Showing papers in "Saber and Scroll in 2014"

German Unification through the Blueprint of Prussian Greatness: A Study of Similarities between the Prussians, Frederick the Great, and Otto von Bismarck

Abstract: Deadline: March 1, 2015 Manuscript Due Date: April 1, 2015 Complete submission guidelines are available at www.saberandscroll.weebly.com The Saber and Scroll is an Online University Historical Research Society affiliated with the American Public University School System. The purpose of this organization is the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research and the development of a rigorously edited online publication; the broadening of historical knowledge among the membership that includes social communications, topical discussions, historical lectures and the pursuit of other kindred activities in the interest of history; and service opportunities to the school and community. We strive to bring students, faculty, alumni, and historians-at-large together for intellectual and social exchanges, which promote and assist historical research and publication by our members. Club Off icers Lew Taylor, President Guy Williams, Vice President Kim Trenner, Membership Secretary Deanna Simmons, Recording Secretary Benjamin Sorensen, Treasurer Emily Herff, Faculty Advisory Dr. Richard Hines, Faculty Advisor American Public University System www.APUS.edu

The Ranger Raid on St. Francis

Abstract: Was the raid on St. Francis a proper mission for a Ranger force and did it have a strategic impact on the French and Indian War? The Ranger raid executed against the Abenaki Indians village of St. Francis on 4 October 1759 was conducted against the backdrop of the French and Indian War’s Mohawk Valley theater of operations. However, addressing the question of the Ranger utility in conducting the raid also raises several additional questions: Was the raid effective? Did Roger’s comply with his orders? Was the raid more of a propaganda victory than a tactical or strategic one? This paper will answer these questions as well as the veracity of the reporting on both sides.

Pox Mongolica The Impact of Imperial Peace and Plague

Abstract: Even during periods of relative peace and prosperity, an ever adaptive and microscopic enemy has waged a deadly war against man. From the thirteenth to the early fifteenth century, the Mongols influenced, either directly or indirectly, one of the largest empires the world has ever seen. It included the valuable Silk Road where traders could bring exotic goods from the Far East to markets in the Arab world, Africa, and Europe. The increased security of the Silk Road due to the stability of the Mongol Empire allowed for more than the trade of goods and ideas; disease also moved along its routes. The Mongols rapidly swept through Asia and Eastern Europe conquering all in their path, regardless of religion, culture, or race. Among the diseases that initiated in the steppes of Central Asia, the Black Death of 1313 – 1353 spread through the trade routes killing millions in its wake. The four decades of that iteration of the plague altered art, religion, and trade at a global scale in no small part due to the speed by which distant lands were connected via the Pax Mongolica and Silk Road. The Black Death caused by the bubonic plague devastated the eastern hemisphere. Mongolian imperial peace and the stability it provided to the ancient Silk Road served as a conduit for cultures to trade and transmit knowledge, goods, wealth and infectious disease. Spanning more than three millennia and four thousand miles, the trade routes connecting the farthest reaches of East Asia to Europe and East Africa became collectively known as the Silk Road. The origins of the Silk Road are tied to the people of Central Asia and the Indo-European migrations stretching back four millennia.1 Those who migrated along the routes would learn to utilize them

Τύχη: Fortune, Fate and Chance in Herodotus and Thucydides

Abstract: Volume III Issue II Spring/Summer 2014 Man has always wished to be able to explain incomprehensible phenomena and has turned to supernatural entities to elucidate the workings of the world. Divination, such as looking at the entrails of sacrificed animals or scrying into crystal balls to help understand these phenomena, has been long employed by people. Using oracles, such as those employed at Delphi or even the more modern use of Tarot, has been employed to see if the gods favored man’s laudable or despicable endeavors. Many natural phenomena were so powerful that certain gods were attributed to these powers, and emotions that often misguided people’s activities were also given divine entities which not only ruled these emotions but also explained the vagaries caused by them. These gods were jealous, frivolous, and yet so powerful that they could “bring the lofty low.”1 However, there were often situations that were outside the realms of certain gods that could not be explained by natural phenomena or by the wills or power of men. These most inexplicable of occurrences, these moments that seemingly arbitrarily decided the fortunes of man, were given to the goddess Tyche (Τύχη). She, according to Hesiod, was the offspring of the Ocean and Tethys,2 and according to Pindar, a daughter of Zeus the Deliverer.3 Her ability to change the course of history and the fate of man was often cited, and these changes were seemingly on a whim. She lives on today when a person speaks of a change in “fortune” (from the Latin Fortuna,) for better or worse, as well as in the sociological theory of indeterminism of Charles Pierce (which he called tychism).4 The word “τύχη” as “fortune” rather than a cognomen for a pure deity also found its way into common usage in Ancient Greece History

The Battle of Chaeronea: The Culmination of Philip II of Macedon’s Grand Strategy

Abstract: In August 338 BC, Philip II of Macedon (c. 382-336 BC) won a major battle near the central Greek city of Chaeronea against a coalition of city-states. The Latin historian Justin wrote, “This day put an end to the glorious sovereignty and ancient liberty of all Greece.”1 Though he became master of the region, Philip did not annex it directly into the Macedonian kingdom after spending many years in conflict, especially with Athens, in what logically looked like a grab for the whole of Greece. Instead, Philip simply imposed hegemony. By the spring of 337 he revealed why: the quest to conquer Persia. Evidence suggests, therefore, that Greece’s cooperation and resources were essentially tools he had intended to use all along to accomplish this vastly larger goal. When he won the day at Chaeronea, Philip completed one of the most important steps in a grand strategy that was more than twenty years in the making.