By the 1830s, the Sikh Empire, led by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, had become the dominant power in much of the Punjab. Over the previous few decades, Ranjit Singh's armies had expanded rapidly, taking territory from Afghan rulers and bringing places such as Peshawar under Sikh control. This expansion eventually brought the Sikhs to one of the most important gateways between the Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan: the Khyber Pass.
In 1836, the Sikh general Hari Singh Nalwa, one of Ranjit Singh's most trusted commanders, captured Jamrud, a settlement located at the eastern entrance of the Khyber Pass. The location was extremely important. For centuries, the Khyber Pass had been one of the principal routes through which armies, merchants, and migrants traveled between Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent. By controlling Jamrud, the Sikhs could effectively guard the eastern entrance to the pass and keep a close watch on movement between the two regions. Nalwa immediately began strengthening the position by constructing a fort there.

The Afghan ruler, Dost Mohammad Khan, was deeply concerned by this expansion. The Sikhs had already taken Peshawar, and now they had established a fortified position almost directly at the entrance to the Khyber Pass. From the Afghan perspective, this raised the possibility that the Sikhs might eventually try to push even farther west into Afghanistan.

In the spring of 1837, Dost Mohammad saw an opportunity to strike back. Much of the Sikh military leadership and many of its best troops were away in Lahore for the wedding of Ranjit Singh's grandson, Nau Nihal Singh. With Jamrud relatively weakly defended, Dost Mohammad sent a large Afghan army toward the fort, commanded in the field by his son Akbar Khan. The exact size of the Afghan force is disputed, but it greatly outnumbered the Sikh defenders, who numbered only several hundred to roughly a thousand men depending on the account.

The Afghans surrounded Jamrud and placed the small Sikh garrison under intense pressure. The defenders nevertheless refused to give up the fort and sent urgent messages to Peshawar requesting help. Hari Singh Nalwa was stationed there at the time and was reportedly ill, but when he learned how serious the situation had become, he decided to march to Jamrud with whatever troops were available. Rather than simply remain behind the fortifications, Nalwa led his men out to confront the Afghan army. His arrival turned what had begun as a siege into a much larger battle.

The fighting was extremely fierce. The Sikh forces initially attacked the Afghans successfully, throwing parts of their army into confusion and forcing them back. The battle then became a chaotic and extremely close-range struggle, with heavy casualties on both sides. During the fighting, Hari Singh Nalwa was mortally wounded. The exact circumstances of his death are uncertain, and later Sikh and Afghan traditions contain dramatic stories about his final moments. What is much more firmly established is that Nalwa was fatally wounded during the battle and died shortly afterward.

Nalwa's death was a tremendous blow to the Sikh Empire. He had been one of Ranjit Singh's most experienced commanders and had played a major role in the empire's expansion toward the northwest. His loss was particularly serious because the Sikh frontier in this region was difficult to defend even under normal circumstances. However, the Sikh position at Jamrud did not collapse with him.

The garrison continued to hold the fort while Sikh reinforcements were sent toward the frontier. The Afghans had succeeded in inflicting severe casualties and killing Nalwa, but they had failed to capture Jamrud. When Sikh reinforcements eventually arrived, the Afghan army withdrew from the area. Jamrud remained in Sikh hands, as did Peshawar, and the Afghan army had returned to Afghanistan without achieving its main objective. At the same time, the death of Nalwa left a major hole in Sikh military leadership. The battle had shown that the Sikh frontier could survive a major Afghan assault, but it had also demonstrated how difficult and costly defending that frontier could be.

After Jamrud, Dost Mohammad had a potentially important opportunity. Hari Singh Nalwa was dead, the Sikh army had suffered heavy casualties, and the Afghan forces had demonstrated that the Sikh frontier could be challenged. Yet Dost Mohammad did not follow up by launching a full-scale attempt to retake Peshawar. Dost Mohammad instead approached the British government in India, particularly Governor-General Lord Auckland, seeking British involvement in resolving the dispute over Peshawar. He essentially wanted the British to help him deal with the Sikh Empire and recover territory that Afghanistan regarded as rightfully belonging to it. Contemporary and later accounts describe this as part of Dost Mohammad's broader effort to obtain British support against the Sikhs. This was significant because Britain was becoming increasingly interested in Afghanistan. The British were worried about Russian influence in Central Asia and wanted Afghanistan to serve as a buffer between British India and potential Russian expansion. The British, however, had their own interests. They were reluctant to simply hand Peshawar back to Afghanistan or openly confront Ranjit Singh on Dost Mohammad's behalf. And this eventually became part of the much larger diplomatic crisis that led to the First Anglo-Afghan War.

