What was the most important battle in history?

[Traianvs]

I wouldn't go for a battle really, but Hannibal not razing Rome to the ground when he had the chance was pretty important.

[Patroklos]

He never had the chance.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Pardon my provincialism, but I vote for Yorktown.

The United Colonies were on the brink of collapse. (When the messager brought Congress word of the victory, they voted to pay him his expenses. Then they learned the Treasury was EMPTY, so they passed the hat and took up a collection among themselves.)
The victory at Yorktown was like the cliche boxing movie, where the hero gets up off the canvas at the last minute to knock out a much bigger opponent.

But more importantly, the victory of the Americans set off a series of republican revolutions from Terra del Fuego to the Ural mountains. Some, like Bolivar's, were successful. Others failed. But the result was the spread of republcanims throughout the Americas and Europe.

I would argue that Saratoga was more important than Yorktown, for the simple reason that without Saratoga, Yorktown (if the war lasted so long) would probably not be a total victory for the Americans. Mostly because the Americans wouldn't have had the French fleet (or French troops for that matter).

Though Trenton may have been the most important battle of the revolution. There was a great fear that the war would have been over when the year ran out as a result of the commissions ending on the 31st of December. The victory over the Hessians at Trenton on Christmas allowed Washington to keep some of his army together.

[Will9]

I'd say the Battle of Chalons. If Attila won, most Europe would have quickly fallen to the huns.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Patroklos
He never had the chance.

c'mon...

[Will9]

Originally posted by Patroklos
He never had the chance.

If Carthage had sent some troops he would have.

[Patroklos]

It wasn't troops Hannibal was lacking, and if you remember there were reasons why Carthage didn't send more troops not to mention to eventually call back Hannibal.

[TheStinger]

Originally posted by Will9


If Carthage had sent some troops he would have.

Thats a big If,

If Carthage had developed tanks they would have won, but of course they didn't

[Agathon]

A loss at Marathon = no Salamis or Plataea.

= No rice of Macedon

= No Alexander

= No spread of Hellenistic culture.

[Proteus_MST]

Yes, the world would have been poorer without macedonian rice

[BeBMan]

And without salami

[Nikolai]

There are too many very important battles in history to make one single battle the most important IMHO.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Agathon
A loss at Marathon = no Salamis or Plataea.

= No rice of Macedon

= No Alexander

= No spread of Hellenistic culture.

Romans would have spread the ideas instead (well not into Iran etc, but hellenisation there was always much less intense)

[DAVOUT]

Originally posted by Nikolai
There are too many very important battles in history to make one single battle the most important IMHO.

This is true, except for the very first battle, when Abel was defeated and killed by Caïn, which eliminated the descent of Abel that I estimate to at least 3 billions. This result was not, and could not, be matched by any subsequent battle.

[Nikolai]

A good point.