yom Kippur War | ME |