Moment of battle: the twenty clashes that changed the world

Marathon : Athens saves Western civilization (490 B.C.)

Gaugamela : Alexander creates a new world (311 B.C.) Zama : an empire in the balance (202 B.C.)

Teutoburger Wald : the division of Europe (A.D. 9)

Adrianople : the end of Roman supremacy (A.D. 378)

Yarmuk : the Islamic conquest begins (636)

Hastings : the remaking of Europe (1066)

The Spanish Armada : miracle at sea (1588)

Breitenfeld : the creation of modern war (1631)

Annus mirabilis : the rise of British supremacy (1759)

Saratoga : the victory of Amateurs (1777)

Trafalgar : Napoleon's plans thwarted (1805)

Vicksburg : breaking the Confederacy (1863)

The Marne : the end of old Europe (1914)

The Battle of Britain : the Nazis stopped (1940) Midway : Imperial Japan stopped (1942)

Kursk : the end of the Drang Nach Osten (1943)

Normandy : the death knell for Nazi Germany (1944)

Dien Bien Phu : imperialism defeated (1954)

Objective peach : the drive for Baghdad (2003).