MAJOR WARS OF THE HISTORY
War is an organized, armed, and often a prolonged conflict that is carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political communities, and therefore is defined as a form of political violence. The set of techniques used by a group to carry out war is known as warfare. An absence of war (and other violence) is usually called peace.
In 2003, Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley identified war as the sixth (of ten) biggest problems facing the society of mankind for the next fifty years. In the 1832 treatise "On Wars", Prussian military general and theoretician Carl Von Clausewitz defined war as follows: "War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will.”
| MajorWarsOf The History | |||||||||||||
| Name | Contestants | Notable Battles | Treaties | ||||||||||
| (victor shown first) | |||||||||||||
| Greco-Persian War | Greek States-Persia | Marathon, | Thermopylae, Salamis,Platea | ||||||||||
| 499-478.C. | |||||||||||||
| Pelopponnesian War | Sparta-Athens | Syracaus,Cyzicus,Aegospotami | Peace of Nicias | Nicias,421 | |||||||||
| 431-404 B.C. | |||||||||||||
| First Punic War264-241 B.C. | Rome-Carthage | Drepanum,Aegets,Lake Trasimene, | |||||||||||
| Second Punic War | 218-201B.C | Cannae, Zama | |||||||||||
| Third Punic War 149-146 B.C. | cWar 149-146 | ||||||||||||
| Islamic Invasion of Europe | Christianity-islam | ty-Islam | Constantinople,Tours, Manzikert,Hattin, | Pruth 1711;kutchuk | Kutchuk- | ||||||||
| 630-19th century | Lepanto, Viena, Zenta | Kanadjii,1774; Sistova.1791 | |||||||||||
| Norman Qonquest | Normady-England | Hastins,1066 | |||||||||||
| 1066 | |||||||||||||
| Crusades | Christianity-Islam | Jerusalem,1099;Acre,1191 | |||||||||||
| 1096-1291 | (indecisive) | ||||||||||||
| Hundred Years' War | England-France | Crecy,1346;Poiters,1356;Agincourt,1415; | |||||||||||
| 1338-1453 | Siege of Orleans,1428-39 | ||||||||||||
| Wars of Roses | Lancaster-York | St. Albans,1455 | |||||||||||
| 1455-85 | (indecisive) | ||||||||||||
| Thirty Years' War | Catholic-Protestants | Liepzig,Breitenfeld,1631;Lutzen,1632 | Westphalia,1648 | ||||||||||
| 1618-48 | |||||||||||||
| Civil War (English) | Roundheads-Cavaliers | Marston Moor,1643;Naseby,1645 | |||||||||||
| 1642-46 | |||||||||||||
| War of the Spanish | England,Austria,Prussia, | Blenheim,1704 | Utrecht,1713 | ||||||||||
| Succesion | 1701-14 | Netherlands-France,Spain, | |||||||||||
| War of the Australian | Austrian | France,Prussia,Sardinia, | Dettingen,1743;Fontenoy,1745 | Aix-la-Chappelle | pelle,1748 | ||||||||
| Succesion | 1740-48 | Spain-Austria,England | |||||||||||
| French & Indian War | England-France | Plains of Abraham,1759;Montreal,1760 | |||||||||||
| 1755-63 | |||||||||||||
| Revolutionary War | American Colonies- | ||||||||||||
| 1775-83 | England | Lexington,Concord,Bunker Hill,1775; | Paris,1783 | ||||||||||
| Saragota,1777;Yorktown,1781 | |||||||||||||
| Napoleonic War | England,Austria,Russia,Prussia | Nile,1798;Trafalgar,1805;Jena,Auertadt, | Campoformio,1797;Tilsit,1807; | ||||||||||
| 1796-1815 | etc.-France | 1806;Leipzig,1813 Waterloo,1815 | Schonbrunn,1809;Paris,1814-15 | ||||||||||
| Viena 1815 | |||||||||||||
| War of 1812 | United States-England | Lake Erie,1813;New Orleans,1815 | Ghent 1814 | ||||||||||
| 1812-15 | |||||||||||||
