James Baquet In 1851, British judge and historian Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy wrote a book entitled “The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo.” At one time or another, we have discussed all of the battles he mentions, but it’s interesting to take a look at the mind of well-educated mid-19th-century Englishman and find his bias. We should remember that Creasy is not choosing conflicts of whose outcome he approved; rather, he is trying to identify turning points in the history of “the world.” To do so, let’s divide his list by classifying the belligerents. Here we discover his first bias: there is no battle mentioned in which both sides are non-European. Thus, for Creasy, “the world” means, basically, Europe. Most of the earliest battles cited pit a European power against a Middle Eastern one. The first and third battles on his list, the Battle of Marathon (490 B.C.) and the earlier Battle of Gaugamela (331 B.C.), saw Greek armies beat Persians, in the first case booting them out of Europe, and in the second grabbing some of their land. Two centuries later, we see the Romans — heirs to Greek culture — besting the Carthaginians, whose culture was also derived from the Middle East. During the Second Punic War, the Romans won the Battle of the Metaurus in 207 B.C. Battles 6 and 7 on the list take place much farther west — in France — and much later, but again involve Europeans winning over non-Europeans. In the sixth, the Romans beat the Huns, a Central Asian nomadic people, at the Battle of Chalons in 451. And in the Battle of Tours (732), the Franks kicked the Arabs out of France. Careful readers will notice we have skipped number 2 and 5. These did not meet the criterion of “European vs. Non-European,” because in fact they took place between two European groups. Creasy’s second battle was Greek-on-Greek — more specifically, a coalition of Syracuse, Corinth, and Sparta beat the Athenians at the Battle of Syracuse (413 B.C.). And in the fifth battle on the list, Arminius and his Germanic cohorts beat the Romans under Varus at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9 A.D.). We’ll look at the second portion of Creasy’s list next time. Vocabulary: Which word or phrase above means: 1. preference, prejudice 2. named, listed 3. one who decides court cases 4. standard for judgment 5. alliance 6. conclusive, clear-cut 7. result 8. place in opposition 9. putting into groups 10. named | 