The world of the samurai - the legendary elite warrior cult of old Japan - has for too long been associated solely with military history and has remained a mystery to the general reader. In this exci
The Ottoman Empire and its conflicts provide one of the longest continuous narratives in military history. Its rulers were never overthrown by a foreign power and no usurper succeeded in taking the th
The history of the Mongol conquests is a catalogue of superlatives. No army in the world has ever conquered so much territory, and few armies have provoked such terror as the Mongol hordes. So vast wa
Osprey's examination of the campaign at Nagashino in 1575. When Portuguese traders took advantage of the constant violence in Japan to sell the Japanese their first firearms, one of the quickest to ta
By 1400 the long running conflict between the Order of Teutonic Knights and Poland and Lithuania was coming to a head, partly as a result of the Order’s meddling in the internal politics of its neighb
In 1543 three Portuguese merchants entered a turbulent Japan, bringing with them the first firearms the Japanese had ever seen: simple matchlock muskets called arquebuses. They proved a decisive addit
Throughout their stormy history the Teutonic Knights of Germany have always been the most controversial brotherhood ever to call themselves 'Knights of Christ'.They were the most warlike of the relig