| War of Independence | (Greek) | Greece,England,Sweden, | Navarino,1827 | london 1827 | |||||||||
| 1821-29 | Russia-Turkey | ||||||||||||
| Mexican War | United States-Mexico | Resaca de la Palma,1846;Chapultepec, | Guadalupe Hidalgo,1848 | ||||||||||
| 1846-48 | 1847 | ||||||||||||
| Crimean War | Turkey,England,France | Sevastopol,1854 | Paris,1856 | ||||||||||
| 1854-56 | Sardinia-russia | ||||||||||||
| Civil War | (United States) | Union(North)-Confederate | Bull Run,1861,;Antietam,1862; | ||||||||||
| 1861-65 | States(South) | Chacellorsville,Gettysburge,Vicksburge, | |||||||||||
| Chattanooga,1863;Wilderness,1864 | |||||||||||||
| Franco-Prussian War | Prussia-France | Sedan,1870 | Versailles,1871 | ||||||||||
| 1870-71 | |||||||||||||
| Spanish- American War | United States-Spain | Manila Bay,Santiago,1898 | Paris,1898 | ||||||||||
| 1898 | |||||||||||||
| Boer War | England-Trasvaal | ||||||||||||
| 1899-1902 | Republic & OrangeFree State | Lady Smith,1899 | Vereeniging,1902 | ||||||||||
| Russo-Japanesse War | Japan-Russia | Port Arthur,Mukden,Tsushima,1905 | Portsmouth,1905 | ||||||||||
| 1904-1905 | |||||||||||||
| First Balkan War 1912-13; | Bulgaria,Serbia,Greece, | Scutaria,1912,Salonika,1912;Adrianopole, | London,1913;Bucharest,1913 | ||||||||||
| Second Balkan War 1913 | Montenegro-Turkey | 1912 | |||||||||||
| World War I | Allies-Central Power | Dardanelles,1915;Verdun,Somme, | |||||||||||
| 1914-18 | Jutland,1916;Capporeto,1917;Vittorio | ||||||||||||
| veneto,Amiens,Marne,Ypres,1918 | |||||||||||||
| Civil War | (Spanish) | Insurgents-Loyalists | Teruel,1937;Ebro River.1938 | ||||||||||
| 1936-39 | |||||||||||||
| Allies- Axis | |||||||||||||
| World War II | |||||||||||||
| 1939-45 | |||||||||||||
| Allies-Japan | Pearl Harbor,1941;Bataan,1941-42; | ||||||||||||
| Singapore,Coral Sea,Midway Island, | |||||||||||||
| Guadalcanal,1942;Bismark Sea,tarawa, | |||||||||||||
| Leyte Gulf,1944,;Philippines,1944-45 | |||||||||||||
| okinawa | |||||||||||||
| Korean War | United States-North | Inchon ,Pyongyang,1950;seoul,1951 | Panmumjom,1953 | ||||||||||
| 1950-52 | Korea | ||||||||||||
| Vietnam War | |||||||||||||
| 1957-75 | North Vietnam-South Vietnam, | Tet Offensive,Saigon,1968 | Paris,1973 | ||||||||||
| United States | |||||||||||||
Greco-Persian Wars, also called Persian Wars, (492–449 bc), a series of wars fought by Greek states and Persia over a period of almost half a century. The fighting was most intense during two invasions that Persia launched against mainland Greece between 490 and 479. Although the Persian empire was at the peak of its strength, the collective defense mounted by the Greeks overcame seemingly impossible odds and even succeeded in liberating Greek city-states on the fringe of Persia itself. The Greek triumph ensured the survival of Greek culture and political structures long after the demise of the Persian empire.
Thermopylae: 480 BC
A vast Persian force led by Xerxes I, the son of Darius, is making its way along the northern coast of the Aegean. The troops are described in mesmerizing detail by Herodotus, writing only half a century later. He lists 1,700,000 soldiers (counted by a Novel form of roll call), including 80,000 cavalry. They are accompanied by a fleet of 1207 triremes, each with 200 men on board. Adding in subsidiary troops, Herodotus arrives at a grand total of 5,283,320 - not including eunuchs and female cooks.
