Top Ten Battles that Most Changed History
Some battles are famous because they were big. Others are famous because the world after them looked structurally different from the world before. This ranking is about the second category. Stalingrad sits at the top because the destruction of the German Sixth Army between August 1942 and February 1943 is the closest thing the Second World War has to a single-battle hinge; everything after it in the European theatre is the Soviet Union pushing west. Gettysburg in July 1863 is the American Civil War equivalent, with the Confederate offensive capability broken in three days and the strategic initiative permanently lost. Midway in June 1942 reset the Pacific in a single morning, with four Japanese fleet carriers sunk and the offensive timeline of the Imperial Japanese Navy effectively ended. Thermopylae in 480 BC is the symbolic entry, and earns the slot because the Greek delaying action shaped the rest of the Persian campaign and the political identity of the city-states that survived it. Marathon in 490 BC is the older Greek pick, where the Athenian victory over the first Persian invasion preserved the political experiment that produced classical Athens. The list rewards battles whose consequences kept showing up in the next century, not just the next year. Vote based on which engagements you think still under-shape how their period is taught.
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#1
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The Battle of Stalingrad
#2
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The Battle of Gettysburg
#3
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The Battle of Midway
#4
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The Battle of Thermopylae
#5
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The Battle of Marathon
#6
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The Battle of Hastings
#7
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The Battle of Tours
#8
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The Battle of Normandy
#9
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The Battle of Waterloo
#10
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The Battle of Gaugamela
#11
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Siege of Jerusalem
#12
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The Battle of Kursk
#13
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The Battle of Salamis
#14
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The Battle of Zenta
#15
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The Battle of Moscow
#16
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The Battle of Yorktown (1781)
#17
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The Battle of Bunker Hill
#18
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Fall of Constantinople
#19
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The Battle of Teutoburg Forest
#20
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The Battle of Plassey
#21
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The Battle of Cannae
#22
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The Battle of Afghanistan
#23
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The Battle of Jericho
#24
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The Battle of Zama
#25
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The Battle of Puebla
#26
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The Battle of San Juan
#27
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The Battle of Leyte Gulf
#28
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The Battle of the East China Sea
#29
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The Battle of Watling Street
#30
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The Battle of the Somme
#31
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The Battle of Cynoscephalae
#32
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The Battle of Atlanta (1864)
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