It's an impressive series and, like the other episodes, presents us with far more than a history of battles and politics. The focus is on the history of certain features of combat -- not just technology but cultural forces. It's almost a negation of von Clausewitz's often-quoted generalization that war is an extension of politics by other means.
It's almost a kind of topical anthropology. For instance, it begins with the ecosystem of the Russian steppes -- little rainfall, severe winters, no good for crops and settlements, but just fine for horses. Wild horses were already available but the warriors of the steppes -- the Mongols and others -- culled the herd and produced tough little ponies through artificial selection. The horse was like a supermarket for them. They made tents out of the hides and an alcoholic drink out of mare's milk, called kumis. They also produced a tough little weapon suitable for their style of warfare -- the tremendously strong, multi-layered bow and the light arrow that went with it.
At its zenith, their empire stretched from Austria to China. They had (or acquired) the proper somatotype too -- short, stocky, with a lot of lateral development in the upper torso. Exactly what you'd want for horsemen and archers in a cold climate. I won't go on with this because the episode itself doesn't, but as an anthropologist I studied two of the plains tribes of American Indians, the Blackfeet and the Cheyenne, also equestrian archers, and their body build was similar except that they were taller. (They'd been archers for millenia but horsemen for only a short time.)
The point is that here, as elsewhere, the proximate causes of the changes in warfare are cultural. Those mentioned in this episode include religion, economics, geographic isolation, and overpopulation. The political views that make war possible are treated more as an effect rather than a cause, a justification after the fact, or an excuse, if you like.
Also covered here are the Islamic warriors who took Spain as well as a lot of other places, Ye Knights of Olde and the samurai who were their Japanese counterparts, the sea-going Vikings who are treated by the narration as almost totally without redeeming qualities, and their successors, the Normans led by William the Conqueror who occupied England after 1066.
John Keegan, an esteemed military historian, shows up once in a while to make personal comments. There are a few cloudy reenactments, some footage of modern-day steppe dwellers and their treatment of horses, but the reenactments don't take up much time.
It's almost a kind of topical anthropology. For instance, it begins with the ecosystem of the Russian steppes -- little rainfall, severe winters, no good for crops and settlements, but just fine for horses. Wild horses were already available but the warriors of the steppes -- the Mongols and others -- culled the herd and produced tough little ponies through artificial selection. The horse was like a supermarket for them. They made tents out of the hides and an alcoholic drink out of mare's milk, called kumis. They also produced a tough little weapon suitable for their style of warfare -- the tremendously strong, multi-layered bow and the light arrow that went with it.
At its zenith, their empire stretched from Austria to China. They had (or acquired) the proper somatotype too -- short, stocky, with a lot of lateral development in the upper torso. Exactly what you'd want for horsemen and archers in a cold climate. I won't go on with this because the episode itself doesn't, but as an anthropologist I studied two of the plains tribes of American Indians, the Blackfeet and the Cheyenne, also equestrian archers, and their body build was similar except that they were taller. (They'd been archers for millenia but horsemen for only a short time.)
The point is that here, as elsewhere, the proximate causes of the changes in warfare are cultural. Those mentioned in this episode include religion, economics, geographic isolation, and overpopulation. The political views that make war possible are treated more as an effect rather than a cause, a justification after the fact, or an excuse, if you like.
Also covered here are the Islamic warriors who took Spain as well as a lot of other places, Ye Knights of Olde and the samurai who were their Japanese counterparts, the sea-going Vikings who are treated by the narration as almost totally without redeeming qualities, and their successors, the Normans led by William the Conqueror who occupied England after 1066.
John Keegan, an esteemed military historian, shows up once in a while to make personal comments. There are a few cloudy reenactments, some footage of modern-day steppe dwellers and their treatment of horses, but the reenactments don't take up much time.