Download Global Conflicts Overview The Holy “Crusades”

Global Conflicts Overview
The Holy “Crusades”- Historically, the Crusades were a series of several military campaigns, usually
sanctioned by the Papacy, that took place during the 11th through 13th centuries. Originally, they were
Roman Catholic (Christians) endeavors to re-capture the Holy Land (Jerusalem) from the Muslims. Some
were directed against other Christians, such as the Fourth Crusade against Constantinople and the
Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars of southern France. The First Crusade was proclaimed by Urban
II in the year 1095. The first wave was composed mostly of peasants, but they were followed by military
contingents in subsequent waves. In 1099, they actually took control of Jerusalem from the Muslims and
formed the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. This Kingdom lasted until 1187- when Jerusalem was re-taken
by the Muslims. The Second Crusade was proclaimed in 1144 when the Muslim Turks took Edessa. The
Third Crusade was launched in response to the fall of Jerusalem in 1187. This crusade included the
famous King Richard the Lion Hearted of England. Their only military achievement was the taking of
Acre. However, King Richard did negotiate an agreement with Sultan Saladin to allow Christians to go in
pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Fourth Crusade was a disaster. Instead of the crusaders reaching the Holy
Land to fight Muslims, they sacked the Christian city of Constantinople in 1204, the seat of the Christian
Byzantine Empire. It was formed into the Latin Empire of Constantinople until 1261 when the Byzantine
Empire was reestablished. The Fifth Crusade (1219) attacked Egypt, but only managed to take the port of
Damietta, which was retaken by the Arabs two years later. The Sixth and Seventh were led by King Louis
IX of France (Saint Louis), and had practically no results. These occurred in 1248 and 1270.
100 Years War- The Hundred Years' War was a series of wars between England and France from 13371453. These wars were fought for control over the land, which is now France. The Hundred Years' War
also led to the decline of feudalism. Feudalism was developed in the Middle- Ages as an economic, social,
political and military system where land is given in return for loyalty and support. The vassals (person
given a fief) go through a ceremony where by he promises an oath to the Lord to fight on his side if need
be. Patriotism was not an option because everyone must be loyal to the higher power as opposed to his
country. This war had a large affect on all of medieval Europe but the peasants took the heaviest burden
of it. The war was briefly interrupted by the black plaque which killed one third of all people in
Europe. England was winning the war until a young woman named Joan of Arc led the French army to
victory in the Battle of Orleans. This was a turning point in the war that eventually led to the English
leaving France and subsequently the war was ended making France victorious.
Pequot War- Pequot War Summary and Definition: The Pequot War was a short, vicious war in 16341638 between the Pequot tribe, who were members of a powerful tribe of Algonquian-speaking Indians of
Connecticut, against an alliance of the Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and Plymouth English colonies
with their Indian allies, the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes. The Pequot were defeated in a crushing
defeat in which they were forced to sign the Treaty of Hartford declaring the Pequot nation to be
dissolved.
The history, reason and cause of the Pequot War were as follows:
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The lucrative fur trade attracted colonists to the area
The colonists encroached on the Pequot homelands
Inter-tribal warfare broke down alliances and weakened the Native Indians
The Dutch and the English colonists and traders made alliances with different tribes to strengthen
their forces and power in Connecticut
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In 1633 the Massachusetts Bay Colony began to manufacture wampum, the shell beads that
Eastern Woodlands tribes used for currency. Wampum had previously been controlled by the
Pequot
Unscrupulous Europeans demanded tributes from the Pequot to avoid bloodshed - a practise that
could not be condoned by the once all-powerful Native Americans. Hostilities between the
Europeans and the Pequot escalated resulting in the Pequot War.
The significance of the Pequot War in history was that it tipped the balance of military power to the
English, instead of the Dutch, opening the way to New England’s settlement. The penalties of fighting in
the Pequot War brought the wrath of the English and their allies on to the Pequot people. The Treaty of
Hartford stated that survivors of the Great Swamp fight were to be divided as slaves among the Indian
allies of the English. The Hartford Treaty also stated that no Pequot could inhabit former Pequot territory.
And finally the name Pequot was to be erased and any Pequot slaves had to take name of tribes to which
they are enslaved. So cruel and devastating was the outcome of this war that no Connecticut Native
Americans challenged the colonies again for nearly forty years.
