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The Greatest Generals of World

This is a great topic with endless amount of material we can talk about.so i'm going to do just that.


On the overall topic anyway-
I think there was a poll on armchair generaL magazine.There were 3 sets of polss and napoleon won all 3.The cumulative results were more less agreed to be 1]napoleon bonaparte
2]alexander the great
3]julius caesar

my personal list is napoleon,alexander,hannibal.

Now,for my explanation of choices and a list of the greatest generals which is the title i have taken this approach.If we divide human history into the accepted 3 parts .ancient age ,middle ages and modern age i think a better comparison can be made.

ancient age basically can be divided into 3 parts.

1]early bronze age-this is basically the era of the trojan wars and the hittite empire,through the egyptian empire,the assyrians,and finally cyrus the great's persian empire.

2]hellenistic era-from the battle of marathon 490 bc ,through the greco persian wars,the peloponnesian wars,the spartan and theban hegemony,xenophon,
the rise of macedon and philip's reforms,the age of alexander,the wars of the diadochi,,in the indian subcontinent the mauryan expansion, pyrrhus of epirus his campaign in italy in 280 bc.this is roughly the date of the rise of rome.

3]The roman era-the punic wars,hannibal and hamilcar barcas campaigns.scipio africanus and aemilinus and the destruction of carthage.The greco-roman wars.gaius marius his victories and more importantly reforms.sulla's campaigns.pompey the great.gallic wars and age of julius caesar.agrippa's victories under augustus.the parthian empire followed by the sassanid' empire.the gupta empire,trajan's campaigns ,to attila the hun,aetius the last roman,constantine the great, to the fall of the western roman empire in 476 ad.

Now,if we list the great generals from each era of the ancient era,in my opinion the list would be.

1]THUTHMOSES of egypt and RAMSES II.More conquerors than generals.agamemnon.the hittie emperor MURSILIS. NEBUCHANDNEZZAR.But the best general of this era is clearly CYRUS the great and his succesor DARIUS the great.

2]the hellenistic era beckons the true start of strategy rather than quantitative superiority.
candidates in my book-[in chronological order]
1]athenian MILITIADATES
[victor of marathon]

2]THEMISTOKLES
[athenian admiral at salamis]

3]EPAMINONDAS
[theban genius,victor of leuctra and mantinea,first use of oblique formation later copied by macedonians and frederick the great]

4]XENOPHON,
walked into the persian empie with 10000 greek mercenaries ,won a battle then walked out.his book was alexander's inspiration.a great strategic manueverer.

5]PHILIP 2 of macedon
[inventor of the companion cavalry,macedonian phalanx,made macedon the most feared state in europe out of a tribal nation,victor at crosus field and charonoea.]

6]PARMENION
[macedonian general under philip and alexander.

7]ALEXANDER THE GREAT[later],

SELEUCAS NICATOR 1

8]PYRRHUS OF EPIRUS
[the last of the great greek warrrior kings] beat both romans and carthiginians]

9]CHANDRAGUPTA MAURYA
[set up and conquered most of ancient india,defeated seleucas and annexed the eastern part of the seleucid empie from seleucas,founder of mauryan dynasty]

[i have not included ashoka because though he ruled the largest empire in the world at his time his military achievements are limited.]

3]
1]HAMILCAR BARCA

2]HANNIBAL BARCA

3]SCIPIO AFRICANUS

4]SCIPIO AEMILINIUS

5]GAIUS MARIUS

6]SULLA

7]CLEOMENES OF SPARTA

8]SHIHOR;[parthian general at carrhae]

10] JULIUS CAESAR

11]AGRIPPA

12]SAMUDRAGUPTA

13]chinese emperor qi something [l'll look up the name]
there are a lot of chinese conquerors in this era.

14]TRAJAN

14]HADRIAN

15]AETIUS

16]CONSTANTINE THE GREAT

17]ATTILA THE HUN

18]ARIMINIUS THE GERMAN

now i want to talk about these 3 eras of the ancient age in detail.and explain my choices before moving to the middle and modern ages.
feel free to add ur choices if i have missed out any.and ur own lists.:yahoo:

p.s-[it might look like i'm showing off,but i LOVE talking military history]:toast_sign:
 
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Every single nation will rank greatest generals of the world keeping their own peoples in mind. For example Muslims may say Khalid bin Waleeh R.A. was the greatest general of all time because he never lost any war in more than 100 battles.

