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Index

Armenia

The Urartu Civilisation

Victory for Independence

Artashisian Dynasty on the Armenian Throne

Armenia caught between Rome and the Arsacids

The Acceptance of Christianity

Defending Christianity

Armenia Under the Bagratouni Dynasty

Cilicia - the New Armenia

Armenia Under Turanian Rule

The Renaissance or the Resurrection of Armenia

The Eastern Question

Russia in the Caucasus

The Armenian Question

Battle on Two Fronts

Tsarist Russia Against the Armenians

The Revolution of the Young Turks and the Armenian People on the Eve of World War I

The First World War

The Resurrection of Armenia

Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

- Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

Eastern Armenia

Western Armenia

"The Fateful Years" (1914-1917)

"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

The Bolshevik Revolution and Armenia

Transcaucasia Adrift (November, 1917

Dilemmas (March-April, 1918)

War and Independence (April-May, 1918)

The Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia

The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

In conclusion

Soviet Armenia

The Second Independent Republic of Armenia

Epilogue

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As far as size of army is concetned we should bear in mind that in the Middle East and in the Orient, wars in general were undertaken by small forces of soldiers.

For example, the number of crusaders, which some historians and chronicler have exaggerated, is relatively trustworthy; it does not seem that the crusader army entered Constantinople was more than 100,000, which even so was a high number for that period.

By the time this 100,000 strong force had arrived at Cilicia and the Taurus Mountains, it had been decreased by more than half of its men. Stevenson has estimated the soldiers of the crusaders to around 15,000 at the siege of Jerusalem (of which 1 500 were riders and noblemen) and estimates that the total number soldiers which the easterners had in their service never exceeded 25,000 men. 135

The forces of the Muslim countries, for instance those in the sultanates of Aleppo and Damascus, were in general small and rarely exceeded 10,000 men.

This is the number that Roloff puts the number of the East and the Mongolian army at a maximum of 20,000 men, an army which in the middle of the 13th century conquered Persia, Mesopotamia and some parts of Syria from the Turks and the Arabs. 136

Small armies were characteristic of the feudal system. Even in Europe, the number of equipped soldiers, until the end of the Middle Ages, never exceeded 15,000, as in the battles of Tannenberg in 1410 and that of Agincourt in 1415.

Indeed the superiority of the Egyptian sultans corresponded to the large number of soldiers they were able to recruit from their extensive domains, so that when they attacked Syria, their armies numbered from 30,000 to 40,000 men.

These armies were usually typified by a large number of horsemen; those of the crusaers were armoured; the Turks and the Arabs had a light cavalry; and the Mongol forces consisted only of horsemen, with even their infantry rode into war. The army of Armenia was also divided into an infantry and a cavalry, with the cavalry constituting the major part of the forces. 139

Economic Aspects

New Armenia played a central role in the world trade and the exchange of merchandise during the Middle Ages. The geographical position of the country, the devotion to work, the competence and the ability of the population and finally the wise policy of its regents, combined to make the country an important and fertile centre of production, and one of the greatest centres of trade, perhaps even the most important trade post between East and West.

This leading role of New Armenia is depicted by the famous historian W. Heyd 140, in his most important and interesting work about the trade in the Middle East during the Middle Ages. In his famous book, Heyd has devoted two whole chapters to New Armenia – this section will based on his account of the economic aspects.