The nature and flow of war that has continued from time immemorial to the present
Get a bird's eye view with beautiful, concise infographics!

This book, which brilliantly covers the history of world wars from prehistoric times to the present day in infographic form, is a truly new challenge.
From the earliest stone tools and bone tools of the prehistoric era, through the first metal smelting, the advent of the wheel, the domestication of animals, the invention of gunpowder and the internal combustion engine, and on to modern digital technologies, the authors address all the major issues related to the phenomenon of war.
They raise key questions in each era.


What people and materials make up an army?
What are they fighting about?
What goals are they trying to achieve?
How many major breaks can you spot over the past 3,000 years?
How can war be prevented?
Is a world without war possible through legislation and regulation alone?

Thanks to the infographics that add depth to the narrative, the authors' responses create a comprehensive, engaging, and accessible picture of the war phenomenon in historical terms.
In this book, readers will not only get a three-dimensional view of Alexander the Great's conquests and the large-scale battles of the World Wars, but will also be able to grasp all the important elements of military history at a glance, without missing a single one, including the organization of the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Salamis, the career of the Mongol general Subutai, the composition of medieval spearmen, the equipment of the Aztec jaguar warriors, the Imjin War, Asia's "first world war," and even from the Roman legions to medieval chivalry, Napoleon's imperial epic, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the recent Russo-Ukrainian War.
In short, this 『World War History in Infographics』 is an essential book for understanding the nature and flow of war, which continues to reveal its horrors even in modern times.

Although archaeology and literature reveal traces of very ancient warfare, military events are recorded only from the late 2nd millennium BC.
There is the Battle of Kadesh (c. 1274 BC*), in Syria in the 13th century BC, where the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II won a hard-fought victory over the Hittite king Muwatalli II; and thousands of kilometers away in China, the Battle of Muye (c. 1046 BC*), which saw the fall of the Shang Dynasty and the rise of the Zhou Dynasty (the Third Dynasty) in the 11th century.
This large-scale battle is the first in history to have been fully documented, allowing us to understand the circumstances and course of events and analyze the tactics employed.
What these battles, fought over such long distances, have in common is that the ancient chariot played a crucial role as a decisive weapon.
At that time, tanks were at their peak.
* There is still disagreement among scholars.
--- From "The First Recorded Battles"

The semi-barbaric kingdom of Macedon brought about a real revolution in hoplites during the reign of Philip II (359–336 BC).
Philip formed a specialized army combining powerful shock cavalry armed with spears with a phalanx of well-organized and well-trained infantry armed with long spears (sarissa).
At the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, his elite forces defeated the Corinthian League of Greek city-states, excluding Sparta.
After Philip's death, his son Alexander the Great took over the grand plan to invade the Persian Empire in 334 BC.
In ten years, he defeated the armies of Darius III and established a vast Asian empire that stretched to the Indus River, founding dozens of cities that bore his name and giving birth to a new Greco-Persian culture.
Deified, he died in 323 BC at the age of 32 without naming a successor, and his generals, the Diadochi (successors), fought to take over the empire.
As a result, three great Hellenistic kingdoms remained in the 3rd century BC, occupying most of the eastern Mediterranean: the Lachideans (or Ptolemies) in Egypt, the Seleucids in Syria, and the Antigonids in Macedon.
Meanwhile, in the west, Roman power was growing stronger.

--- From the "Macedonian Model"

From its earliest days, Rome, influenced by the Etruscans and Greeks, relied on citizen-armed infantry as the basis of its military power.
The Servian reforms of the 6th century BC strictly classified and stratified society and the military.
Thus was born the manipular legion, arranged in three lines (triple archies).
It was a tactically very flexible organization and became the best army of its time.
However, to compensate for the weaknesses of the cavalry, it was necessary to gradually increase the number of auxiliary troops.
In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, Rome expanded beyond Italy, defeated Carthage, and conquered the Hellenistic powers of the eastern Mediterranean, completely replacing the Macedonian phalanx model.
The 'Marian Reforms' of the late 2nd century BC streamlined and unified the legions that had to fight in increasingly distant regions, and soon incorporated Italians and non-Italians into a 20-year service.
At the same time, military colonies proliferated.
As armies became more specialized, soldiers became more loyal to their generals than to Rome.
The last century of the Republic saw not only Caesar's conquest of Gaul (58–51 BC), but also an intensifying conflict between the Optimates (aristocrats) and the Populares (populars), and only after a large-scale civil war did the Empire emerge.

--- From "Rome, the Conquering City-State"

Between the 11th and 16th centuries, the Christian world united to a certain extent against all those identified as enemies of the Christian faith in the Near East, the Iberian Peninsula, and elsewhere.
In northeastern Europe, the idea of ​​fighting for Christianity while occupying territory with rich economic potential also emerged.
Repeated expeditions, in which politics, economics, military, and religion were closely intertwined, incurred enormous costs and casualties, but they had a significant impact on shaping the borders and cultures we know today.
In the context of the Crusades, the famous religious orders of knights, the Knights Templar, were founded in 1129.
Over time, dozens of knightly orders emerged.
The early knights served to protect the Holy Land and pilgrims, but they gradually evolved into religious, political, and military entities with economic power.

--- From "The All-Round Crusades"

The stirrup probably originated in the Central Asian steppes, with the oldest remains dating back to the 1st century BC.
The lampstand was first identified in China in the 4th century, and reached Byzantium in the 6th century via or with the Avars.
Although heavily armored cavalry, the cataphractae, existed much earlier, the stirrup allowed cavalry to remain stable in all combat situations and to enhance their fighting power and impact when wielding spears, swords, maces, and even bows.
--- From "The Lighthouse: Evolution or Revolution?"

