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Cane Sword Natural
This decorative Stick Sword is crafted from natural hardwood and bares an engraving of the Chinese Dragon. Features antique copper fittings and a Stainless Steel Blade. Blade: 27 �" Width: 4/16" Overall: 41 �"
Price: 29.95


Sword Baldric
The OL300 Baldric is worn diagonally across the chest and has an adjustable frog for use with a wide variety of scabbards, from rapier to broadsword. Shown here with the Black Knight (not included). KEY FEATURES: Will hold most Medieval/Renaissance s
Price: 99.99


Hanwei Dao Sword
The Kungfu Sword or Dao is undoubtedly one of the best weapon-grade sword of its type commercially available. Unlike the many decorative and theatrical versions of this sword, the Hanwei product is a true replica of the original. A brass-mounted scabbard is included. The distal-tapered blade and traditional hand-tied grip make for superb handling. See also Models SH2063, SH2115 and SH2074
BLADE LENGTH: 25 1/4"
HANDLE LENGTH: 6 1/2"
OVERALL LENGTH: 31 3/4"
WEIGHT: 1lb 14oz Another high-quality, authentic replica sword from Hanwei.

Price: 161.99


Hanwei Dadao Sword (Fighting Sword)
Long the traditional weapon of Chinas peasant armies, the Dadao, or fighting sword, was used with deadly effect as late as the 1930s in the Sino-Japanese war. Its single- or two-handed versatility, combined with the tremendous slashing power of its weight-forward blade made it the ideal close-quarters weapon. Our Dadao has a high-carbon steel blade and a full-length tang for tremendous strength. Although the originals had no scabbard, a simple carrying case is provided for protection and ease of transportation.
BLADE LENGTH: 25"
HANDLE LENGTH: 6"
OVERALL LENGTH: 31"
WEIGHT: 2lb 3oz Hanwei replica swords set the world standard for the replica sword industry. Quality and authenticity define these fine products. High demand does create shortages, so we suggest ordering your favorite sword whenever you find it available.

Price: 114.99


Damascus Tai Chi Sword by Hanwei
Crafted by Hanwei to a completely different standard of quality than most pieces currently available, this Tai Chi sword is built around a hand-forged Damascus steel blade, profiled to produce a fast, well balanced sword for the martial artist and an authentic piece for the collector of Oriental weaponry. The grip and scabbard are crafted in Rosewood with bronzed steel fittings. See also Models SH2008, SH2009.
BLADE LENGTH: 28"
HANDLE LENGTH: 9"
OVERALL LENGTH: 37"
WEIGHT: 2lb 9oz Hanwei is the world leader in quality and authentic sword replicas. Demand for Hanwei products is higher than supplies. We suggest ordering your favorite sword whenever you find it available.

Price: 383.99


The Han Sword - Chinese Replica by Hanwei
The Han Sword is a cavalry pattern from the Han Dynasty (206 BC -- 220 AD), which reunited China and established boundaries very similar to those existing today. The rosewood grip and scabbard are inlaid with silver in an intricate scroll pattern, while the gilded steel guard, pommel and scabbard decorations feature the "crouching tiger" motif. The random pattern Damascus blade, with its ridged central fuller and reinforced point is admirably suited for slashing cuts and powerful thrusts from horseback.
BLADE LENGTH: 28 �"
HANDLE LENGTH: 9 1/4"
OVERALL LENGTH: 37 5/8"
WEIGHT: 4lb

Price: 1259.99


The Ching Dynasty Sword - Hanwei Sword Replica
The traditional perception of the form of the Tai Chi sword becomes very apparent in the Ching Sword. The last of the Chinese Dynasties, the Ching (or Quing) Dynasty was overthrown by rebellion as late as 1911, by which time the Tai Chi sword had completed its evolution in to the "modern" form. The sword is crafted around a beautifully pattern-welded blade of flattened diamond section with the guard and pommel in gilded steel, both featuring a flying bat design. The scabbard decorations are in gilded brass and the intricate knotword of the tassel is art in its own right. BLADE LENGTH: 29" HANDLE LENGTH: 9" OVERALL LENGTH: 38" WEIGHT: 3lb 6oz
Price: 919.99


