POLL: Pick the Next Extra History Series! "Great Battles" (Patreon)
Content
The great battles that rocked the world, both literal and metaphorical. Which fight do you want to see a whole series on?
Siege of Yorktown: Springing the Trap
American and French forces have rendezvoused north of New York their plan, the British think, is to finally besiege and liberate the occupied city—but that is disinformation put out by Washington's spies. In fact, the American-French force under Washington and Rochambeau is constructing an intricate operation to trap the largest British Army in North America. It will take a major naval battle in Chesapeake Bay, the largest espionage campaign of the war, Lafayette shadowing British forces in Virginia, secret diplomatic negotiations with the Spanish, and finally a two-pronged attack led by a German aristocrat and Alexander Hamilton.
Waterloo: A Near Run Thing
The allied nightmare has happened—Napoleon Bonaparte has escaped from exile on the island of Elba and has resumed his role as head of French government. He has an army 73,000 strong, political support, and momentum. Coming to confront him is a combined force of soldiers from the UK, Prussia, the Netherlands and German states. But this will not be one battle, it will be several—from a clash near the strategic crossroads of Quatre Bras, to Napoleon's victory against the Prussians at Ligny—all leading up to the meeting of forces outside the town of Braine-l'Alleud, in the municipality of Waterloo. This series is a blow-by-blow of the battle, from its opening phases to the intervention of Blücher's army at the crucial moment. It was, as Wellington put it, "The nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life."
Women's Suffrage: The Defining Fight
In July of 1848, women from all over the United States—along with luminaries like Frederick Douglass—gathered for the Seneca Falls Convention to discuss women's rights. The hottest debate, by far, surrounded the right to vote—with only a third of the 300 attendees signing the final resolution. The battle, one international in scale, would continue for another seventy years. There would be marches, bombings, brawls and hunger strikes. But it would take the First World War to finally bring the vote to Britain and the United States, and a Revolution to grant equal rights in Russia.
Saladin: The Horns of Hattin
On July 3-4th 1187, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb—known to the west as Saladin—met the armies of the crusader states at the Horns of Hattin. On this dry plain, baking under a relentless sun, he would utterly destroy the military power of the Christian crusader states and take Jerusalem.However, this incredible victory would trigger the Third Crusade, and a collision with Saladin's greatest foe: Richard the Lionheart.
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Current Schedule: Cleopatra --> End of the Samurai --> Your Vote