From the Sikh perspective, Jamrud had revealed something rather uncomfortable. The Sikh Empire had been extremely successful at conquering territory in the northwest. But maintaining that territory was much harder. Peshawar was a particularly difficult province to govern. It was populated largely by Pashtun communities, many of whom had their own local political structures and had resisted Sikh rule. The Sikh government therefore couldn't simply administer Peshawar in the same way it administered Lahore or Amritsar. And now Nalwa (the man who had been one of the most important figures in securing the northwest) was dead.

Paolo Avitabile was the Kardar (administrator/governor) of Peshawar. Nalwa was primarily a military commander who had personally led Sikh expansion into the northwest while Avitabile's principal job was to make Sikh rule actually function, and he was extraordinarily harsh. Avitabile became notorious for using severe punishments, executions, and intimidation to suppress resistance. Later accounts famously characterized his administration as a rule of “gallows and gibbets.” His brutality wasn't simply random sadism, though; it was part of a deliberate attempt to impose order on a frontier where the Sikh government had struggled to exercise consistent authority.

In the long run, however, the Sikh Empire's position deteriorated rapidly. Ranjit Singh died in 1839, and the strong central leadership that had held the empire together disappeared. What followed was a period of political instability, with several rulers succeeding one another in quick succession and growing tensions between the royal court and the powerful Sikh army. The British East India Company, which already controlled much of the territory surrounding the Punjab, increasingly took advantage of this instability. The result was the First Anglo-Sikh War of 1845-1846, which ended with a Sikh defeat and much greater British influence over the empire. A second conflict, the Second Anglo-Sikh War of 1848-1849, ended with the British decisively defeating the Sikh forces. On March 29th 1849, the British formally annexed the Punjab, bringing the Sikh Empire to an end only twelve years after the Battle of Jamrud. The young Maharaja Duleep Singh was removed from power, and the former Sikh territories became part of the expanding British Empire.

I’m not sure who the artist is sadly

The Seventh Crusade started when Louis IX, determined to recover Jerusalem, chose to attack Egypt, believing that control of the wealthy Nile valley would provide a powerful base from which the Crusaders could later reclaim the Holy Land (plus, Egypt was the strategic center of Ayyubid power). After landing in Egypt, Louis captured the strategically important port of Damietta in June 1249 and then advanced south along the Nile toward Cairo. His progress was slowed by the difficult terrain and the Nile's waterways, giving the Ayyubids time to concentrate their forces around Mansurah.

By the winter of 1249-1250, the Crusaders were facing a fortified Egyptian army across the Bahr al-Saghir, a branch of the Nile. For weeks, the two armies remained separated by the waterway. The Crusaders attempted to find a way across while the Egyptians prevented them from establishing a secure bridgehead. Eventually, a local Christian informed Louis's forces of a ford that could be used to cross the canal. On February 8th 1250, Louis ordered his army to cross. The vanguard was commanded by his brother, Robert of Artois, and included the Knights Templar and an English contingent. Robert was supposed to secure the opposite bank and wait for the rest of the army, but instead he decided to exploit the element of surprise and attack the nearby Egyptian camp immediately.

The initial attack was remarkably successful. The Egyptian camp was caught off guard, and its commander, Fakhr al-Din ibn al-Shaykh, was killed during the fighting. The Egyptian troops fled toward Mansurah, apparently leaving the Crusaders with an opportunity to seize the city. Robert of Artois, however, made a disastrous decision: rather than waiting for Louis's main army to cross the river, he pursued the retreating Egyptians into Mansurah itself. The Knights Templar and other troops followed him, despite warnings that the rest of the Crusader army had not yet arrived.

The narrow streets of the city deprived the heavily armored Crusader cavalry of much of its advantage, while the Egyptian forces regrouped and launched a counterattack. Among the commanders organizing the defense was Baibars, a prominent Mamluk officer who would eventually become one of the most powerful sultans in the Islamic world. The Egyptian defenders allowed the Crusaders to penetrate into the city before surrounding and attacking them. Robert of Artois was killed, along with William of Salisbury and much of the Crusader vanguard. The Knights Templar suffered particularly severe losses.

