History of Warfare: The First Armies

by Dawson, Doyne

• ISBN13: 9780304352883
• ISBN10: 0304352888
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-03-01
• Publisher: Cassell

Summary

Has violence always been the final arbiter of human argument? Do other species conduct 'war' as opposed to the routine violence of the animal kingdom? When did ritualized, tribal conflict become 'organized' and hunting expeditions become armies? Doyne Dawson investigates the origins of human aggression, revealing the first weapons purpose-built to kill other humans. He shows how the earliest civilizations developed military institutions and dedicated war-making technologies from chariots to siege engines. His story concludes with the Assyrian Empire, a society organized for military conquest that had pioneered the use of terror - mass executions - as an instrument of state policy.

Author Biography

Doyne Dawson teaches at Chosun University, Korea.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	5	(4)
Map list	9	(1)
Chronology	10	(3)
Introduction The Evolution of Warfare to the Sixth Century BC	13	(8)
The Roots of War	21	(26)
The nature of the problem
Ants and apes
Becoming human
The cultural explosion
The Wars of the Tribes 35,000-3200 BC	47	(28)
The role of warfare in cultural evolution
Bands, tribes and chiefdoms
The arbiter of history
The Wars of the Cities 3200-1700 BC	75	(44)
The birth of politics
Early Dynastic Sumer
The Great Dynasties of Mesopotamia: Akkad, Ur, Babylon
Beyond Mesopotamia: The Nile and the Indus
The Wars of the Great Kingdoms 1700-1100 BC	119	(40)
The coming of the Indo-Europeans
War and politics in the High Bronze Age
The battles of Megiddo and Kadesh
The fall of the Chariot Kingdoms
The Wars of the Empires 1100-539 BC	159	(53)
The dawn of the Iron Age
The rise of Assyria
The fall of Assyria
The aftermath: Jerusalem and Babylon
Conclusion
Appendix	212	(2)
Biographies	214	(3)
Further Reading	217	(3)
Index	220	(4)
Picture Credits	224