Even bigger map?!

**seienchin** · 01-06-2010, 12:49

Originally Posted by AncientFanTR

Huh, you talk about Alexander conquering the whole world if he had the time, but one of his last battles was against an Indian king at the Hydaspes river, which he won, but it pretty much all the other indian kings started to unite against the threat of Alex, so they were preparing an army of about 200-300,000 troops with hundreds, perhaps of elephants and chariots. Alex only had 15-20,000 troops, the same phalanx and medium cavalry as always. All the genius and tactics in the world could not have helped him defeat those armies. He could never have conquered all of india, not to mention China, with the piddly little army he had, no matter how experienced each one was. It was good that he turned around when he did, or he would be remembering for meeting a bad end with his army at the end of a very successful campaign.

Well... He did conquer the persian empire、which was bigger...

And by the way, if Alexander would have had the time, he would have assembled a huge armies composed of persians, baktrians, egyptians plus his greek and makedon soldiers. The diadochii wars showed the incredible manpower of his empire.

**tarem** · 01-06-2010, 15:51

i think his major problems would involve suply lines and climate changes, not tactical challanges. throughout his cmpaign that dude showed remarcable creativity and adaptation as far as battlefield tactics went. few other generals in antiquity as well as later history showed such battlefield instincts and iniciative. however on a strategic level we got somewhat lucky wit hthe persians. i mean they were virtualy ripe for the taking, which i doubt could be said for India or china. i feel maybe he could campaign and possibly take northen parts of the Indian subcontinent and still maintain political unision and social stability, but not much further east or south. western mediteranean would be logisticaly more realistic goal

**bobbin** · 01-06-2010, 16:51

Both India and China were completely disunited at the time so his chances might have been good in that respect, Chandragupta Maurya is recorded as saying the Alexander narrowly missed making himself the master of India due to the unpopularness of the Nanda rulers.
Of the two India was the only region he could have conceivably conquered after raising fresh armies, China was too far away and he would have to pass through the territiories of varoius powerful steppe tribes to get there and defend what would be extremely streched supply lines from said tribes as well not to mention having to then fight the Chinese states when he got there.

**Subotan** · 01-06-2010, 20:21

Originally Posted by ARCHIPPOS

errrrr i think an Indian guy (or was it a Persian???-i'll have to check it up) stepped up and corrected Alexander in the matter of Hindus not being the Nile... however the argument still stands. I also want to point out that Alexander had indeed conceived a masterplan of creating a seatrade route extending from the Indian coasts to Babylon (from the Indian ocean through the Persian gulf and up to Euphrates river). Considering the relatively low costs of sea-trade compared to land-trade (sea trade is approx. 2,5-5 times cheaper) and the amazing wealth that could be amassed (exotic spices,slaves and valuables) and the amazing advantage of completely bypassing the vast northern steppes with its unruly nomads and the harsh terrain of Afghanistan with its hostile mountain-people i was very surprised that the Achaemenids have not already instituted such a route...

Sailing at this time was done using, uh, sails, which meant you were dependant on the wind direction/speed. Because it changed in India so regularly and stayed in the same direction for such long period of time because of the monsoon, it took several years to sail to the Eastern coast of India and back again. And getting through the Straits of Malacca would have been even worse.

Originally Posted by bobbin

China was too far away and he would have to pass through the territiories of varoius powerful steppe tribes to get there and defend what would be extremely streched supply lines from said tribes as well not to mention having to then fight the Chinese states when he got there.

Thankfully with Asia ton Barbaroron, we shall prove that such petty things are useless, and shall have Phalanxes marching down the Yangtze in no time.