Show 74 - Mania for Subjugation IV
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What is Alexander's early leader-troop relationship and its impact after Granicus?
What you're about to hear is part four of a multi-part series on Alexander the Great, a subject I've talked about since the very first Hardcore History show, and I've finally tried to get the definitive version down. And that would, of course, include a long conversation about his father, the military his father built, the connection between the two. And so there's quite a bit of backstory, which is why we're on part four now. If you've heard the other parts and are ready to get started, we'll get right to it. If you've missed parts one through three and you want to know what happened to get to this point, well, check them out. And if you haven't heard those and don't care at all, well, here we go.
Part four of Mania for Subjugation.
December 7th, 1941. It's history. A date which will live in infamy. That's one small step for man. The events. One giant leap for mankind. The figures. From this time and place. I take pride in the words. Mr. Gorbachev. Tear down this wall. I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their president's a crook. The deep questions. I'm not a crook. We dig deep in our history and our doctrine. And remember that we are not descended from fearful men. It's Hardcore History.
I was thinking the other day about when the role of army commander, war leader, general, whatever we want to refer to it as, when that started. What was the first one of them? And I guess we would have to sort of lay down some parameters of what we were talking about. But in the way I'm framing it in my head, I got to think Neanderthals had war leaders, right? And you think about the relationship when the military force that one of these people is commanding is small. I mean, I think of these Apache leaders like Mangus Colorados or Cuchillo Negro or Pizago Cabazon. These guys would have known all their warriors. And part of the reason they are who they are is because there's this bond between them and trust and a whole bunch of other things.
Easy to understand the relationship when it's amongst a small group like that where everyone knows one another. But as armies get larger... you know, it's not hard to see that that might be more difficult to maintain that relationship when you have 60,000 troops or something. I mean, and if you're Dwight Eisenhower commanding the Allied forces in Europe in the, you know, after D-Day, I mean, hard to have a personal relationship with the troops, even when you meet with them, you know, when you have these photo opportunities and they trust you to win battles for them and keep them safe and all these kinds of things. I mean, so there's one level of connection there but it's not the same as when you have this really special thing going on and you see this in the in the great commanders when the armies get very large because they're rarer I mean look at Napoleon's relationship with his army
I mean, I don't know if it really happened this way because it's so freaking dramatic. It's just, it's hard to believe. But I mean, remember when Napoleon comes back from his first exile from the island of Elba and he lands in France with this small little bodyguard and they start marching and, you know, you can almost feel the worm turning now when he's back and he's confronted on the road by, I think it's a battalion of French troops whose orders are to stop him. And they're there and they're armed and at one point they're pointing their guns and he gets, instead of a battle breaking out, he gets off his horse famously and, you know, let's hope truthfully, and walks up to the line of men who are aiming at him and says, you know, don't you recognize your emperor or something like that?
And there's this silence and instead of firing, they, you know, start yelling viva la emperor and it's it's it's on right but i mean that's a that's a special relationship where he's got this connection and none of those troops i think they were all like recent recruits too it's not like they knew him from the you know the long wars in russia or whatever i mean that's an institutional loyalty to a general or a emperor in this case but you develop that i said earlier in the story where we are in this alexander the great tale
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is Alexander's early leader-troop relationship and its impact after Granicus?
0:00–32:55
2
How did Alexander handle coastal cities and naval disadvantages at Miletus?
32:55–1:59:20
3
How many troops and unit types did Alexander and Darius bring to Issus?
1:59:20–2:11:16
4
What defensive terrain, river obstacles and night-before preparations shaped the battle?
2:11:16–2:32:47
5
How did Alexander deploy, punch the Persian foothills, and execute the cavalry audible?
2:32:47–3:53:14
6
What caused the collapse, pursuit and aftermath — from phalanx crisis to looting and Alexander’s reaction?
3:53:14–4:01:19