original photo credit - Annika Marjamäki
As warfare evolved over ancient times, cavalry and horse-riding warriors and mercenaries became an essential component of armies. Skilled horse-riding warriors often originated from the nomadic tribes of the Eurasian steppe, where horses were abundant and tribal feuding and raiding was a way of life. These riders and their natural tendency to cooperate in small tactical units became highly valued in warfare for their speed, mobility, and combat skills, making them ideal for reconnaissance, raiding, and disrupting enemy supply lines. It also made war a much more efficient and effective operation. The charioteer or the mounted warrior could travel faster and farther, and carry more and deadlier weapons. It’s hard to deny, based on compelling amounts of evidence, that horse domestication may also have kicked the history of human violence and conflict up a good number of notches.
For over a millennium, chariot warfare defined battlefields across Eurasia. Light, horse-drawn carts provided the elites a mobile command platform from which to direct battle and shoot arrows. Chariot tactics centered on flanking maneuvers, utilizing speed to encircle infantry. However, technological and tactical innovations gradually eroded chariots' military dominance, replacing them with a new force that revolutionized ancient combat: mounted cavalry.
In the early Bronze Age (c. 2000-1500 BC), the first chariot armies emerged in Anatolia and Egypt. Horses and horse technology was introduced into these areas by migrating Indo-europeans originating from the Steppes, such as the Hittites and The Hyksos. Constructed of wood with two horses pulling each cart, chariots granted leaders swift transportation and an elevated vantage. Armies organized chariot units as a core element, often maneuvering in tandem. While effective against dispersed opponents, limitations soon emerged against coordinated infantry. Chariots lacked shock ability and sustainability for prolonged combat.
The spread of war horses from 2000 BCE
Advances like spoked wheels, horse harnesses and metallurgy enhanced chariot design by the Late Bronze Age (c. 1500 BCE). The size of empires increased during the Bronze and Iron Ages (roughly, the second and first millennia BCE). It increased especially rapidly during the centuries between 800 and 200 BCE, when the first world-systems emerged. Larger empires deployed thousands of chariots in coordinated attacks. However, nomadic mounted cavalry simultaneously developed in the Central Asian Steppe, rapidly spreading rideable horses and the influence of their riders across Eurasia. Fighting atop horses rather than within chariots amplified mobility and independence from roads. Horse-riding warriors from the Steppes spread by turning into tribes of nomadic migrants and conquerors. Steppe mercenaries were often hired to fight for powerful foreign societies, granting them crucial military advantage. The ancient Assyrian, Hittite, Achamenid, Greek and Roman empires all imported riding warriors from the Steppes alongside their horses and horse-related technology.
The invention of stirrups (c. 300 BC - 200 AD) enabled dramatic gains in cavalry capabilities. Stirrups stabilized riders, allowing effective use of lances, bows and swords from horseback. This transformed previously mounted skirmishers into heavy shock cavalry capable of decimating infantry with violent charges.
As cavalry tactics matured, they grew dominant on Asian and European battlefields by 500 BC. Horsemen assumed chariots' strategic role, bearing the weight of armored riders and delivering devastating mounted assaults. By Classical antiquity (c. 300 BC), cavalry completely replaced now-obsolete chariot units across Eurasia due to superior speed, shock ability and sustainability in prolonged engagements.
As waves of indo-european horse-riding warriors expanded throughout Eurasia over the bronze age, their bellic superiority against regular ground troops was notable. Because most of the existing permanent settlements in Eurasia during the bronze age were built around agricultural societies, their defenders were mostly on foot and relied on massive armies of ground troops with reduced mobility. Although these farming communities may have had superiority in manpower, they lacked speed and maneuverability of horse-riding warriors to change direction, navigate through tight spaces, or perform agile movements. They also lacked proper technology to match the highly mobile, technologically and tactically superior hordes of mounted warriors and were often easily conquered and subdued.
The use of horses in warfare was often enough to compensate for the smaller troop size of the conquering tribes against these larger and slow-paced armies. This may also help explain reasons why the most successful societies and armies relied so heavily on horses and cavalry. In fact, most of these societies relied on their cavalry, and could only be conquered and subdued by another, stronger cavalry. Historically, massive ground troops stood no fighting chance against smaller and more agile tactical cavalry units.
Throughout history, conquerors and empires relied on horses for mobility, conquest, and control of vast territories. For example, the Mongols, Persians and Macedonians, who were all known for their use of horses in warfare, were able to conquer history's largest empires that stretched from China to Eastern Europe. The mighty Roman armies were constantly defeating nomadic horse-riding "barbarian" tribes such as the Huns, Goths, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Sarmatians, Alans, Burgundians, Saxons and Franks. The use of horses was already widespread during the medieval period, where they played an essential role in most important historical battles.
Horseback riding warriors were especially prevalent in ancient times, where they were often used by armies as shock troops. These warriors would charge into battle on horseback, using lances, swords and archery to devastating effect. During the Middle Ages, knights and cavalry became a symbol of military might and power. Knights were the ultimate horse-riding mercenaries, and horses were essential for their mobility and agility on the battlefield. Knights were not only skilled horse riders but also heavily armored, making them extremely difficult to defeat in battle. For instance, the Crusades were made on horseback and their battle techniques relied heavily on knights and cavalry.
The epitome of European armored cavalry was the French Gendarme of the 15th and 16th centuries. In early engagements against the Spanish, these French noblemen in full plate and barding were unstoppable. Even handguns and arquebuses had trouble penetrating their armor at longer ranges.
The importance of horse-riding warriors and mercenaries continued through the Renaissance and into the modern era. The famous French Foreign Legion, for example, relied heavily on horse-riding mercenaries to help them conquer and colonize various parts of the world. These mercenaries were often drawn from the ranks of the Bedouin tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, who had a long history of horse breeding and riding. The Bedouin's knowledge of horses and their skill in riding made them valuable assets to the French army. As a more recent example, the British Empire relied heavily on their cavalry to maintain control over their vast territories. The British cavalry was especially effective in suppressing rebellions and uprisings in India and Africa. The French army under Napoleon Bonaparte was particularly reliant on cavalry. Napoleon believed that cavalry was the most decisive arm of the battlefield, and he used it to great effect in many of his victories.
Share this post