First Battle of Panipat

A carpet beater

Decimation. Etching by William Hogarth in Beaver's Roman Military Punishments (1725)

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting Bishop Odo rallying Duke William 's army during the Battle of Hastings in 1066

Babur deployed field artillery — new to the subcontinent — and routed a force nine times his size in a single afternoon. The Mughal Empire he founded that day would rule India for 300 years and build the Taj Mahal.