From the late Middle Ages to the mid-18th century, Europe underwent significant changes in all areas, including warfare, leading some historians (Geoffrey Parker) to propose the controversial concept of a 'military revolution'.
Improvements in firearms and the widespread use of the bayonet (France, 1703) led to the emergence of a more uniform and disciplined infantry, while spearmen, axemen, archers, and crossbowmen gradually disappeared.
These infantrymen fought in wide formations, using increasingly complex, sophisticated, and precise tactics and maneuvers.
“They valued shooting quickly rather than aiming accurately.
France, Prussia, and Britain all preferred to pour a near-constant stream of bullets onto the battlefield rather than shooting accurately.
What they were after was rapid, continuous firing.” (General Colin) War became a large-scale phenomenon with constantly increasing demands on men, money, and logistics.
--- From "Military Evolution or Military Revolution?"

In 1917, a military stalemate persisted, with both sides suffering heavy losses but no decisive results.
At this time, new tactics and new weapons, especially the tanks developed in Britain and France from 1915, appeared and changed the game.
The two Russian Revolutions of February and November 1917 upset the balance on the Eastern Front, and in the spring of 1918 the Central Powers took advantage of the local peace to divert troops to the Western Front.
Meanwhile, from the time the United States entered the war in April 1917, the Entente powers began to harbor hopes of regaining the initiative.
But it took time for the millions of American soldiers who crossed the Atlantic to be equipped and trained.
Germany used this time to launch a massive spring offensive in a last attempt to restart the war on the Western Front.
1918 again showed the nature of war on the move, and became the bloodiest and costliest year of the war since 1914.
But as summer approached, the weary Central Powers in France, Italy, Macedonia, and elsewhere surrendered one by one.

--- From "Breaking Through the Front Lines 1917-1918"

Who were the main victors of World War II? This question has been interpreted differently across countries and political situations for 80 years.
In fact, it is easy to say that this question has little meaning in the context of a true world war, and that the victory of 1945 was, above all, the result of an unprecedented coalition in history.
In particular, the Soviet Union and to some extent China formed the continental axis of the Grand Coalition, which, at great cost to itself, depleted most of the Axis forces.
But with the powerful support of the Commonwealth, the United States was able to operate across the Atlantic and Pacific with economic mobilization and unprecedented resources, thus becoming the 'world's only' superpower.
(Omitted) In May 1945, the Allied forces met in the heart of ruined Germany.
Months later, Japan, cornered, finally surrendered after the US atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while Soviet forces invaded Manchuria.
On September 2, 1945, the greatest war in history finally came to an end.

--- From "The Great Offensive and the 'Grand Coalition' of 1944-1945"

On June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea with a well-organized armored force.
South Korea received support from the United States, while North Korea received support from its communist allies, including China and the Soviet Union.
After a series of defeats, South Korea and its numerous allies, gathered under the UN flag, halted the enemy's advance at Busan and regained the initiative with the Incheon Landing Operation on September 15, 1950.
As South Korea successfully counterattacked and approached the Chinese border, Beijing intervened.
The UN forces suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat.
The front lines then stabilized to some extent, and the conflict ended on July 27, 1953, but a peace treaty was never signed.
So, South and North Korea are effectively still at war! In addition to the countries directly involved in the conflict, Denmark, India, Italy, Norway, and Sweden sent medical units consisting of several hundred personnel.
--- From "The Korean War, a Miniature World War"

The invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, marked the beginning of the so-called high-intensity conflict.
The belligerents are making extensive use of a wide range of means and operational methods, and, as in all conflicts, are seeking to leverage all available technologies to ensure smooth operation.
As a result, the battlefield has expanded into cyberspace, thanks to digital technologies now readily accessible to everyone (including civilians caught in the middle of the fighting).
Strategically, information superiority has become a more powerful 'invisible' weapon than ever before.
Spreading fake news or disinformation to debunk enemy propaganda has become a crucial element of modern warfare.
Meanwhile, while units in the field often have a better understanding of enemy movements and better ways to respond, the digital age doesn't make war any less deadly.

--- From "Cyber ​​Battlefield"

What is war? Why and how is war waged? How is it won? Ancient thinkers grappled deeply with these questions, but simple answers proved elusive.
In the mid-1st millennium BC, in China, Sun Tzu had already written his classic work, The Art of War.
This work contains the principles of 'indirect warfare' with a strong psychological element, and is considered one of the most important reference books in the world today, transcending the times.
(Omitted) Humanity has experienced two terrible events called world wars.
The phenomenon of 'war' remains a reality that modern society must face and a problem that must be constantly addressed.
--- From "Strategic Sustainability: What War Is It and How Will We Win It?"

War is not just a man's business.
It is a mistake to think that women only play a 'secondary' role in the rear.
Even in supporting roles, women are essential, and they play a vital role, as in the Spartan woman who encouraged her husband (and son) to fight to protect their home.
Moreover, women help the military function properly.
It is true that their support role (or role as a substitute for men in factories and farms) keeps them in the shadows.
But women are also fighters.
Like men, they also kill their enemies.
During World War I, some women disguised themselves as men and were in the trenches.
They can become leaders of armies, inspiring and directing their soldiers to victory or defeat, and sometimes driving them to sacrifice in glory or shame.
Women are as much a part of the war as men; they not only wage war but sometimes decide it.

--- From "Women in War"

The trials led by the Allied powers that won World War II became the de facto basis for international justice in relation to the war.
However, the fact that both sides avoided addressing the issue of civilian airstrikes and granted immunity to the Japanese emperor has become a source of controversy.

--- From "Nuremberg, Tokyo, and the Major Postwar Trials"