English Civil War- The English Civil Wars consisted of a series of armed conflicts and political
maneuverings between the Royalists (known as Cavaliers), lead by King Charles I, and Parliamentarians
(known as Roundheads) during the years 1642 to 1651.
Fought 1642-1651, the English Civil War saw King Charles I battle Parliament. The war began as a
result of a conflict over the power of the monarchy and the rights of Parliament. During the early phases
of the war, the Parliamentarians expected to retain Charles as king, but with expanded powers for
Parliament. Though the Royalists won early victories, the Parliamentarians ultimately triumphed. As the
conflict progressed, Charles was executed and a republic formed. Though Charles II was invited to take
the throne in 1660, Parliament's victory set the nation on the path toward a parliamentary monarchy.
King Philip’s War- 1675–76, the most devastating war between the colonists and the Native Americans in
New England. The war is named for King Philip, the son of Massasoit and chief of the Wampanoag. His
Wampanoag name was Metacom, Metacomet, or Pometacom. Upon the death (1662) of his brother,
Alexander (Wamsutta), whom the Native Americans suspected the English of murdering, Philip became
sachem and maintained peace with the colonists for a number of years. Hostility eventually developed
over the steady succession of land sales forced on the Native Americans by their growing dependence on
English goods. Suspicious of Philip, the English colonists in 1671 questioned and fined him and
demanded that the Wampanoag surrender their arms, which they did. In 1675 a Christian Native
American who had been acting as an informer to the English was murdered, probably at Philip's
instigation. Three Wampanoags were tried for the murder and executed. Incensed by this act, the Native
Americans in June, 1675, made a sudden raid on the border settlement of Swansea. Other raids followed;
towns were burned and many whites—men, women, and children—were slain. Unable to draw the Native
Americans into a major battle, the colonists resorted to similar methods of warfare in retaliation and
antagonized other tribes. The Wampanoag were joined by the Nipmuck and by the Narragansett (after the
latter were attacked by the colonists), and soon all the New England colonies were involved in the war.
Philip's cause began to decline after he made a long journey west in an unsuccessful attempt to secure aid
from the Mohawk. In 1676 the Narragansett were completely defeated and their chief, Canonchet, was
killed in April of that year; the Wampanoag and Nipmuck were gradually subdued. Philip's wife and son
were captured, and he was killed (Aug., 1676) by a Native American in the service of Capt. Benjamin
Church after his hiding place at Mt. Hope (Bristol, R.I.) was betrayed. His body was drawn and quartered
and his head exposed on a pole in Plymouth. The war, which was extremely costly to the colonists in
people and money, resulted in the virtual extermination of tribal Native American life in S New England
and the disappearance of the fur trade. The New England Confederation then had the way completely
clear for white settlement.
French and Indian War (Seven Years’ War)- The French and Indian War, a colonial extension of the
Seven Years War that ravaged Europe from 1756 to 1763, was the bloodiest American war in the 18th
century. It took more lives than the American Revolution, involved people on three continents, including
the Caribbean. The war was the product of an imperial struggle, a clash between the French and English
over colonial territory and wealth. Within these global forces, the war can also be seen as a product of the
localized rivalry between British and French colonists. Tensions between the British and French in
America had been rising for some time, as each side wanted to increase its land holdings. What is now
considered the French and Indian War (though at the time the war was undeclared), began in November
1753, when the young Virginian major George Washington and a number of men headed out into the
Ohio region with the mission to deliver a message to a French captain demanding that French troops
withdraw from the territory. The demand was rejected. In 1754, Washington received authorization to
build a fort near the present site of Pittsburgh. He was unsuccessful because of the strong French presence
in the area. In May, Washington's troops clashed with local French forces, a skirmish that ultimately
resulted in Washington having to surrender the meager fort he had managed to build just one month later.
The incident set off a string of small battles. In 1755, The British sent General Edward Braddock to
oversee the British Colonial forces, but on his way to oust the French from Fort Duquesne he was
surprised by the French and badly routed, losing his life in the process.
After a year and a half of undeclared war, the French and the English formally declared war in May 1756.
For the first three years of the war, the outnumbered French dominated the battlefield, soundly defeating
the English in battles at Fort Oswego and Ticonderoga. Perhaps the most notorious battle of the war was
the French victory at Fort William Henry, which ended in a massacre of British soldiers by Indians allied
with the French. The battle and ensuing massacre was captured for history—though not accurately—by
James Fenimore Cooper in his classic The Last of the Mohicans .