Water Song (Kung Fu) Sword - Replica Hanwei Chinese Sword
In response to requests from Wushu practitioners for swords with ultra-flexible blades, we have developed the Water Song Broadsword. With a spring steel blade, tapering to almost paper thin at the tip, it is very light (barely one pound), extremely fast and surprisingly loud in skilled hands. A tassel (Item 2078-GT) is available separately.
BLADE LENGTH: 28 3/4"
HANDLE LENGTH: 5 3/4"
OVERALL LENGTH: 34 1/2"
WEIGHT: 2lb 5oz

Price: 105.99


Hanwei Butterfly Sword Set
Butterfly swords are believed to have been developed by Shaolin monks as a concealable defensive weapon, used to disable rather than kill, which was prohibited by their code of conduct. The use of butterfly swords has since been honed to a fine art by martial artists, particularly in Southern China, where precision and two-sword coordination are emphasized. Our Butterfly Swords Set is a high quality set featuring high-carbon tempered steel blades with traditional scroll patterning, leather-wrapped grips and steel guards decorated in a dragon motif. A wall display plaque and a double scabbard are included.
BLADE LENGTH: 11 1/2"
HANDLE LENGTH: 5"
OVERALL LENGTH: 16 1/2"
WEIGHT: 1lb Hanwei is the standard-setter in the replica sword field. Demand is high and we suggest ordering your favorite whenever you find it available. Replica swords make a terrific decorator item.

Price: 143.99


Song Sword Hanwei Replica Sword
Deriving its name from the goose-feather shaped blade, the Yanling Sword was originally developed in the Song Dynasty. This exquisite version by the craftsmen of Hanwei features a beautifully patterned folded Swedish powder steel fullered blade and top quality fittings. The solid bronze "full moon" guard has a flying goose motif in relief on the grip side and traditional good fortune patterning on the blade side, repeated on the pommel and scabbard fittings. The grip is leather-wrapped over sharkskin, which also covers the scabbard. The beauty of this sword belies the fact that it is fully functional, with great inherent strength, balance and cutting ability.
BLADE LENGTH: 25 �"
HANDLE LENGTH: 6 1/2"
OVERALL LENGTH: 32 �"
WEIGHT: 2lb 3oz

Price: 1359.99


The Ming Dynasty Sword Replica by Hanwei
The pattern of the Ming Sword dates from the Ming Dynasty (1368 AD -- 1644 AD), which ruled China for almost three centuries after the fall of the Mongol Dynasty. The beauty of this delightfully compact sword centers on its superb pattern-welded blade, forged with a ridged central fuller providing the stiffness required for thrusting and the lightness required for speed. The grip is sculpted from brown buffalo horn, which is also used in thin, translucent wafers as a shell for the intricately decorated scabbard. The brass fittings are selectively decorated with oriental designs plated in silver. KEY FEATURES: Authentic replica of Museum Piece Hand-forged Damascus blade Buffalo horn grip and scabbard inlays. MEASUREMENTS: Blade length: 26 1/4� Handle length: 5 1/2� Overall length: 33 1/4� Weight: 1lb Box height: 40 1/4� Box width: 4� Thickness: .200
Price: 1067.99


Practical Tai Chi Sword by Hanwei
The Practical Tai-Chi swords from Hanwei have been developed in response to many requests for a quality Tai-Chi sword for everyday practice. The 2008-GT series features three blade lengths, to suit the individual requirements of the Tai-Chi practitioner. All models feature steel guards and pommels, plated to harmonize the color scheme of the sword. The blades are fully tempered high-carbon steel with a flattened-diamond blade section that is moderately stiff while allowing for some flexibility. The SH2008B has a blade length of 30" (see Models SH2008AB and SH2008C for other blade lengths). A tassel (Item SH2078) is available separately. KEY FEATURES: Designed for the T'ai Chi practitioner Fully tempered high-carbon steel blade Scabbard included MEASUREMENTS: Blade length: 30� Handle length: 6 1/2� Overall length: 36 1/2� Weight: 1lb 6oz Box height: 41� Box width: 4 1/4� Thickness: .230
Price: 92.99