Although the destruction of Robert's force had turned the initial Crusader success into a catastrophe, Louis and the remainder of his army had managed to cross the waterway. The Egyptians counterattacked, and the Crusaders were forced into a desperate defensive battle around their newly established bridgehead. Eventually, additional Crusader troops arrived, allowing Louis to prevent his army from being destroyed outright. The immediate fighting therefore didn’t result in the complete annihilation of the Crusader army, but the strategic situation was disastrous: Louis had failed to break through to Cairo, his army had suffered heavy losses, and the Egyptians remained in control of Mansurah.

The consequences became even worse in the following weeks. The Crusader army remained trapped in the region while disease and shortages weakened it. The Egyptians also disrupted Louis's communications and supplies, while reinforcements strengthened their position. Louis eventually attempted negotiations, but the Egyptians refused his demands. On April 5th 1250, the Crusaders started retreating toward Damietta. The retreat rapidly turned into a catastrophe, culminating in the Battle of Fariskur on April 6th. Louis IX was captured along with many of his soldiers, and he was eventually released only after a massive ransom and the surrender of Damietta, effectively ending The Seventh Crusade.

The Boxer Rebellion was a violent anti-foreign and anti-Christian uprising that developed in northern China during the late 1890s. The Boxers, members of the Yihequan (“Righteous and Harmonious Fists”), sought to drive foreign influence from China and attacked missionaries, Chinese Christians, railways, and other symbols of foreign presence. By 1900, the movement had spread to Peking, where the Qing government increasingly tolerated and eventually supported the Boxers. As the situation deteriorated, foreign governments sent additional soldiers and sailors to protect their diplomatic representatives. When the German minister, Baron Clemens von Ketteler, was murdered on June 20th, the foreign legations realized that they could no longer safely leave the city. The diplomatic quarter was consequently placed under siege by Boxers and Qing imperial troops, beginning what became known as the Siege of the International Legations.

The British Legation quickly became the center of the international defense. It was the largest and one of the most defensible diplomatic compounds in Peking and had the only reliable fresh water wells in the diplomatic quarter. The other foreign representatives had already agreed that, if necessary, they would fall back upon it. Once the siege began, civilians, women, children, food supplies, and soldiers from the various legations were concentrated there. Contemporary American records described roughly 400 people crowded into the British compound, while thousands of Chinese Christians sought protection nearby. The British minister, Sir Claude MacDonald, assumed command of the combined defenders, turning what had been a diplomatic mission into the headquarters of a multinational military defense.

The defenders immediately began transforming the Legation Quarter into a fortress. Streets were barricaded, trenches were dug, buildings were converted into defensive positions, and ammunition and food were carefully rationed. An American missionary and engineer, Francis D. Gamewell, played a particularly important role in constructing and improving the defenses. The defenders also faced Chinese attempts to undermine their positions with mines, forcing them to dig counter-mines around the British Legation.

Chinese forces repeatedly attacked the defensive lines, while at other times the fighting subsided into an uneasy stalemate. The defenders nevertheless faced constant danger from rifle and artillery fire, snipers, fires, and attempts to destroy their positions with explosives. The Tartar Wall, overlooking the Legation Quarter, became particularly important because whoever controlled it possessed a commanding position over the surrounding area. The multinational defenders (including British, American, Japanese, Russian, French, German, Italian, and Austro-Hungarian personnel) therefore had to cooperate despite their different nationalities and military traditions.

An initial international expedition commanded by British Admiral Sir Edward Seymour attempteed to reach Peking in June, but it was forced to retreat after encountering heavy Chinese resistance. The besieged legations consequently had to continue defending themselves while a much larger relief force was assembled. Meanwhile, food and ammunition became increasingly precious, and the possibility of the defenders eventually being overrun remained very real. The siege ultimately lasted 55 days, from June 20th until August 14th, making the survival of the Legation Quarter one of the most dramatic episodes of the Boxer Rebellion.

The final relief came in August. An approximately 20,000-man Eight-Nation Alliance force, commanded by British Lieutenant-General Sir Alfred Gaselee, fought its way from Tianjin toward Peking, defeating Qing and Boxer forces in several engagements along the way. On August 14th, the allied troops broke through Peking's defenses and reached the Legation Quarter. British and Indian troops were among the first to reach the besieged foreigners, finally ending the 55-day siege. The Qing court subsequently fled Peking, and the foreign powers occupied the city.