The tide turned for the British in 1758, as they began to make peace with important Indian allies and,
under the direction of Lord William Pitt began adapting their war strategies to fit the territory and
landscape of the American frontier. The British had a further stroke of good fortune when the French were
abandoned by many of their Indian allies. Exhausted by years of battle, outnumbered and outgunned by
the British, the French collapsed during the years 1758-59, climaxing with a massive defeat at Quebec in
September 1759.
By September 1760, the British controlled all of the North American frontier; the war between the two
countries was effectively over. The 1763 Treaty of Paris, which also ended the European Seven Years
War, set the terms by which France would capitulate. Under the treaty, France was forced to surrender all
of her American possessions to the British and the Spanish.
Although the war with the French ended in 1763, the British continued to fight with the Indians over the
issue of land claims. "Pontiac's War" flared shortly after the Treaty of Paris was signed, and many of the
battlefields—including Detroit, Fort Pitt, and Niagara—were the same. The Indians, however, already
exhausted by many years of war, quickly capitulated under the ferocious British retaliation; still, the issue
remained a problem for many years to come.
The results of the war effectively ended French political and cultural influence in North America. England
gained massive amounts of land and vastly strengthened its hold on the continent. The war, however, also
had subtler results. It badly eroded the relationship between England and Native Americans; and, though
the war seemed to strengthen England's hold on the colonies, the effects of the French and Indian War
played a major role in the worsening relationship between England and its colonies that eventually led
into the Revolutionary War.
American Revolutionary War- The French and Indian War cost Britain a lot of money.
Britain wanted the American colonies to help pay for it. In
the 1760s, the British passed new laws that made colonists
pay taxes on sugar, tea, and other things. The colonists
complained. They made speeches and wrote letters to
newspapers. One group protested by throwing crates of
British tea into Boston Harbor.
In 1774, colonists held the First Continental Congress.
They talked about ways to make Britain treat the colonies
more fairly. Britain ignored these ideas and sent troops to
control the colonists. The colonists organized their own army.
The American Revolution began.
Colonists wanted independence from Britain. They
thought the British were treating them unfairly. In 1776, the
colonists wrote the Declaration of Independence. It declared
the American colonies were free from Britain.
Loyalists and Patriots
As the war began, many people took sides. People who
wanted independence were called Patriots. People who
wanted to stay loyal to Britain were called Loyalists.
In Florida, most people were Loyalists.
The Florida colonists stayed loyal to Britain for many
reasons. One reason was that the settlers wanted British
soldiers to protect them from attacks from the French, the
Spanish, and American Indians. White settlers also feared
that free and enslaved Africans might attack them.
Britain also spent money helping Florida. The settlers
feared that Florida might fail without British money. Florida
helped Britain in many ways during the American
Revolution. St. Augustine was a center for British military
supplies. Florida ranchers sold the British Army cattle for
food. Florida Loyalists attacked Patriot settlements.
In 1779, Spain joined the Patriots in the war. Later, Spain
took West Florida from the British. In 1783, the new Treaty
of Paris gave the colonies their liberty. It also gave Florida back to Spain.
The French Revolution- the French Revolution was a revolt from the Third Estate (the poorest French
citizen) against the Absolute power of the two other estates (The Clergy and the Nobility). The rebels
were inspired by the American Revolution just prior.
This revolt began during the Estates General meeting in May 1789.
The revolutionaries eventually took control of the country as the mob stormed the Bastille on July 14th,
1789. The revolutionaries implemented some of their ideas (liberty, equality and fraternity), wrote France
a constitution (the Declaration of the rights of men and citizen on August 26th, 1789) and abolished the
Monarchy (France became a Republic on September 21st, 1792).
But the Revolution ended in a blood bath, during the Reign of Terror (1793-1794) until the death of
Robespierre in July 1794. This is when the new leaders of the republic killed anyone who opposed their
cause (the revolution). Finally, Napoleon Bonaparte arrives on the scene and brings stability to France.
War of 1812- At the beginning of the 19th century, the United States was a developing nation. Although
twenty years had passed since the end of the American Revolution, the country had not yet achieved
economic independence. The French Empire, ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, controlled most of mainland
Europe. Great Britain was among the few nations free from French domination. With trade suspended
between the warring countries, neutral America had a commercial advantage: her merchants could supply
both sides.