These wildly improbable figures suggest the scale of the renewed threat as perceived in Greece. The only difference this time is that such a juggernaut moves slowly. There is time to plan.
At a central point of mainland Greece, the Isthmus of Corinth, thirty-one city-states meet - in the autumn of 481 and again in the spring of 480 - to devise a strategy. It is agreed that all will combine their resources, both military and naval, in a common force under the command of Sparta. The immediate question is where to make a stand against the advancing Persians. The chosen site is Thermopylae, a long narrow valley through which any army must pass if moving down the coast towards Athens.
Leonidas, one of the two Spartan kings, is in command of the Greek army when the confrontation comes. His Spartan contingent is as yet only an advance guard of 300 men. He stations them under his immediate command at the narrowest part of the pass.
In the hope of a large reward a Greek (a certain Ephialtes, named by Herodotus to ensure his eternal infamy) informs Xerxes that a hidden path through oak woods on the nearby hills will bring troops, unseen, to the other side of the pass. A Persian contingent takes that route during the night.
Before dawn, spies bring Leonidas news of the imminent danger. He orders the main body of the army to retreat southwards. Then he prepares, with his 300 Spartan hoplites and a few others, to face an onslaught from both ends of the pass.
All the Spartans die, selling their lives at a high price - Herodotus writes that the terrified enemy soldiers had to be whipped by their commanders into confronting these Greeks. Their fate becomes the enduring monument to Spartan discipline and valour, captured in a famous epitaph inscribed on a column in the pass: 'Stranger, go tell the Spartans that we lie here - obedient to their laws.'
Now it is the Athenians who are in the front line against the victorious invaders. As the Persian army moves south towards Attica, the debate in Athens is whether to defend the city or make a strategic withdrawal.
Themistocles, who has already persuaded his fellow citizen to invest in a navy, urges withdrawal. According to a story told by Herodotus, he makes good use of the Oracle at Delphi which has told them to put their trust in a 'wooden wall'. What the oracle clearly has in mind, he argues, is a ship.
His advice is accepted. Athens is evacuated, apart from a few stalwarts who interpret the 'wooden wall' differently; they retreat to the sacred precinct of the acropolis and build round it a wooden palisade. The rest of the inhabitants are taken by ship across the narrow strait separating Athens from the island of Salamis.
Reaching Athens, the Persians fire blazing arrows into the wooden barricade. Then, with some difficulty, they assault the steep acropolis. After slaughtering those sheltering in the temple, they seize the treasures and demolish the buildings. Athens, so recently given a new grandeur in the reign of Peisistratus, is reduced to rubble. But the destruction will make possible the rebuilding of Athens and an even more glorious city.
Meanwhile the Greek fleet is gathered in the narrow stretch of water between Salamis and the mainland. Themistocles persuades his allies to make a stand here, prevailing over those Peloponnesian states who would prefer to abandon Attica and draw the line at the more defensible Isthmus of Corinth.
The Greek fleet is smaller than the Persian. It numbers only 380 triremes (of which about half are Athenian), and the Greek ships are slower. Themistocles argues that these disadvantages will be irrelevant in a restricted space, where Greek fighting skills can tip the balance (as in the narrow pass at Thermopylae).
His plan depends on the Persian fleet being enticed into the strait at the eastern end of the island of Salamis. Prompted by some deliberately misleading diplomacy, the Persians fall into the trap. As the Greek triremes begin to ram and sink them, panic spreads among the constricted Persian ships - making them ever more vulnerable. The Greek victory is overwhelming.
Marathon: 490 BC
n Athens the decision is taken to send an army to confront the Persians, rather than concentrate on defence of the city. A runner, whom Herodotus names as Pheidippides, is sent to seek help from Sparta. He completes the journey of about 150 miles (240 km) in two days. The Spartans agree to cooperate. But a religious ceremony prevents them from setting off until the next full moon, in six days' time.
At Marathon 10,000 Greek hoplites confront perhaps 25,000 Persians. The Persians wait for the Greeks to attack across the plain, exposing themselves to the cavalry. The Greeks creep forward, night after night, with a ruse to frustrate the Persian horsemen.
