Slavery is a horrible human invention that has been around at least since the development of cities. And probably just as ancient were slave rebellions by those discontented with their situation, many of them ultimately failures, but nonetheless important for understanding the history of resistance to oppression. The Zanj Rebellion of 869-883 is a fascinating […]
The Chateau of Montségur might look Medieval, but it was actually built up on the destroyed ruins of the Medieval fortress where about 210 people belonging to the Christian Albigensian sect were burned as heretics in 1244. In the early 1200s, Pope Innocent III enacted an Inquisition — a legal investigation — to determine who
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The story of the Harlem Hellfighters (aka 369th Infantry Regiment) is one of the most epic accounts of heroism in wartime that doesn’t get talked about in U.S. history books. In the spring of 1918, two U.S. soldiers fighting on the Western Front successfully took on about 24 German forces in an early morning raid.
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This is a sword by Goro Nyudo Masamune (c. 1264-1343), considered to be the greatest swordsmith in Japanese history. His swords have a recognizable set of characteristics, one of the most famous being his skill in producing a quality called “nie” an appearance in the blade of Martensite (hard steel in crystal formation) embedded in
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The Vietnamese Trung sisters rose up against invading Chinese armies in 40 CE, and successfully rebelled for three years before their deaths. Often depicted as sword-bearing women riding on elephants, they have become a nationalist symbol for Vietnam. The Trung sisters have temples dedicated to them, statues of them adorn many city quarters, and holidays
The Clash of Claymores 2019 happened this weekend at Shippensburg University- it was a weekend of Historic Eurpean Martial Arts (HEMA). The workshops and tournaments were fascinating, professional, and intense!
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Check out this mag-ni-fi-cent mural of the northwestern deity Tyr, God of war, painted in Germany in 1850. Besides the fact that he is missing an arm and has the physique that epitomized Aryan masculine ideals of the 19th century, the other obvious feature is his horned helmet. It was from this milieu, my friends,
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The Mongolian invasions of Japan were famously brought to an end in 1281 when a tumultuous storm destroyed the entire Mongolian fleet. But it was not just the kamikaze or “divine winds” that destroyed the invaders. The Japanese samurai showed a surprising flexibility in adapting their fighting style, working together more than they had ever
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Roman swords (here shown is a type called Gladius Hispaniensis). One ancient writer described Ancient Roman training so difficult as to be “bloodless battles” and actual warfare as “bloody trainings.”
This painting, “The Soldier of Marathon”, by Luc-Olivier Merson (1869), shows a nude runner reporting a victory of the Ancient Athenians against the Persians. The information was of extreme military importance, as the autonomy of Ancient Athens was partially dependent on it, and so the runner traversed an arduous distance of 40 kilometers or 26.2
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This is the best illustration I could find of a “Pyrrhic Victory”: and if you are familiar with this phrase, you will understand why. The first-century historian Plutarch tells of battles the Greeks waged against the Romans over three hundred years before his lifetime. At Heraclea (280 BCE) and Asculum (279 BCE), the armies of