Closely entwined with the questions about the rights of neutrals to trade with European belligerents, the
British practice of impressing American merchant sailors stands as one of the central grievances leading
up to the War of 1812. By 1811, the British Royal Navy had impressed at least 6,000 mariners who
claimed to be citizens of the United States. In addition to impressments, Americans were dismayed by
British agitation of the native population on the western frontier. Congress declared war on June 18, 1812.
USS Constitution fought and won three major engagements during the war. Her most famous battle was
against HMSGuerriere. Two months after the declaration of war, Constitution, commanded by Captain
Isaac Hull, sailed from Boston to harass British shipping near Halifax. On August 19,
1812, Constitution approached Guerriere, holding her fire until she was along side, then fired a
devastating broadside. After a few short minutes, Guerriere’s masts were shot away and plunged into the
sea. It was during this battle, a sailor saw a British shot bounce off Constitution's hull and cried, "Huzza!
Her sides are made of iron!" Thus her famous nickname was born (Old Ironsides).
• The White House and Capitol were burned to the ground during the invasion of Washington, D.C. First
Lady Dolley Madison garnered fame for saving a portrait of George Washington before flames engulfed
the president’s home.
• In 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star Spangled Banner” while watching the British bombardment
of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor.
The War of 1812 ended in a stalemate. The treaty of Ghent signed on December 24, 1814 returned all
territorial conquests made by the two sides. It did not address the issue of impressment, one of the major
causes of the war. However with the downfall of Napoleon and peace in Europe, the Royal Navy no
longer needed so many sailors. Despite the inconclusive ending, later-day Americans often regarded the
post war period as prosperous. With the advent of peace came decades of stability, improved diplomatic
relations and economic growth, the so-called “Era of Good Feelings.” A sense of self-confidence
pervaded the nation, and it inspired the western expansionism that characterized the rest of the nineteenth
century. The War of 1812 allowed the new nation to break free of its colonial past, and told the nations of
Europe that a new player had emerged on the world stage. As British diplomat Augustus J. Foster
acknowledged at war’s end, “The Americans . . . have brought us to speak of them with respect.”
Mexican-American War-The causes of the Mexican-American War can be traced back to Texas winning
its independence from Mexico in 1836. After the end of the war, Mexico refused to acknowledge the new
Republic of Texas, but was prevented from taking military action due to the United States, Great Britain,
and France conferring diplomatic recognition. For the next nine years, many in Texas favored joining the
United States, however Washington did not take action due to fears of increasing sectional conflict and
angering the Mexicans.
In 1845, following the election of the pro-annexation candidate, James K. Polk, Texas was admitted to the
Union. Shortly thereafter, a dispute began with Mexico over the southern border of Texas. Both sides sent
troops to the area, and on April 25, 1846, a US cavalry patrol, led by Captain Seth Thornton, was attacked
by Mexican troops. Following the “Thornton Affair,” Polk asked Congress for a declaration of war, which
was issued on May 13. Though Mexican-American War was occurred between 1846 and 1848, the
majority of the fighting took place between April 1846 and September 1847.
The war ended on February 2, 1848, with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This treaty
ceded to the United States the land that now comprises the states of California, Utah, and Nevada, as well
as parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado. Mexico also renounced all rights to Texas.
During the war 1,773 Americans were killed in action and 4,152 were wounded. Mexican casualty reports
are incomplete, but it estimated that approximately 25,000 were killed or wounded between 1846-1848.
Notable Figures:
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General Zachary Taylor– Commander of US troops in northeastern Mexico. Later became
President of the United States.
General & President Jose Lopez de Santa Anna – Mexican general and president during the war.
General Winfield Scott – Commander of the US army that captured Mexico City.
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General Stephen W. Kearny – Commander of US troops that captured Santa Fe and secured
California.
-Davy Crockett and James Bowie were leaders of the Texas volunteer fighters that, in 1835, staged a
famous, yet unsuccessful, stand at the Alamo in San Antonio, TX against the Mexican army during the
Texas war of independence with Mexico; thus, the “Alamo” stand was not a part of the MexicanAmerican War…although hard to believe that the tiny group of Texan volunteer fighters wiped out so
many Mexican military from behind the walls of the “Alamo” before finally being taken (Texas still won
the war though).