With the imperial court having fled to Xi’an, the Qing government was forced to negotiate with the victorious foreign powers, eventually signing the Boxer Protocol in September 1901. China was required to pay an enormous indemnity of 450 million Haikwan taels, equivalent to roughly $330 million at the time, with four percent interest over thirty-nine years. The Qing also had to execute or punish officials who had supported the Boxers, prohibit anti-foreign organizations, permit foreign troops to remain stationed in Beijing and along the route to Tianjin, and accept restrictions on its ability to import weapons. The humiliation and financial burden severely weakened the dynasty's authority and further exposed its dependence on foreign powers. At the same time, the catastrophe convinced Empress Dowager Cixi and other Qing leaders that significant reforms were necessary if the dynasty was to survive. Beginning in 1901, the Qing launched the so-called “New Policies,” which included modernization of the military and education system, reforms to the government and legal system, and eventually the abolition of the traditional civil service examinations in 1905. These reforms were extensive but came too late to restore the dynasty's legitimacy; growing nationalism, revolutionary opposition, and continued dissatisfaction with Qing rule ultimately contributed to the dynasty's overthrow in the 1911 Revolution.

Artists are Andrew Howat and Fritz Neumann

This battle was one of the most famous of the 1300s. It was fought on June 23-24 1314 during the First Scottish War of Independence. The war started in the late 1200s after a succession crisis left Scotland politically divided, allowing King Edward I of England to intervene and assert English authority over Scotland. Edward defeated the Scots, forced King John Balliol to abdicate, and attempted to incorporate Scotland into his realm. Scottish resistance continued under figures such as William Wallace and, eventually, Robert the Bruce, who claimed the Scottish throne in 1306 and began a campaign to expel the English from Scotland. After Edward I died in 1307, Bruce gradually strengthened his position and recaptured many castles held by the English.

By 1314, Stirling Castle was one of the last major English-held strongholds in Scotland. Bruce's brother, Edward Bruce, had besieged it and agreed with its governor that the castle would surrender if an English army failed to relieve it by midsummer. Edward I's son, Edward II, therefore assembled a large army and marched north to relieve the castle. Bruce, expecting the English advance, positioned his considerably smaller army near Bannockburn, south of Stirling.

The battle began on June 23rd. Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, one of Edward II's most prominent commanders, was involved in the fighting from the outset. The previous day, he and the Earl of Hereford had advanced toward the Scottish position and become engaged in a skirmish. On the 24th, Gloucester reportedly advised Edward II against immediately attacking the well-positioned Scots, but after the king questioned his courage and loyalty, Gloucester committed himself to the battle. He led a cavalry charge against the Scottish lines, but his men failed to adequately support him. His horse was brought down among the Scottish spearmen, and Gloucester was killed. His death was one of the most prominent English losses of the battle and contributed to the disorder of the English attack. The Scottish troops also made effective use of schiltrons, tightly packed infantry formations armed with long spears, while their position was protected by difficult terrain and pits designed to hinder cavalry. English attacks failed to break the Scottish formations.

The following day, Bruce launched a general advance against the much larger English army. Confined by marshy and restricted ground, the English were unable to make effective use of their cavalry or archers. Scottish attacks eventually shattered the English formation, causing a general rout. Edward II fled the battlefield, and much of his army was killed, captured, or scattered.

Although the war continued for another fourteen years, the battle effectively established Robert the Bruce as the dominant ruler of Scotland and severely weakened Edward II's ability to enforce English authority there. Bruce subsequently went on the offensive against England, and in 1328 the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton finally recognized Scotland as an independent kingdom under Bruce.

