Massab1

Julia Massab

Professor Kimberly Lark

HIST134.132313.

8 August 2019

Portfolio Reflection

Throughout many civilizations there have been leaders who make decisions that have

shaped the future for the betterment of society. A big contribution to how our future is shaped is

by military and policing. Leaders such as Phillip the 2nd, Umar, and Cyrus the Great are just a

few men who have contributed to the formation of what our lives are like today.

In Macedonia Phillip, the 2nd was a man who took charge and wasn’t afraid of anything.

In the readings of module 6 he was described as bold and had an ambitious attitude. These

characteristics that he portrayed helped create military tactics that were very successful. He did

this by using his fighting knowledge that he had learned in the past. For example, according to

Wikipedia “Philip II spent much of his youth as a hostage at Thebes, where he studied under the

renowned general Epaminondas, whose reforms were the basis for the phalanx. Phalangites were

professional soldiers and were among the first troops ever to be drilled, thereby allowing them to

execute complex maneuvers well beyond the reach of most other armies. They fought packed in

a close rectangular formation, usually eight men deep, with a leader at the head of each column

and a secondary leader in the middle, so that the back rows could move off to the sides if more

frontage was needed.” This tactic really helped develop and shape the way armies fight to later

on wars. However, without this tactic the way that we are today could be different. For example,

with teaching new things through time there are mistakes. There are also expansions. With both
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of these things happening our safety and laws today could be completely different. For example,

the American Historical Association states, “Second, as acquaintance with the past expands,

delight in knowing more and more can and often does become an end in itself. History offers

innumerable heroes and villains. Reading about what people did in far-away times and places

enlarges our sense of human capacities both for good and evil. Encountering powerful

commitments to vanished ideas and ideals, like those that built the pyramids, puts our personal

commitment to our own ideals into a new perspective, perhaps bitter-sweet.” From the readings,

rulers have made great strides in military advancements and policing techniques that we must

learn from. Plundering, for example, was done in early civilizations as a way of controlling

and taxing civilians but later rulers learned that thinning the population by using force causes

more harm than good. Modern-day militaries enforce strict rules against abusing civilian

populations and our own constitution has a third amendment restricting the abusive power of

military during a time of war.

Military and policing are very important for our safety. Without having any rules in

the beginning our safety, and our protection could be completely different. For example,

Umar and the Arabic Empire played a huge role in the development of policing. In module 13:

The Rise of Islam it states, “While Byzantine forces adopted a defensive stance on the

battlefield, the Arabs employed more aggressive tactics, making use of their mobile light cavalry

against their enemies’ heavily armored armies. Once victorious, the Arabs populated garrison

cities on the frontier, called amsar, with Muslims. These military settlements provided security,

served as logistical loci, and discouraged Muslim troops from mingling with the locals.” This

was the first noted form of policing, of not only a population but of one’s own military.
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Overtime, many have shaped their own forms of policing and it needed to start somewhere.

ASCD states “…historical narratives offer us stories of humility, courage, wisdom, and—most

important—hope. In essence, history teaches us to move forward, recognize our mistakes and

learn from them, and ultimately create a better existence for all.” So, without the development

and without our accomplishments and failures we would not be able to learn what is best for us

today.

Cyrus the Great and The Achaemenid also had a huge impact on policing and military.

Wikipedia states, “The Immortals were described by Herodotus as being heavy infantry, led by

Hydarnes, that were kept constantly at a strength of exactly 10,000 men. He claimed that the

unit's name stemmed from the custom that every killed, seriously wounded, or sick member was

immediately replaced with a new one, maintaining the numbers and cohesion of the unit.[181]

They had wicker shields, short spears, swords or large daggers, bow and arrow. Underneath their

robes they wore scale armour coats. The spear counterbalances of the common soldiery were of

silver; to differentiate commanding ranks, the officers' spear butt-spikes were golden.” This

shows that the Persian Empire respected military ranks and helped keep the military in a

formation and on task. Modern-day militaries are known for their excessive chain of

command and use of ranks that could have derived from early military concepts like this. “We

do not draw the moral lessons we might from history. On the contrary, without care it may be

used to vitiate our minds and to destroy our happiness. In history a great volume is unrolled for

our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of

mankind. It may, in the perversion, serve for a magazine, furnishing offensive and defensive

weapons for parties in church and state, and supplying the means of keeping alive, or reviving
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dissensions and animosities, and adding fuel to civil fury (Burke, 141)”. With this being said,

History should never be validated for a new war based off of old wars.

In conclusion I believe that without the mistakes of leaders such as Phillip the 2nd,

Umar, and Cyrus the Great our society would never grow. Without looking at their experiences

we would never be able to learn and have something to fix or look back on and know that it was

bad. Because of these mistakes I know many reasons for why I am the way I am today. Overall,

by knowing the importance of policing and the military I feel as though I am beneficial to the

betterment of our society.

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Bibliography

“Achaemenid Empire.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Aug. 2019,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaemenid_Empire#Military_composition.

“History 134: Ancient World.” HIST 134: Ancient World, Schoolcraft College,
bbaddins.schoolcraft.edu/addins/HIST134/etext/m13_islam.html.

McNeill, William H. “Why Study History? (1985): AHA.” Why Study History? (1985) | AHA,
www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/historical-
archives/why-study-history-(1985).

“Philip II of Macedon.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Aug. 2019,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_II_of_Macedon#Early_military_career.

Postma, Micheal. “What Can History Teach Us Today?” ASCD Express 6.22 - What Can History
Teach Us Today?, www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol6/622-postma.aspx.

Wasson, Donald L. “Philip II of Macedon.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History

Encyclopedia, 15 Aug. 2019, www.ancient.eu/Philip_II_of_Macedon/.