In the early 1400s, an unique military development occurred as a result of a religious and social upheaval in Bohemia. Boehemian nationalism, combined with the Hussite religious reformation (100 years before Luther and Calvin) gave impetus to a people's revolt, ignited by the execution of John Huss in 1415. Labeled heretics and ruthlessly hunted down by a Catholic german nobility, Huss' followers rallied and issued a counter-proclamation initiated lengthy civil and national wars. Initially a heterogeneous mass of enthusiastic, undisciplined, ill-armed peasants and burghers and a few experienced nobles, they faced an additional handicap of numbers: some few thousands of them to face an enemy who could muster up to 500,000 troops. That the Bohemians were not slaughtered by the crusading Catholics was due to their religious and nationalistic fervor and the remarkable military genius of one man: Jan Zizka. More Hussite Wars Hussite Wars: Introduction Hussite Wars: Jan Zizka: The Man Hussite Wars: Papal Schism and John Huss Hussite Wars: The Land Hussite Wars: Operations to February 1421 Armistice Hussite Wars: Operations 1421 Hussite Wars: Operations 1422 Hussite Wars: Operations 1423 Hussite Wars: Operations 1424 and After Hussite Wars: Hussite Wagon Fort Tactics Hussite Wars: Medieval Weapons Hussite Wars: Soldiers Hussite Wars: Jan Zizka: The Military Leader Hussite Wars: Large Map of Bohemia/Moravia (slow: 175K) Hussite Wars: Jumbo Map of Bohemia/Moravia (extremely slow: 504K) Hussite Wars: Time Line Back to Conflict Historical Study 1 Table of Contents Back to Conflict List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1976 by Dana Lombardy This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com