Most Important Battle in Western History

I hold that the most important battle in Western history is the Battle of Talas, in which western troops captured a Chinese papermaker. It may even be the most important battle in history.

Does anyone have a different view and why? Is medicine or territory more important than paper? Is there something else I'm not considering?

I don't necessarily think that any one battle can be considered the most important. Usually a campaign or a series of campaigns are more decisive in this field.

However, with that being said, I would consider Hastings to be a monumental battle. This set the foundation for future wars between the English and the French over claims to the throne, and started the mingling of Anglo Saxon with French which eventually formed Modern English (in my opinion one of the most influential languages).

Although paper is important, keep in mind people had been keeping records before paper was invented on stone walls, clay tablets, papyrus, even animal skin.

As for campaigns, the Crusades were probably the most influential in Western history, bringing knowledge of medicine and mathematics to Europe, as well as opening trade routes.

And as a quick side note, probably the most influential battle of the middle east was the Sacking of Baghdad by the Mongols. It was at one time the cultural center of the world, with one of the largest universities in existence. When the mongols stormed the city however, it went from being an intellectual center to a stone age town, and hasn't fully recovered since. A quote says "The rivers ran read with blood, and then black with ink" as the mongols destroyed all the books.

I'm going to agree with Bill that I hold a single battle to be key to a war or champagne, but it is the war itself that matters. And of course I am going to have to respect the mentioning and the sacking of Baghdad. But, I have to say that the revolutionary war was in the United States was the most influential war in history. If you consider the technology, war efforts, politicians and everything great this country has produced you cannot say that the world would be profoundly different- likely for the worse- if not for us. Without the U.S. the british may not have ended the monarchy, WWI and WWII may have ended differently, endless inventions and discoveries ranging from men like Edison would not exist, not to mention the likeliness of communism to have spread further. The revolutionary war in America was as Bill said, like the crusades, a starting point for endless discovery and intellectual growth in the world.