The Civil War- The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave
states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet
become states. When Abraham Lincoln won election in 1860 as the first Republican president on a
platform pledging to keep slavery out of the territories, seven slave states in the deep South seceded and
formed a new nation, the Confederate States of America. The incoming Lincoln administration and most
of the Northern people refused to recognize the legitimacy of secession. They feared that it would
discredit democracy and create a fatal precedent that would eventually fragment the no-longer United
States into several small, squabbling countries.
The event that triggered war came at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay on April 12, 1861. Claiming this
United States fort as their own, the Confederate army on that day opened fire on the federal garrison and
forced it to lower the American flag in surrender. Lincoln called out the militia to suppress this
"insurrection." Four more slave states seceded and joined the Confederacy. By the end of 1861 nearly a
million armed men confronted each other along a line stretching 1200 miles from Virginia to Missouri.
But the real fighting began in 1862. Huge battles like Shiloh in Tennessee,Gaines' Mill, Second Manassas,
and Fredericksburg in Virginia, andAntietam in Maryland foreshadowed even bigger campaigns and
battles in subsequent years, from Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to Vicksburg on the Mississippi
to Chickamauga and Atlanta in Georgia. By 1864 the original Northern goal of a limited war to restore the
Union had given way to a new strategy of "total war" to destroy the Old South and its basic institution of
slavery and to give the restored Union a "new birth of freedom," as President Lincoln put it in his address
at Gettysburg to dedicate a cemetery for Union soldiers killed in the battle there.
By the spring of 1865 all the principal Confederate armies surrendered, and when Union cavalry captured
the fleeing Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Georgia on May 10, 1865, resistance collapsed and
the war ended. Northern victory in the war preserved the United States as one nation and ended the
institution of slavery that had divided the country from its beginning. But these achievements came at the
cost of 625,000 lives--nearly as many American soldiers as died in all the other wars in which this country
has fought combined. The American Civil War was the largest and most destructive conflict in the
Western world between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the onset of World War I in 1914.
Spanish-American War- The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, which
began in February 1895. Spain’s brutally repressive measures to halt the rebellion were graphically
portrayed for the U.S. public by several sensational newspapers, and American sympathy for the rebels
rose. The growing popular demand for U.S. intervention became an insistent chorus after the unexplained
sinking in Havana harbor of the battleship USS Maine (Feb. 15, 1898; see Maine, destruction of the),
which had been sent to protect U.S. citizens and property after anti-Spanish rioting in Havana. Spain
announced an armistice on April 9 and speeded up its new program to grant Cuba limited powers of selfgovernment, but the U.S. Congress soon afterward issued resolutions that declared Cuba’s right to
independence, demanded the withdrawal of Spain’s armed forces from the island, and authorized the
President’s use of force to secure that withdrawal while renouncing any U.S. design for annexing Cuba.
Spain declared war on the United States on April 24, followed by a U.S. declaration of war on the 25th,
which was made retroactive to April 21. The ensuing war was pathetically one-sided, since Spain had
readied neither its army nor its navy for a distant war with the formidable power of the United States.
Commo. George Dewey led a U.S. naval squadron into Manila Bay in the Philippines on May 1, 1898,
and destroyed the anchored Spanish fleet in a leisurely morning engagement that cost only seven
American seamen wounded. Manila itself was occupied by U.S. troops by August.
The elusive Spanish Caribbean fleet under Adm. Pascual Cervera was located in Santiago harbour in
Cuba by U.S. reconnaissance. An army of regular troops and volunteers under Gen. William Shafter (and
including Theodore Roosevelt and his 1st Volunteer Cavalry, the “Rough Riders”) landed on the coast
east of Santiago and slowly advanced on the city in an effort to force Cervera’s fleet out of the harbour.
Cervera led his squadron out of Santiago on July 3 and tried to escape westward along the coast. In the
ensuing battle all of his ships came under heavy fire from U.S. guns and were beached in a burning or
sinking condition. Santiago surrendered to Shafter on July 17, thus effectively ending the war.