Where English historians might say Napolean or Julius Ceaser was the great generals of all time. Hindus might claim Ashoka's and his generals were great of his time.

Not easy to give nuteral opinion about this but one thing is certain that Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed should be ranked in Top 10 because he was undefeated until his last breath
 
Ibn-al waleed is undoubtedly in any top 10.Not because he belongs to a particular country or faith but simply because of the facts-
1]Defeated powerful enemies repeatedly,the byzantines and the sassanid persians were world powers at his time.a man is measured by his adversaries.
2]undefeated throughout his career,thats always a rep boost.fought in atleast 15-20 large scale pitched battles and about 80 skirmishes and minor battles.is said to have been victorious throughout.
3]Incredibly innovative use of cavalry,his use of the mobile guard is legendary.

In my opinion al waleed is the greatest cavalry commander of all time.the only one who can give him a run for his money in this regard is the legendary mongol general subotai bahadar[the only one in history to conquer russia in winter]
with tamerlane coming a third.
 
General Pervez Musharraf

imgpervez-musharraf2.jpg

Musharaf may be ranked most coward general in muslim history , he accepted US conditions aganist national intrest
 
yep, fighting Alqaida was against our national interest and this is coming from a guy sitting comfortably in Canada!Priceless.
 
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yep, fighting Alqaida was against our national interest and coming from a guy sitting comfortably in Canada!Priceless.

I don't think I can come up with a better answer than that so I will just thank you for it !
 
1) Ashoka the Great
2) Genghis Khan
3) Adolf Hitler - btw i dont support Nazis this is pure military related.
4) Umm not sure lol - me perhaps lol
 
yep, fighting Alqaida was against our national interest and coming from a guy sitting comfortably in Canada!Priceless.

PA can fight Al Qaida without US help , why to accept US conditions?
 
Im pretty shocked Genghis Khan is not in your list he was a brilliant
battle field tactital mastermind.
 
PA can fight Al Qaida without US help , why to accept US conditions?

Which US conditions, we did not send troops to AFG or IRAQ, we fought the WoT on our terms.....

---------- Post added at 09:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:15 PM ----------

No independent nation allow any country to use their land for war?

Actually, they do and it's called an overseas military base where I come from.........
And mind you, there is no overseas military base in Pakistan OF ANY COUNTRY !
 
Im pretty shocked Genghis Khan is not in your list he was a brilliant
battle field tactital mastermind.

Alexander, Ghenghis, Ashoka, Khalid bin Walid, Salahudin Ayubi, Mahmood of Ghaznavi, Patton, Eisenhower, Rommel, these are all legends !
 
Which US conditions, we did not send troops to AFG or IRAQ, we fought the WoT on our terms.....

---------- Post added at 09:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:15 PM ----------



Actually, they do and it's called an overseas military base where I come from.........
And mind you, there is no overseas military base in Pakistan OF ANY COUNTRY !

lol:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Do you know in US bases in Pakistan , our forces cant enter?

This is contrary to a public statement by Pakistan’s Defence Minister in December 2009 on a Talk Show, reported among others by The Nation at the time:

“Defence Minister Ch Ahmad Mukhtar, while responding to former CGS [Chief of General Staff] Lt Gen (retd) Shahid Aziz in a TV interview, has conceded that the airbases at Jacobabad and Pasni continue to be used by US forces in the area without any fresh agreement, in continuance of the agreement made during the Musharraf era.”
 
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A very popular 19th century British newspaper, Tit-Bits, made a comparative analysis of great generals of the world and arrived at the following conclusion:
"Some people might think that Napoleon was a great General. Some might name Marshall Hendenburgh, Lord Kitchener, General Karobzey or Duke of Wellington etc. And some going further might say Halaku Khan, Genghis Khan, Changez Khan, Richard or Allaudin etc. But let me tell you that in the North of India a General of the name of Hari Singh Nalwa of the Sikhs prevailed. Had he lived longer and had the sources and artillery of the British, he would have conquered most of Asia and Europe…."
 
Even Shivaji was a great military leader

He also innovated rules of military engagement of that era. He pioneered "Shiva sutra" or Ganimi Kava (guerrilla tactics), which leveraged strategic factors like demographics, speed, surprise and focused attack to defeat his bigger and more powerful enemies


In 1645, at the age of 16, Shivaji carried out his first military action by attacking and capturing Torna Fort of the Bijapur kingdom
 
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