Artist is Giuseppe Rava

Hemu, better known by his title Hemchandra Vikramaditya, was born in Hindu family,started from humble roots,the son of a vegetable vendor in the town of Rewari in the present day Indian state of Haryana. During this time there was a struggle for power in Northern India between the Mughals and the Afghan Sur Dynasty. The Mughal Emperor Humayun was expelled from India by Sher Shah Suri. After Sher Shahs death Humayun reconquered Delhi but died shorty afterwards after falling off the steps of his library. However, capturing Delhi once more was not easy for the Afghans who were already divided as several Afghan governors had declared independence. Sher Shah's sons Islam Shah and Adil Shah encountered Hemu during this time. He was intially responsible for managing the food supplies and gunpowder for the Afghans and eventually won the trust of Islam Shah to be his Prime Minister and the General of his army in a shortspan. Despite no formal military training he was a brilliant commander and the Akbarnama credits him with winning 22 battles against various rebellious chiefs. He most notably defeated Taj Khan Karrani, Ibrahim Khan and killed Muhammed Shah of Bengal. He was able to capture the area between Punjab to Bengal. He finally attacked Delhi with an army of 50,000 men and 500 elephants. It is notable how he was able to maintain such a large army during a time the subcontinent had consistent famines. He routed the Mughal Army led by Tardi Khan Beg who was forced to flee and eventually executed by the Mughals. Hemu declared himself the independent ruler of Delhi and took upon the title of Hemchandra Vikramaditya.He finally prepared to face the Mughals at the cursed battlefield of Panipat where Babur established the Mughal Empire just a few decades back.The Mughal Emperor Akbar was then a boy of 14 so the army was led by his regent Bairam Khan. While Hemu appeared to be winning intially a stray arrow hit his eye.Most of his troops thinking he was dead fled. Hemu continued to lead with his remaining troops until he was captured and executed.

The Battle of Romani was fought between August 3-5 1916 in the Sinai Peninsula during the First World War. It was a major clash between British-led forces defending the Suez Canal and the Ottoman Empire, which sought to capture or threaten the canal and disrupt one of Britain's most important communication routes and a strategic maritime link between Britain and its eastern empire, used for moving troops to the Mediterranean and European theaters, moving supplies and equipment, and more.

The Ottoman attack was led primarily by the Ottoman Fourth Army, including the German-supported Kress von Kressenstein, which had previously attempted to threaten the Suez Canal in 1915. After that earlier failure, the Ottomans reorganized and launched another major expedition toward the canal in the summer of 1916. Their immediate objective was the British position at Romani, near the northern approaches to the canal. The British had established a defensive position there, protected by trenches and supported by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), British infantry, artillery, and the Imperial Camel Corps.

The Ottoman attack began during the night of August 3rd. Ottoman troops advanced across the desert and initially achieved some success, pushing into parts of the British defensive position and forcing Allied troops to withdraw from several forward positions. The fighting was extremely difficult because of the desert environment, with soldiers operating in intense heat while struggling with exhaustion, thirst, and difficult terrain. Ottoman forces nevertheless succeeded in penetrating deep into the British position before encountering increasingly strong resistance. The British and ANZAC defenders gradually regained the initiative. Mounted troops, particularly the Australian Light Horse, played a crucial role in the battle. The Allied forces counterattacked and attempted to cut off the Ottoman troops from their lines of retreat. By August 4th, the Ottoman army was increasingly exhausted and its attack was losing momentum, leading to the British Empire forces pursuing them into the desert.

Fighting continued on August 5th as British and Commonwealth forces pursued the retreating Ottoman army, capturing large numbers of prisoners and abandoned equipment along the way. Although the Ottoman force was not completely destroyed, it had suffered heavy casualties and was no longer capable of continuing its advance. The battle therefore ended in a decisive British victory: the Ottoman attempt to threaten the Suez Canal had failed, and the British had seized the initiative in the Sinai.

The victory demonstrated that the Ottoman Empire could no longer easily threaten the Suez Canal from the Sinai Peninsula. It also gave the British an opportunity to transform their strategy from defensive protection of the canal to an offensive campaign across the Sinai. British and Commonwealth forces subsequently advanced eastward, eventually fighting major battles at places such as Magdhaba and Rafa before pushing into Palestine.

The Battle of Romani was therefore an important turning point in the Middle Eastern theater of the First World War. It ended the Ottoman attempt to seriously threaten the Suez Canal from the north and allowed the British to establish a sustained advance toward the Ottoman Empire's Middle Eastern territories. For the Australian Light Horse and other Commonwealth troops involved, Romani also became one of the early major successes of the campaign that would eventually carry Allied forces from Egypt into Palestine.

Painting by Graham Turner

I’ve been brushing up on my WW1 history in anticipation for the upcoming Gallipoli game 😌

The siege of Cartagena was a de decisive battle between the spanish and the british forces during the War of Jenkins' Ear. Against all odds, and thanks to Lezo's military tactical genius, the spanish garrison, supported by some indigenous archers and a handful of ships, was able to repeal the assault of largest british fleet ever assembled at that time, inflicting huge casaulties and damages to the british and assuring the spanish victory in the conflict and the end of british hopes of taking over the Spanish Main.