Word Finder - incursions

definition

An aggressive movement into somewhere; an invasion.

We may remark in passing that the retreat was often enlivened, or invaded, by friendly tourists from England, whose " frequent incursions " into Switzerland our recluse seems half to lament as an evil.

A fort was erected here in the 16th century to prevent the incursions of the free Cossacks and runaway serfs who gathered on the lower Volga, as also the raids of the Kalmucks and Circassians.

Several preliminary incursions had been already made, when in 1521 an opportunity presented itself for a more extended expedition.

The first of these canals, taken off on the right bank of the river a little below Hit, followed the extreme skirt of the alluvium the whole way to the Persian Gulf near Basra, and thus formed an outer barrier, strengthened at intervals with watch-towers and fortified posts, to protect the cultivated land of the Sawad against the incursions of the desert Arabs.

Into that province Andronicus, with a body of adventurers, made frequent and successful incursions.

We may form some idea of the extent and the severity of their incursions from the fact that at the beginning of the reign of Valdemar the whole of the Danish eastern coast lay wasted and depopulated.

It suffered severely in the invasion of Attila, by whom it was laid waste, and in subsequent incursions.

In the 5th century we again hear of piratical incursions by the Heruli in the western seas.

During the reign of Alexander Byzantium was compelled to acknowledge the Macedonian supremacy; after the decay of the Macedonian power it regained its independence, but suffered from the repeated incursions of the Scythians.

Armagh, together with Louth, Monaghan and some smaller districts, formed part of a territory called Orgial or Urial, which was long subject to the occasional incursions of the Danes.

After a short stay at Constantinople, which his son Constantine had successfully defended against renewed incursions by the Avars, Heraclius resumed his attacks upon the Persians (627).

They still maintained relations with their kinsfolk in Spain, and the whole coast suffered from their incursions.

The bishop's seat had to be fortified against the incursions of the heathen Frisians and Northmen, and the security thus afforded attracted population till, after the destruction of its rival Dorestad by the Normans in the 9th century, Utrecht became the chief commercial centre of the northern Netherlands.

Through his generals Ardoburius and Aspar he waged two fairly successful wars against the Persians (421 and 441), and after the failure of one expedition (431) by means of a gigantic fleet put an end to the piracies of the Vandal Genseric. A Hunnish invasion in 408 was skilfully repelled, but from 441 the Balkan country was repeatedly overrun by the armies of Attila, whose incursions Theodosius feebly attempted to buy off with everincreasing payments of tribute.

The first incursions of Lao-Tai among the Khmers of northern Siam were probably later, for the town of Lampun (Labong or Haribunchai), the first Lao capital in Siam, was founded about A.D.

In the first year of the 13th century, the Knights of the Sword, one of the numerous orders of crusading military monks, had been founded in Livonia to "convert" the pagan Letts, and, in 1208, the still more powerful Teutonic order was invited by Duke Conrad of Masovia to settle in the district of Kulm (roughly corresponding to modern East Prussia) to protect his territories against the incursions of the savage Prussians, a race closely akin to the Lithuanians.

Certain incursions were from time to time made at different points along the whole sea-board.

At Algiers the energies of the French were devoted to protecting themselves against the incursions of the Hajutas.

In1886-1887there were some disturbances in Coahuila, New Leon, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas; subsequently hardly anything was heard of such disorders except on the Texan frontier, where in 1890 Francisco Ruiz Sandoval and in 1891 Catarino Garza made incursions into Mexico.

This encounter roused the New England colonies, and in a few days some 16,000 of their townsmen marched in small bands upon Boston to protest against and resist further similar incursions; and in this irregular body we have the nucleus of the colonial forces which carried the war through.

Near it is the ruined fortress of Neamtzu, constructed early in the 13th century by the Teutonic knights of Andrew II., king of Hungary, in order to repel the incursions of the Cumanians.

Mention is made of incursions of the vikings as early as 793, but the principal immigration took place towards the end of the 9th century in the early part of the reign of Harald Fairhair, king of Norway, and consisted of persons driven to the Hebrides, as well as to Orkney and Shetland, to escape from his tyrannous rule.

Soon afterwards they began to make incursions against their mother-country, and on this account Harald fitted out an expedition against them, and placed Orkney, Shetland, the Hebrides and the Isle of Man under Norwegian government.

According to Gildas it was for protection against these incursions that the Britons decided to call in the Saxons.

Save for a short period of prosperity under the Frankish rulers of Athens (1205-1310), who repaired the katavothra and fostered agriculture, Boeotia long continued in a state of decay, aggravated by occasional barbarian incursions.

As allies of Perseus and of Mithradates the Great, and lastly on their own account, they had hostile relations with the Romans who in the time of Augustus defeated them, and made a peace, which was disturbed by a series of incursions.

