Decisive Victories and What They Mean

Abstract

The subject of decisive victory was another subject that caught my attention while at the Naval War College, where we would ask students to list Napoleon’s decisive victories. The term “decisive” is overused, and too often engagements with only transient strategic significance—despite the number of casualties—were given the term. The number of truly decisive battles throughout history is few. The first step therefore was to define decisive, and the key was to identify victories having long-term significance. After defining the term, listed are what in my view are the Top Eleven throughout history.