Historical, cultural, and religious buildings and monuments frequently play an important role in everyday life. Depending on the type of monument, they can speak to ideas such as identity, religious affiliation, or cultural heritage. Often, these monuments represent specific ideas, beliefs, or concepts. As physical symbols of these ideas, they are uniquely vulnerable. Where intangible concepts themselves cannot be physically attacked, material representations of them can. In armed conflict, it is not uncommon for these sites to become subject to the effects of combat, either deliberately or accidentally. Throughout the history of warfare, monuments have been protected, other times, they have been intentionally attacked, and other times they were given little extra consideration over the rest of the battlefield's topography. What are the consequences of these various actions? What are the military consequences when a belligerent military destroys a historical, religious, or cultural monument belonging to either belligerent or an otherwise neutral party? What impact does the destruction have at war's tactical, operational, or strategic levels? These are the main questions this dissertation answers. To answer these questions, this dissertation examines three different examples of the destruction of monuments during armed conflict throughout history. The case studies examined include the burning of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE, the burning of the White House and Capitol by the British in 1814, and the bombing of the Abbey of Monte Cassino by the Allies during the Second World War. This dissertation concludes that the destruction of monuments during armed conflict has military consequences, but they are often not significant or overwhelmingly negative for the attacker, and where more significant consequences are identified, it is difficult to assess their role in motivating particular actions.
