US military History - A long telescope allows us to see how warfare evolved from simple brutish clashing of men and clubs to a culture of warriors itself.

Take him unaware by surprise attacks where he is unprepared.  Hit him suddenly with shock troops.

Sun Tzu, The Art of War

A great horse, in a sense becomes a king.  It is not surprising that kings were made by the first great horses.שׂ  Keegan points out that after time, even the most dismal of armies can become accustomed to the familiarity of a weapon system and even develop a counter move.  Charioteers had become used to the shock of the wild ride towards an enveloped and cowering enemy.  Infantry became used to falling back and having to fight the charioteers.  Evidence indicates that there were several changes in weaponry and tactics, which quickly ended the dominance of chariots.  Warfare requires three competitive ingredients: firepower, security, and mobility.  Changes in any of the three, could temporarily upset a pre-achieved general equilibrium that determined tactics.  Those attacked by chariot based armies learned how to target horses, form chariot proof ranks and make use of broken ground upon which chariots would have difficulty maneuvering.  But it was the appearance of the true warhorse around the end of the seventh century BC, which ended the era of mobile platform war.  

The word cavalry is derived ultimately from the Late Latin word caballus, or horse.  The Scythians were the first of these horse peoples as they came to be known.  They brought with them a system of fighting by a repetitive cycle of raiding, despoliation, slave taking, killing and sometimes conquest, which would afflict civilization for 2000 years.שּׁ  

Most of these horse people rode out of the steppe.  Modern geographers have divided this area into three general sub regions.  First there is the taiga, or sub-artic forest, which runs from the northern Pacific to the North edge of the Atlantic.  Second a wide band of desert runs from the Great Wall in China to the salt marshes of Iran.  In between this artic hell and desert inferno lays the steppe proper, divided into a high and low steppe.  It was from this area the Sythians came, followed by the Huns, the Turks and the Mongols.  These people were not territorial but nomadic.  There are many arguments about why they would have chosen to leave the relative tranquility of the steppe.  Perhaps trade with other nations or merely to seek better climate.  Nevertheless, they came out of the steppe in their masses and changed the face of the known and “civilized” world.  In the fifth century AD, the Huns invaded the Roman Empire. Even their barbarian enemies knew them as the Scourge of God.  The Huns are thought to originally be from the Hsiung-nu people of China. They found their way into the valley of the Volga and, in the second half of the Fourth Century, overwhelmed the Alans, an Iranian people at the Battle of Tanais River in 371 AD.  Rome eventually was forced to pay tribute to these nomadic mercenaries.  The Huns were clearly feared for their prowess in battle, and they began hiring themselves out to fight for the Romans.  Eventually, through stratagem and guile a new leader rose from their ranks, Attila.  He launched an immediate invasion of Eastern Europe.  The Huns fought as horse archers again using the composite bow, though their forces were much bolstered by the heavy cavalry of their Germanic subjects.  During the next three years, Attila's men lived off the booty and tribute of the Eastern Empire before turning, in 450 AD, to the West.  In 451 AD, the two great armies met on the Catalaunian Fields, near Châlons-sur-Marne and the Huns suffered a grave defeat.  Yet, Attila’s forces were not completely destroyed and he went on to besiege Mediolanum, the Roman capital. Huns spread devastation across the whole of northern Italy and came to the walls of Rome itself.  It was here, Attila decided to leave Italy and march north.  A mere two years later, Attila laid dead, yet the door into Europe and the Middle East was still open for the horse people of the steppe.

Everything is governed by a supreme law, the decision by force of arms...

Clausewitz, On War

The horse people did not fight like other conventional armies of their days. They did not want to inherit or adapt to their half-understood civilizations.שּׂ  War was transformed by the ruthlessness and indescribable acts of man on his beast.  These warriors were warriors for wars sake.אַ

Yet it was an army reaching into the steppes and not out of it that thrust mounted warfare to the forefront.  When the Turks stumbled into the Arabs, little did they know whom they were up against. This army had destroyed the Byzantine Empire as well as the Persians.  Arabs were able to merge two important ideas.  An inspired and unified society of warrior combined with a moral value, in this case a new religion.  This religion was born from a warrior, Muhammad himself and taught to other warriors.  Arabs were taught not to fight one another but to conduct jihad, holy war.  Most curious is how the makeup of the initial Arab armies was so poor, yet they won astonishingly many victories.  Arabs combined both the long-range capability of the camel with the speed and cunning of the horse.  Often they would move long distances on camel back leading horses, so only in the moment of contact would the horses be used.  Eventually, the Arabs fell subject to fighting amongst themselves as well as the Christian invaders or should we say Crusaders.  Moslem influence was felt all the way to the gates of Vienna and most of the Iberian Peninsula was under Islamic control at one time.  Still, this gave way and time for another horse people to emerge as the new threat.

Go into emptiness, strike voids, bypass what he defends, hit him where he does not expect you.

Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Between 1190 and 1258 the Mongols were able to overrun all of Northern China, Korea, Tibet, Central Asia, the Khwarezemian state in Persia, the Caucasus, Turkish Anatolia and the Russian principalities, and raided into northern India.  They had also attacked Poland, Hungary, East Prussia and Bohemia as well as moved towards Venice and Vienna.אָ    Much of this success is placed on the head of their first great leader, Genghis Khan who in 1211 proclaimed to his people “Heaven has promised my victory.”אּ  Mongols incorporated in their style of war-fighting several tribal customs.  Sexual morality was strict, brutal revenge against outsiders was pursued on an enormous scale.  Despite this, the Mongol armies often used outside soldiers and foreigners to bolster his ranks.

The Mongols are also credited with coming up with a logical division of their army.  He also instituted a policy of rewarded those who showed talent and not always to those who held title in name.  One thing lacking the Mongol Horde was modern technology. They still used the composite bow and their life on horseback dominated their war making.  Even despite the fact that they never exceeded perhaps a few hundred thousand this did not hinder their ability to conquer.  During the Mongol campaign of 1221-1223, Chingis Khan sent his generals Chepe and Subedei on a reconnaissance mission with a mere 20,000 horsemen through the whole of Persia, through Caucasus, through the Carphatians and into Russia, where they virtually obliterated a Russian army of 80,000 men.  Some cities and people even surrendered without a fight, as was the case of Bokhara.

Yet as we’ve seen before, a time must emerge when the horse peoples of the steppe fall into decline.  When Genghis Khan died in 1227 his empire was divided between his four sons.  Here began the end and yet it was also a beginning.  The Mongols were defeated in their invasion of Palestine under Hülegü, and incorporated into Chinese society under Kublai Khan.  

He who knows the art of the direct and indirect approach will be victorious. Such is the art of maneuvering.

Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Through the combined flesh of horse and man, warfare was changed forever.  It wasn’t until the age of the steel horse that the mounted cavalryman would disappear.  Their speed in battle as well as their ferociousness from having lived in the desolate outreaches of the steppe provided them with the ability to transform war making.  These people viewed killing as a way of life, taught to them from their youth.  This combined with the Arabs idea: that war could be an autonomous activity and the warrior’s life a culture itself.בּ  Man was able to bring the mutuality between the horse and the warrior to bear down upon weaker civilized societies.  This influence is still felt today as the modern jihad rears its ugly head.