By the Treaty of Paris (signed Dec. 10, 1898), Spain renounced all claim to Cuba, ceded Guam and Puerto
Rico to the United States, and transferred sovereignty over the Philippines to the United States for
$20,000,000. The Spanish-American War was an important turning point in the history of both
antagonists. Spain’s defeat decisively turned the nation’s attention away from its overseas colonial
adventures and inward upon its domestic needs, a process that led to both a cultural and a literary
renaissance and two decades of much-needed economic development in Spain. The victorious United
States, on the other hand, emerged from the war a world power with far-flung overseas possessions and a
new stake in international politics that would soon lead it to play a determining role in the affairs of
Europe. (Briefly research and read about: “yellow journalism” (Hearst/Pulitzer) and De Lome letter- both
played BIG roles in this War).
WWI- World War I was an extremely bloody war that engulfed Europe from 1914 to 1919, with huge
losses of life and little ground lost or won. Fought mostly by soldiers in trenches, World War I saw an
estimated 10 million military deaths and another 20 million wounded. While many hoped that World War
I would be "the war to end all wars," in actuality, the concluding peace treaty set the stage for World War
II.
Dates: 1914-1919
Also Known As: The Great War, WWI, the First World War
The spark that started World War I was theassassination of Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his
wife Sophie. The assassination occurred on June 28, 1914 while Ferdinand was visiting the city of
Sarajevo in the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Although Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the nephew of Austria's emperor and heir-apparent to the throne,
was not very well liked by most, his assassination by a Serb nationalist was viewed as a great excuse to
attack Austria-Hungary's troublesome neighbor, Serbia.
However, instead of reacting quickly to the incident, Austria-Hungary made sure they had the backing of
Germany, with whom they had a treaty, before they proceeded. This gave Serbia time to get the backing
of Russia, with whom they had a treaty.
The calls for back-up didn't end there. Russia also had a treaty with France and Britain.
This meant that by the time Austria-Hungary officially declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914, an entire
month after the assassination, much of Europe had already become entangled in the dispute.
At the start of the war, these were the major players (more countries joined the war later):
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Allied Forces (a.k.a. the Allies): France, the United Kingdom, Russia
Central Powers: Germany and Austria-Hungary
From 1914 to 1917, soldiers on each side of the line fought from their trenches. They fired artillery onto
the enemy's position and lobbed grenades. However, each time military leaders ordered a full-fledged
attack, the soldiers were forced to leave the "safety" of their trenches.
The only way to overtake the other side's trench was for the soldiers to cross "No Man's Land," the area
between the trenches, on foot. Out in the open, thousands of soldiers raced across this barren land in the
hopes of reaching the other side. Often, most were hewn down by machine-gun fire and artillery before
they even got close. Because of the nature of trench warfare, millions of young men were slaughtered in
the battles of World War I. The war quickly became one of attrition, which meant that with so many
soldiers being killed daily, eventually the side with the most men would win the war. By 1917, the Allies
were starting to run low on young men.
The Allies needed help and they were hoping that the United States, with its vast resources of men and
materials, would join on their side. However, for years, the U.S. had clung to their idea of isolationism.
Plus, the U.S. just didn't want to be involved in a war that seemed so far away and that didn't seem to
affect them in any great way.
However, there were two major events that changed American public opinion about the war. The first
occurred in 1915, when a German U-boat (submarine) sunk the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania.
Considered by Americans to be a neutral ship that carried mostly passengers, Americans were furious
when the Germans sank it, especially since 159 of the passengers were Americans.
The second was the Zimmermann Telegram. In early 1917, Germany sent Mexico a coded message
promising portions of U.S. land in return for Mexico joining World War I against the United States. The
message was intercepted by Britain, translated, and shown to the United States. This brought the war to
U.S. soil, giving the U.S. a real reason to enter the war on the side of the Allies. On April 6, 1917, the
United States officially declared war on Germany. As the United States was entering World War I, Russia
was getting ready to get out.
In 1917, Russia became swept up in an internal revolution that removed the czar from power. The new
communist government, wanting to focus on internal troubles, sought a way to remove Russia from
World War I. Negotiating separately from the rest of the Allies, Russia signed the Brest-Litovsk peace
treaty with Germany on March 3, 1918. The fighting in the west continued for another year. Millions
more soldiers died, while little land was gained. However, the freshness of the American troops made a
huge difference. While the European troops were tired from years of war, the Americans remained
enthusiastic. Soon the Germans were retreating and the Allies were advancing. The end of the war was
near.
