While the Peloponnesian War destroyed Greek cities, Macedonia, a neighboring country in the north, gradually became stronger. Its king Philip, with his strong military strength, seized one declining Greek city after another when Greek cities were in chaos and unable to defend themselves. In 338 BC, the Macedonian army defeated the Greek allied forces at the gates of colonia and established its hegemony in all Greece. The next target of aggression is Persia and other civilized worlds in the East. However, in 336 BC, Philip II was assassinated, and his son Alexander was supported by the army and became king at the age of 20. He is determined to follow in his father's footsteps and achieve the goal of dominating the world.

Alexander studied under the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle and received Greek cultural education from an early age. He loves Greek culture and dreams of not only conquering the world, but also hellenizing it. From the age of 16, he followed his father to participate in military campaigns and learned a lot of combat techniques and military knowledge. In the famous Battle of Caronia, Alexander, who was 18 years old, commanded the left wing of Macedonian army to achieve brilliant results. After Alexander succeeded to the throne, he began to imitate the Greek system, implemented political and military reforms, weakened the power of the gentry and nobles, and strengthened the power of the monarch; Reform the currency and encourage the development of industry and commerce; The most important thing is military reform. He founded the Macedonian standing army, including infantry, cavalry and navy, and formed the infantry into a dense and deep combat formation called Macedonian phalanx, with heavy infantry in the middle and light infantry on both sides. Each phalanx is also equipped with heavy cavalry composed of aristocratic children, as the pioneer and flank protection of the phalanx. Through these reforms, Alexander made Macedonia quickly become a military power. After putting down the domestic rebellion and the Greek anti-Macedonian uprising, he began an expedition to the East.

In the spring of 334 BC, Alexander led the joint forces of Macedonian and Greek countries, including 30,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry and 160 warship, crossed the Da Daniil Strait and marched into Persia. At that time, the Persian Empire was extremely weak, Darius Iii was incompetent, politically corrupt and had many internal contradictions. Alexander easily conquered Asia Minor Peninsula with a quick offensive. In 333 BC, Alexander's army defeated the Persian army in Isus, and King Darius Iii of Persia fled. Darius' mother, wife and two daughters were captured, and the infantry and cavalry lost about 65438+ ten thousand, and all the trench was lost. After this campaign, the Allies took the initiative in the war and opened the gateway to Syria and Phoenicia.

In 332 BC, Alexander went south along the east coast of the Mediterranean, captured Syria and successfully entered Egypt. He was declared "son of Amon" (king) by Egyptian priests, calling himself Pharaoh. Allied forces established Alexandria at the mouth of the Nile River as the rear base for his continued eastward expedition.

In the spring of 33 1 BC, Alexander led his troops back to Asia from Egypt and advanced into the hinterland of Persia through Phoenicia, looking for the main force of Persian army to fight a decisive battle. /kloc-at the beginning of 0/0, confronted the Persian army west of Goga Milla on the east bank of Tigris River. By this time, Darius had organized a powerful new army. The assembled troops came from 24 tribes, claiming to be millions, with 200 chariots with knives and wheels and 15 elephants. The Allies have only 40,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry, which is less than half of the enemy front. The two sides launched fierce cavalry and hand-to-hand combat. The main force of allied cavalry quickly wedged into the enemy line by using the gap matching Darius' camp. Darius fled and the Persian army was defeated. Allied forces went south to capture Babylon, occupied the Persian capitals Susa and Persia, and the ancient capital of Medea, Ek Platthana, destroyed the regime of Darius, and plundered countless trophies such as gold and silver. According to Plutarch, a Roman historian, there are about 20,000 mules and about 5,000 camels carrying treasures. In the spring of 330 BC, Alexander led an army north to pursue Darius, who was murdered by his Ministry, and the ancient Persian Empire and Achemenid Dynasty perished. Macedonian troops conquered all the territory of Persia, and an Alexander empire across Europe, Asia and Africa was established.