Practical Tai Chi Sword 32 Inch Blade from Hanwai
The Practical Tai-Chi swords from Hanwei have been developed in response to many requests for a quality Tai-Chi sword for everyday practice. The 2008-GT series features three blade lengths, to suit the individual requirements of the Tai-Chi practitioner. All models feature steel guards and pommels, plated to harmonize the color scheme of the sword. The blades are fully tempered high-carbon steel with a flattened-diamond blade section that is moderately stiff while allowing for some flexibility.
Price: 92.99


The Practical Tai-Chi Swords from Hanwei 30 Inch Blade
The Practical Tai-Chi swords from Hanwei have been developed in response to many requests for a quality Tai-Chi sword for everyday practice. The 2009-GT series, finished in polished walnut, features three blade lengths to suit the individual requirements
Price: 193.99


Practical Tai Chi Sword 32 Inch Blade
The Practical Tai-Chi swords from Hanwei have been developed in response to many requests for a quality Tai-Chi sword for everyday practice. The 2009-GT series, finished in polished walnut, features three blade lengths to suit the individual requirements
Price: 193.99


Hanwei Flexible Tai Chi Sword
In response to requests from Wushu practitioners for swords with ultra-flexible blades, we have developed the Flexible Long Sword. With a spring steel blade tapering to almost paper thin at the tip, it is very light (barely one pound), extremely fast and surprisingly loud in skilled hands.
Price: 87.99


Practical Kung Fu Sword by Hanwei
The Practical Kung Fu (2063-GT) sword is a further extension of our Practical Series. The sword weighs only 1-1/2 lbs, and can be handled by the younger student as well as the experienced practitioner. The textured wooden scabbard is designed with a slotted opening, which makes both for easy sheathing and for graceful lines. In line with other swords in the Practical Series, the Practical Kung Fu is very affordable. KEY FEATURES: distal-tapered high carbon steel blade wooden scabbard black finish BLADE LENGTH: 27 3/4" HANDLE LENGTH: 6" OVERALL LENGTH: 33 3/4" WEIGHT: 3lb 2oz
Price: 176.99


Banshee Cutting Sword - Hanwei
Developed from the Burmese Da, the Banshee is a light, superbly balanced cutting sword for one- or two-hand use. The high-carbon steel forged blade features a rugged full-length tang for power and rugged reliability. A spring clip provides positive retention of the sword in the scabbard and, in combination with the included shoulder strap, allows many carrying options. The ultimate brush cutter! Order your quality replica sword from Hanwei - the leader in replica quality!
Price: 145.99


 

War

War is the reciprocal and violent application of force between hostile political entities aimed at bringing about a desired political end-state via armed conflict. In his seminal work, On War, Carl Von Clausewitz calls war the "continuation of political intercourse, carried on with other means."[1] War is an interaction in which two or more militaries have a “struggle of wills”.[2] When qualified as a civil war, it is a dispute inherent to a given society, and its nature is in the conflict over modes of governance rather than sovereignty. War is not considered to be the same as mere occupation, murder or genocide because of the reciprocal nature of the violent struggle, and the organized nature of the units involved.

