Western Civilization: Learning From Past Mistakes

At the beginning of the semester, we were required to answer the questions of “what is history and why does it matter?” From what I can recall, I had the answer along the lines that history is a study of past events that can be useful to help us learn from our past mistakes. From my original answer, it seems short and simple. But after taking this course of Western Civilization, I think that the answer to both questions is much more than a simple answer. I think a part of why history matters does include learning from past mistakes, but I think that there is more we can learn from studying past events. As we studied about the Greeks and Romans, it is evident that we have adapted some of their inventions and ideas from their time. In the …show more content…
One of the most prevalent aspects of Greek and Roman life is war. Furthermore, learning about their war tactics and how their past wars succeeded or failed could benefit our soldiers in figuring out an action plan for combat. In about every battle or war, it is said that one side will examine the land before choosing which side of the land they will march on. For an example, in the Battle of Cannae during the Second Punic War, Hannibal knew that the Romans would have triple the amount of soldier than him. However, he knew that the number would matter as much if he could have the Roman army have the disadvantages of the land they would fight on. So Hannibal made sure to figure out which direction is the prevailing winds in order to have the wind and dust blowing with them and have it blow against the enemies. They also used battle tactics from the Battle of Marathon which caused them to win the battle. From that event, Hannibal was able to win the battle by studying previous battle tactics and reapplying it to his own situation. Our troops today are being taught about successful war tactics and unsuccessful tactics in order to ensure a successful