History of Alexander the Great: Conquering the World

The Macedonian king Alexander the Great went down in history as a brilliant commander, the greatest administrator, and politician. With his legendary victories over numerically superior rivals, Alexander conquered a vast territory and founded his state, stretching from Macedonia and Egypt all the way to India. Alexander the Great, at the age of 18, became ruler of Macedonia after the death of his father Philip II. At the beginning of his reign, the young king brutally suppressed the revolt of the Greek states, which wanted to get rid of the rule of Macedonia. In order to avenge the devastation of Greece and Macedonia during the Persian invasion and expand the dominions of his state, the ambitious Alexander secured the support of Greek politicians at a congress in Corinth. In 334 BCE, the Greek Macedonian army, led by Alexander, crossed to Asia Minor. After defeating the Persians at the Granicus, they moved south along the Mediterranean Sea. The following summer, the Macedonians conquered Phrygia and most of Asia Minor. The commander of the Persian army, Memnon, proposed to lure the Macedonians deep into Persia, destroying supplies of food and horse feet, and inflict a devastating defeat on Alexander's army when it would be exhausted. But the Persian king Darius III feared the betrayal of his governors and did not accept Memnon's plan. Alexander the Great won the next victory in the Battle of the city of Issus. Having a 40,000-strong army, he defeated the army of the Persian emperor Darius III. Alexander the Great's army was based on the phalanx, in which soldiers had long spears and were perfectly disciplined and unbeatable in frontal collisions. The defeat of Darius made the Macedonian king the ruler of the Middle East. After the victory, Alexander of Macedon went south. This allowed him not only to prevent the Persians from uniting with the opposing Greek cities, but also to deprive them of using the Phoenician fleet. The cities of Phoenicia mostly surrendered to Alexander without a fight. However, the city of Tyre desperately resisted the Macedonians. It took Alexander seven months to besiege the city. After this, most of the adult residents of the recalcitrant city were killed and executed, the rest sold into slavery. In addition, the captured lands paid taxes to the Macedonian treasury, depending on the voluntary or military conquest of these territories. After the capture of Tyre, Macedonian triumphantly entered Palestine. The next on the way of conquest of Alexander became Egypt, the Persian troops of which scattered even before the appearance of the Macedonian army. Dedicated to the Macedonian king, the Egyptian priests crowned him as pharaoh and lord of upper and lower Egypt and proclaimed him god, the son of the great Amun. Alexander founded the city of Alexandria in the western part of the Nile Delta, which later became the main port and the second largest and most economically important city in Egypt. From Egypt, the Macedonian army went into the Persian state, namely Mesopotamia. The Greek Macedonian army marched unhindered into the headwaters of the Tigris and the Euphrates. The army of the Persian king slowly moved toward them. In the autumn of 331 BC, near the village of Gaugamela, the decisive battle of Alexander's campaign took place. The Persians mobilized a huge army, which ancient historians estimated at 500,000. 50,000 strong army of Greeks and Macedonians compared to such an armada seemed meager. For the first time, Persians used against Macedonians fighting elephants and chariots, two which were attached large sickle knives. Alexander's archers killed most of the coachmen and elephant riders. The unguided, wounded, and frightened animals rushed back and began trampling the Persian infantry. The remnants of the Persian cavalry tried to break through the but died, having stumbled upon the resistance of the Macedonian phalanx. After an unexpected bypass maneuver, the cavalry of the Macedonians struck the rear of the Persian troops and completed an epic defeat of the Persians. In pursuit of the enemy, the conquerors occupied Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis. In fact, the conquest of Media marked the end of the campaign against the Persian Achaemenid dynasty. The Persian emperor Darius fled toward the Caspian Sea, but was killed in Parthia by the Bactrian ruler Bessus. This was an occasion for Alexander to take the place of the Persian king. Accordingly, his policy toward the Persians changed. He began to get closer to the Persian nobility. Also, he was dressing in eastern clothes and introduced the eastern ceremonial. During Alexander's reign in the conquered lands, a symbiosis of Greek and local cultures was formed, and the Greek customs in the cities of the conquered east spread. However, a circumstance that made it difficult for the Macedonian forces to advance further to the east was the resistance of the local population. It was especially strong in Bactria and Sogdia. Here, in 329 BCE, Alexander moved under the pretext of executing the revenge of Bessus for the murder of Darius. He suppressed the rebellion not so much by force of arms as by skillful diplomacy, marital agreements, and rapprochement with the local nobility. Alexander slightly altered the old Achaemenid administrative system. He limited the power of the administrators of civil affairs by placing military commanders, which were under his direct authority, near them. New cities played an important role in local government and trade. At the same time, Alexander pursued, above all, military objectives, seeing in the new cities the strongholds of his power. From Central Asia, Alexander led his troops to India, rich in jewels and spices. An obstacle in his way was the Indian king Porus and his army of about a hundred battle elephants. In 326 BCE, there was a decisive battle on the river Hydaspes. The invincible Macedonian cavalry easily defeated the enemy horsemen, but as it approached the elephants, the frightened horses stopped. Indian archers, sitting on elephants, destroyed the Macedonian cavalry. Even Alexander's beloved horse Bucephalus was killed right under him. However, the advance of the battle-hardened Macedonian phalanx brought another victory in this bloody confrontation. The Macedonian army conquered the western part of India. Alexander intended to continue his march further to the east and capture the Ganges Valley, but the warriors, exhausted by long marches, tropical rains and disease, refused to move on. They demanded to return to their homeland. Therefore, the Macedonian ruler completed his last campaign. Three months later, Alexander's army returned to the Persian Gulf. It was not until the beginning of 324 BCE that he arrived in Mesopotamia. Alexander did not want to return to Macedonia and made Babylon his capital. Here he held feasts with orgies and prepared hard for new conquests, for which a new fleet was built and the army reorganized. Unbridled celebrations and tropical diseases undermined the health of Alexander, who caught a fever and died. Alexander's vast multinational empire soon collapsed due to internecine wars between his military commanders, but the glory of this legendary conqueror remained immortal.