War is also a cultural entity, and its practice is not linked to any single type of political organisation or society. Rather, as discussed by John Keegan in his “History Of Warfare”, war is a universal phenomenon whose form and scope is defined by the society that wages it. [3] The conduct of war extends along a continuum, from the almost universal tribal warfare that began well before recorded human history, to wars between city states, nations, or empires. A group of combatants and their support is called an army on land, a navy at sea, and air force in the air. Wars may be prosecuted simultaneously in one or more different theatres. Within each theatre, there may be one or more consecutive military campaigns. A military campaign includes not only fighting but also intelligence, troop movements, supplies, propaganda, and other components. Continuous conflict is traditionally called a battle, although this terminology is not always fed to conflicts involving aircraft, missiles or bombs alone, in the absence of ground troops or naval forces.

War is not limited to the human species, as ants engage in massive intra-species conflicts which might be termed warfare. It is theorized that other species also engage in similar behavior, although this is not well documented. [4][5][6]

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[edit] History of war

Main article: History of war

Some believe war has always been with us; others stress the lack of clear evidence that war is not in our prehistoric past, and the fact that many peaceful, non-military societies have and still do exist.


Originally, war likely consisted of small-scale raiding. Since the rise of the state some 5000 years ago, military activity has occurred over much of the globe. The advent of gunpowder and the acceleration of technological advances led to modern warfare.

Since the close of the Vietnam War, the ideas expounded by the Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) have come to thoroughly permeate American military writing, doctrinal, theoretical, and historical. His book On War, first published (as Vom Kriege) in 1832, was adopted as a key text at the Naval War College in 1976, the Air War College in 1978, the Army War College in 1981. It has always been central at the U.S. Army's School for Advanced Military Studies at Leavenworth (founded in 1983). The U.S. Marine Corps's brilliant little philosophical field manual FMFM 1: Warfighting (1989) is essentially a distillation of On War, and the newer Marine Corps Doctrinal Publications (MCDPs, c.1997) are equally reflective of Clausewitz's basic concepts.*1

This is not the first time Clausewitz has been in fashion. Indeed, On War has been the bible of many thoughtful soldiers ever since Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke attributed to its guidance his stunning victories in the wars of German unification (1864, 1866, 1870-71). Nor is it the first time that individual American soldiers and military thinkers have been attracted by his ideas: George Patton, Albert Wedemeyer, and—especially—Dwight Eisenhower were intensely interested in what he had to say.

It is, however, the first time that the American armed forces as institutions have turned to Clausewitz. While the philosopher had insisted that war was "simply the expression of politics by other means," the traditional attitude of American soldiers had been that "politics and strategy are radically and fundamentally things apart. Strategy begins where politics end. All that soldiers ask is that once the policy is settled, strategy and command shall be regarded as being in a sphere apart from politics."*2 The sudden acceptability of Clausewitz in the wake of Vietnam is not difficult to account for, for among the major military theorists only Clausewitz seriously struggled with the sort of dilemma that American military leaders faced in the aftermath of their defeat. Clearly, in what had come to be called in scathing terms a "political war," the political and military components of the American war effort had come unstuck. It ran against the grain of America's military men to criticize elected civilian leaders, but it was just as difficult to take the blame upon themselves. Clausewitz's analysis could not have been more relevant:

The more powerful and inspiring the motives for war,... the more closely will the military aims and the political objects of war coincide, and the more military and less political will war appear to be. On the other hand, the less intense the motives, the less will the military element's natural tendency to violence coincide with political directives. As a result, war will be driven further from its natural course, the political object will be more and more at variance with the aim of ideal war, and the conflict will seem increasingly political in character.*3

When people talk, as they often do, about harmful political influence on the management of war, they are not really saying what they mean. Their quarrel should be with the policy itself, not with its influence.

Vom Kriege (IPA[fɔm ˈkʁiːgə]) is a book on war and military strategy by Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz, written mostly after the Napoleonic wars, between 1816 and 1830, and published posthumously by his wife in 1832. It has been translated into English several times as On War. On War is actually an unfinished work; Clausewitz had set about revising his accumulated manuscripts in 1827, but did not live to finish the task. His wife eventually compiled all the work and the final two chapters Clausewitz never finished.

