In Pictures - Conquests of the Last 25 Years
The story of the last quarter-century's wars highlighted in the most striking AARt, both contemporary images and the works of subsequent generations looking back to the dramatic events of the fourteenth century.
1. Roman Conquest of the Crimea.
Contemporary mural depicting a Roman-Cossack cavalry skirmish either during or prior to the war against Russia. Here a mob of Cossacks pursues a pair of Roman allied cavalrymen.
A map depicting the crushing Roman victory over the Cossacks, taken from a later Roman military manual. The scale of their defeat led the Cossacks to surrender to the Roman Empire.
The Cossack Migration (later painting) - Emperor Konstantinos relocated the Cossacks to different parts of his empire to prevent them from revolting - a tactic the Roman and Persian Empires often used to deal with troublesome minorities or to bolster depopulated areas.
Andalusian Conquest of France:
The Second Battle of Tours (later painting) - Andalusian and French soldiers fight in southern France. The battle opened with a feigned Andalusian retreat (shown) but when French soldiers broke ranks to pursue the Spanish, the Sultan led a devastating counterattack on the disordered French army.
The Spanish faced the same problems as the Romans in integrating different cultures and religions into their empire. The Andalusian solution was to officially tolerate minority religons and cultures and treat them as full partners in the Andalusian realm, a policy which attempted to channel the religious differences of Christians and Muslims into debate rather than warfare.
The conquest of France has led to harsh diplomatic exchanges between the Andalusian and Danish realms, however, and the peasants on both sides of the English Channel look anxiously across the water, wondering if their rulers will resolve their differences or if enemy sails may soon be seen on the horizon.
[Parts 3 and 4, Egyptian and Persian conquests, upcoming]
