Essential Histories
1 primary work • 2 total works
Book 62
The Ottoman Empire and its conflicts provide one of the longest continuous narratives in military history. They were never overthrown by a foreign power, and no usurper succeeded in taking the throne. This volume covers the rise of the Ottomans, and their early years of fighting for a foothold across the Bosphorus, before exploring the main campaigns and the part played by such elite troops as the Janissaries and the Sipahis. At its height under Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire became the most powerful state in the world - a multi-national, multilingual empire that stretched from Vienna to the upper Arab peninsula.
The war in the Pacific began with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and ended with the atomic bombs on Hioshima and Hagasaki in August 1945, which led to the surrender in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. It was a war of great naval battles, such as those in the Coral Sea, at Medway, and at Leyte and of grim jungle battles, at Guadalcanal, New Guinea and Burma. This title explores the many facets of this complicated conflict, which reshaped the face of Asia and splintered forever European invincibility as a colonial power.