The main point to observe in this connexion is that large tracts of land in many parts of the world were at a critical level as regards the sea, a condition highly favourable to frequent extensive incursions of marine waters over the low-lying areas in a period of extreme crustal instability.

In 1307, owing to non-payment of tribute, a fresh series of Mussulman incursions began, under Malik Kafur, issuing in the final ruin of the Yadava power; and in 1338 the reduction of the Deccan was completed by Mahommed ben Tughlak.

Towards the middle of the 5th century, the Blemmyes, quiet since the reign of Diocletian, recommenced their incursions, and were even joined in them by the Nobatae.

His short reign was marked by some fairly successful incursions into Armenia, and the recovery of the fortresses Marash and Tell Hamdn, which had been retaken by the Armenians.

Incursions were immediately made by the Ottoman sultan into the territory of Egyptian vassals at Derendeh and Albistan (Ablestin), and Malatia was besieged by his forces.

His next signal interference was during the incursions of the Syrians, when he disclosed the plans of the invaders to the "king of Israel" with such effect that they were again and again baffled.

Exposed to the successive calamities of the Danish incursions, the English conquest and the English wars, and at last deserted by its bishops, who retired to Drogheda, the venerable city sank into an insignificant collection of cabins, with a dilapidated cathedral.

Henceforth, despite the incursions of the Scandinavians, and partly because of them, the ecclesiastical and royal centres of life are moved to the south and the east, though the king of Alban (Ardrigh) is not always master of his Ri, or subordinate princes of the seven provinces (Mortuath).

Fresh attacks were presently made against him for failing, it was alleged, to prevent the Tatar incursions.

It was formerly isolated by marshes and accessible only by boat or artificial causeway, and under these conditions it gained its historical fame as the retreat of King Alfred in 8 8-87 when he was unable to withstand the incursions of the Danes.

Though, however, this stopped the incursions of Asiatic hordes from the north-west, and India was to remain almost exempt from foreign invasion for some 500 years, the Ephthalite conquest added new and permanent elements to the Indian population.

He wrote also a number of essays, such as "My Garden Acquaintance," "A Good Word for Winter," "On a Certain Condescension in Foreigners," which were incursions into the field of nature and society.

Some tracts of frontier territory are detached from the various regions and entrusted to political residents, as, for instance, on the Sudan frontier and also on the Abyssinian boundary, where strict surveillance is necessary to repress raiding incursions from Tigre, and where the chief intelligence department is established.

Even more successful were the papal incursions on to a more ethereal domain.

The dissensions of the turbulent princes of Gwynedd, Powys and Deheubarth, and of their no less quarrelsome chieftains, now rent the country, which was continually also a prey to Saxon incursions by land and to Scandinavian attacks by sea.

During the civil wars between the sons of Shah Jahan, the king of Assam renewed his predatory incursions into Bengal; upon the termination of the contest, Aurangzeb determined to avenge these repeated insults, and despatched a considerable force for the regular invasion of the Assamese territory (1660-1662).

Forts were built as a protection against the incursions of the surrounding barbarians, and three great military roads were constructed to unite the chief towns, while a fourth, named after Trajan, traversed the Carpathians and entered Transylvania by the Roteturm pass.

According to Tacitus they were governed by a king whose power was absolute and comprehensive, and possessed a strong fleet which secured them from the fear of hostile incursions.

The poverty and natural strength of the country, combined with the ferocious habits of the natives, seem to have equally repelled the friendly visits of inquisitive strangers and the hostile incursions of invading armies.

It is not unlikely that, as tradition states, there were incursions of Celts from central Gaul into Ireland during the general Celtic unrest in the 6th century B.C. It is certain that at a later period invaders from the continent, bringing with them the later Iron Age culture, commonly called La Tene, which had succeeded that of Hallstatt, had settled in Ireland.

By his vast expenditure, ascribable not only to his wars in Italy, his incessant embassies, and the necessity of defending himself in the Comtat Venaissin against the incursions of the adventurous Raymond of Turenne, but also to his luxurious tastes and princely habits, as well as by his persistent refusal to refer the question of the schism to a council, he incurred general reproach.

For the next three years Menelek devoted himself to strengthening and disciplining his army, to legislation, to building towns, such as Liche (near Debra-Berhan), Worra Hailu (Wollo Galla country), &c., and to repelling the incursions of the Gallas.

In 328 B.C. the Palaeopolitans having provoked the hostility of Rome by their incursions upon her Campanian allies, the consul Publilius Philo marched against them, and having taken his position between the old and the new city, laid regular siege to Palaeopolis.

But the fighting was all on Scottish ground, and Edward repeatedly made incursions, showy if not effective, into the very heart of the northern realm; on one occasion he reached Inverness unopposed.