In 327 BC, Alexander led his troops from the south of the Caspian Sea to the east, passing through the rest (Parthia), Arya and Dranguana, crossing the Hindu Kush Mountains and reaching Bactria (Summer) and Sogdian. 325 years ago, he invaded India and occupied the Indus Valley. He also tried to conquer the Ganges valley, but after years of long-distance struggle, the soldiers were exhausted. Due to the stubborn resistance of the Indian people, malaria infection and the injury of poisonous snakes, the soldiers refused to move on and asked to go home. Alexander had to abandon his eastward plan and withdraw his troops from India in July 325 BC. In the first 324 years, its troops returned to Persia and Susa, and the fleet landed at the mouth of the Tigris River, then returned to Babylon, and the eastward advance ended.

Alexander's crusade was a predatory expedition, which lasted 10 years. Travel beyond Wan Li, the Persian Empire perished. From the Balkans and the Nile in the west to the Indus River in the east, an unprecedented Alexander Empire was established. During the eastward invasion, many new cities were built along the way, and several of them were named after him. The most famous is Alexandria on the northern coast of Egypt, which has developed into the largest seaport in Egypt today. Alexander established the capital of Babylon and planned to invade Arabia. But in 323 BC, he died of fever, and the huge Alexander empire conquered by force collapsed. His Ministry will fight for power and profit, and after a long-term scuffle, several independent kingdoms have been formed in the original imperial territory, of which Macedonia, Egypt and West Asia are the largest.

Compared with some wars, Alexander's eastward invasion didn't last long, but its unique attack and long-range mobile combat mode left an important page in the history of world wars. He went deep alone, fought continuously with attack as the main task, crossed rivers and besieged cities for hundreds of times, and fought peacefully in mountainous and desert areas, and defeated superior enemies quickly many times. He has his own unique methods in the use of various arms, especially cavalry, Lu Haijun's coordinated operations, the selection of marching routes, the formation of battle formations, operational command and logistics support.

Alexander's expedition looted and burned some ancient cities in Asia, enslaved thousands of working people, and destroyed many eastern civilizations by brutal, cruel and backward means.

Alexander's expedition objectively promoted cultural exchanges between the East and the West. At a grand and luxurious "wedding" in Susa, Alexander personally took the lead in marrying Statilla, the daughter of Darius, king of Persia. Many Macedonian generals married the daughters of Persian dignitaries, and as many as 654.38+100000 couples attended the wedding that day. At the wedding, Alexander solemnly announced that Macedonians who marry Asian women can enjoy the right of tax exemption. He also personally presented many gifts to the bride and groom to show his encouragement. He ordered 30,000 Persian boys to learn the art of war in Greece and Macedonia. After Alexander, Greek culture continued to spread in Asia. Historians call this phenomenon Hellenistic Culture, and the period from Alexandria to Egypt being conquered by Rome (323-3 BC) is called Hellenistic Age.

The library in Alexandria, Egypt has a collection of 120 manuscripts from all over the world, which attracts studious people from all over the East and West to engage in research here. There are also various animals in the city for scholars to study zoology. It was from this time that Greek science, technology and culture developed more abundantly, making Greek culture and science in a leading position in almost all fields. For example, geometry invented by Euclid, mechanics, mathematics and physics of Archimedes, astronomy and mathematics of Eratosthenes, agronomy and botany of Theofras, Epicurus' materialistic philosophy highly praised by Marx, and great achievements have been made in medicine, mechanics, architecture, geography and anatomy. These cultural achievements brought a series of scientific inventions, such as many mechanical weapons used in the war at that time, pumps, water mills and scrubbers used in production, cranes used in construction projects, etc. These inventions have been used in both eastern and western countries and promoted the development of material civilization. The invention and application of these sciences can't be completely attributed to Alexander's Crusade, but it has a certain relationship with this Crusade. This is of course an objective consequence.