by Gage Fenwick

Created on: May 26, 2010

From a combat point of view, the Greeks had a more simple set of weapons along with an easy-to-follow strategic way of battle, the phalanx. The Chinese had a very complicated set of weapons ranging from the "dao" (a scimitar-like blade attached to a long pole that one would use for making a spear), the "qiang" (the Chinese version of the spear), the "jian" (the Chinese version of the sword) and its related versions such as the tai chi jian and others, and the "ji" (the Chinese version of the halberd).

The Greek soldier always kept to a simple set of weapons as compared to a Chinese, whom had a vast and confusing set of weapons where one soldier had to choose from. The average Spartan soldier of Greece carries a spear, short sword, a large bronze shield, a javelin, and a set of bronze armor to cover his torso and skull. This proved to be much more beneficial from the equipment of the average infantry soldier of ancient China, which included one of the set of weapons I described earlier and a set of armor either composed of animal hide or leather if they are of the infantry class. Those of higher ranks, such as royalty, had armor made of either bronze or iron designed with elaborate carvings.

From a point of view on battle tactics, on the smaller scale, the Greeks mastered the four simple weapons I stated earlier and grouped together in a phalanx. The phalanx can be seen as a giant wall of shields marching towards its enemies. When the enemies hit, the shock was absorbed by the front row’s shields and that row’s soldiers would then push the enemy away and stab them quickly with their spears and swords. Afterwards, they reformed the phalanx. Now the ancient Chinese had very poor tactics at this scale of battle. The Chinese would simply start with archers and then just charge in with full offense. This motive would certainly cause many deaths when face with the Greeks.

From a larger scale, the Greeks were still the more intelligent. The Greeks would first send the infantry to clean out the enemy. Afterwards, they would send in the cavalry to take care of the rest of the enemy. This again was a very simple strategy, but yet it turned out to be the most effective. The Chinese had a very poor system of how to send in troops in battle. They would first send the archers, afterwards they would charge in a chain of small groups which were easily eliminated or they would just send in all the soldiers which resulted in complete chaos for the Chinese due to their lack of mastery in certain weapons.

Over all, the Greeks would defeat the Chinese due to mastery in weapons, better tactics, raised in warrior cultures, and just much more intelligence. History has proven that the most deadly weapon is the brain, and the Greeks have a much larger brain for certain.

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