On War is one of the first books on modern military strategy. This is mainly due to Clausewitz' integration of politics and social and economic issues as some of the most important factors in deciding the outcomes of a war. It is one of the most important treatises on strategy ever written, and is prescribed at various military academies to this day.

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[edit] History

Carl von Clausewitz was a Prussian officer among those baffled by how the armies of the French Revolution and Napoleon had changed the nature of war through their ability to motivate the populace and thus unleash war on a greater scale than had previously been the case in Europe. Clausewitz was well educated and had a strong interest in art, science, and education, but he was a professional soldier who spent a considerable part of his life fighting against Napoleon. There is no doubt that the insights he gained from his experiences, combined with a solid grasp of European history, provided much of the raw material for the book. On War represents the compilation of his most cogent observations.

Note: Clausewitz states that Napoleon's tactics were not revolutionary at all and that Napoleonic Warfare did not change anything greatly in military history. The technology of weaponry for the most part remained static, and new strategies weren't developed, but rather Napoleon refurbished old ones, mixing them into one grand strategy.

[edit] Synopsis

The book contains a wealth of historical examples used to illustrate its various concepts. Frederick II of Prussia (the Great) figures prominently for having made very efficient use of the limited forces at his disposal. Napoleon also is a central figure.

Among many strands of thought, three stand out as essential to Clausewitz' concept:

  • War must never be seen as a purpose to itself, but as a means of physically forcing one's will on an opponent ("War is not merely a political act, but also a real political instrument, a continuation of political commerce, a carrying out of the same by other means."[1]).
  • The military objectives in war that support one's political objectives fall into two broad types: "war to achieve limited aims" and war to "disarm” the enemy: “to render [him] politically helpless or militarily impotent."
  • The course of war will tend to favor the party employing more force and resources (a notion extended by Germany's leaders in World War One into "total war"—the pursuit of complete military victory regardless of the political consequences).

Military strategy is a national defence policy implemented by military organisations to pursue desired strategic goals.[1] Derived from the Greek strategos, strategy when it appeared in use during the 18th century[2], was seen in its narrow sense as the "art of the general"[3], 'the art of arrangement' of troops.[4] Military strategy deals with the planning and conduct of campaigns, the movement and disposition of forces, and the deception of the enemy. The father of modern strategic study, Carl von Clausewitz, defined military strategy as "the employment of battles to gain the end of war." Liddell Hart's definition put less emphasis on battles, defining strategy as "the art of distributing and applying military means to fulfil the ends of policy" Hence, both gave the pre-eminence to political aims over military goals, ensuring civilian control of the military.

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[edit] Fundamentals

"You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war." Napoleon Bonaparte

Military strategy is the plan and execution of the contest between very large groups of armed adversaries. It involves each opponent's diplomatic, informational, military, and economic resources wielded against the other's resources to gain supremacy or reduce the opponent's will to fight. It is a principle tool to secure the national interest. A contemporary military strategy is developed via military science. [5] It is as old as society itself. It is a subdiscipline of warfare and of foreign policy. In comparison, grand strategy is that strategy of the largest of organizations which are currently the nation state, confederation, or international alliances. Military strategy has its origins before the Battle of the Ten Kings and will endure through the space age. It is larger in perspective than military tactics which is the disposition and maneuver of units on a particular sea or battlefield.[6]

[edit] Background

Military strategy in the 19th century was still viewed as one of a trivium of "arts" or "sciences" that govern the conduct of warfare; the others being tactics, the execution of plans and manœuvering of forces in battle, and logistics, the maintenance of an army. The view had prevailed since the Roman times, and the borderline between strategy and tactics at this time was blurred, and sometimes categorization of a decision is a matter of almost personal opinion. Carnot, during the French Revolutionary Wars thought it simply involved concentration of troops.[7]

The Battle of Siffin, illustration from a 19th century manuscript by Muhammad Rafi Bazil.

Strategy and tactics are closely related and exist on the same continuum.

 

 

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