At the end of 1918, an armistice was finally agreed upon. The fighting was to end on the 11th hour of
11th day of 11th month (i.e. 11 am on Nov. 11, 1918). For the next several months, diplomats argued and
compromised together in order to come up with the Versailles Treaty. The Versailles Treaty was the
peace treaty that ended World War I; however, a number of its terms were so controversial that it also set
the stage for World War II. The carnage left behind by the end of World War I was staggering. By the end
of the war, an estimated 10 million soldiers were killed. That averages to about 6,500 deaths a day, every
day. Plus, millions of civilians were also killed. World War I is especially remembered for its slaughter
for it was one of the bloodiest wars in history.
WWII- It was the bloodiest, deadliest war the world had ever seen. More than 38 million people died,
many of them innocent civilians. It also was the most destructive war in history. Fighting raged in many
parts of the world. More than 50 nations took part in the war, which changed the world forever.
For Americans, World War II had a clear-cut purpose. People knew why they were fighting: to defeat
tyranny. Most of Europe had been conquered by Nazi Germany, which was under the iron grip of dictator
Adolf Hitler. The war in Europe began with Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939. Wherever the Nazis
went, they waged a campaign of terror, mainly against Jews, but also against other minorities.
In Asia and the Pacific, Japanese armies invaded country after country, island after island. On December
7, 1941, Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next day, the U.S. Congress declared war,
taking the U.S. into World War II.
Most historians believe that the causes of World War II can be traced to World War I (1914-1918).
Americans had fought in that earlier war to "make the world safe for democracy." Those were the words
and goals of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. But the peace treaties that ended World War I did not make
the world safe for democracy. Instead, they caused bitterness and anger that led to World War II.
Germany and its allies had been the losers in World War I. Germany was stripped of one sixth of its
territory and forced to pay huge reparations (payments by a defeated country for the destruction it caused
in a war). After World War I, Germany suffered from high unemployment and runaway inflation. German
money became almost worthless. Many Germans seethed in anger at the peace treaty.
A League of Nations was set up after World War I to keep the peace. But the U.S. did not join, and other
countries were too busy with their own problems to worry about Germany and other trouble spots.
Then, in the early 1930s, the world was hit by an economic depression. Workers lost their jobs, trade fell
off, and times were hard. People looked for leaders who could bring about change.
Germany, Italy, and Japan all came under the rule of dictators or military leaders. A dictator named
Mussolini took power in Italy in 1922. Military leaders took control of Japan in the early 1930s. In
Germany, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, gained power in 1933. These leaders promised to restore
their countries to greatness. But they set up totalitarian governments. (A totalitarian government is
controlled by a single political party that allows no opposition and tightly controls people's lives.)
Hitler began to arm Germany for war. Japan invaded China. Mussolini sent Italian troops to conquer
Ethiopia, in Africa. None of the world's democracies did anything to stop them.
Hitler had a plan to conquer Europe. He began by taking Austria, then Czechoslovakia. Again, no one
tried to stop him. As Winston Churchill, who became Britain's wartime leader, said, "Britain and France
had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war."
Churchill's words came true. In 1939, German troops invaded Poland. World War II in Europe had begun.
The U.S. did not enter the war until December 1941, but once it did, it took a leadership role. U.S. troops
fought in North Africa, Europe, and the Pacific. At home, Americans rolled up their sleeves to outproduce
the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) in the weapons of warplanes, battleships, and guns.
Everyone did their part.
Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, ending the war in Europe. The war in the Pacific did not end until
after the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan — the only time such bombs were ever used in war.
Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had led the U.S. in wartime, did not live to see peace. But in a
speech written but never delivered, he spoke of the need to preserve peace: "Today we are faced with the
preeminent [above all other] fact that, if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human
relationships — the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together and work together in the same
world, at peace."
Korean War- On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North
Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south.
This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July, American troops had entered the war
on South Korea’s behalf. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of
international communism itself. After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting
stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them. Meanwhile, American officials worked
anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans. The alternative, they feared, would be
a wider war with Russia and China–or even, as some warned, World War III. The U.S. would fight to
“contain” communism. The thinking, for the U.S., was that if one “domino” was allowed to fall in Asiaothers would surely follow.
At first, the war was a defensive one–a war to get the communists out of South Korea–and it went badly
for the Allies. The North Korean army was well-disciplined, well-trained and well-equipped; South
Korean forces, by contrast, were frightened, confused, and seemed inclined to flee the battlefield at any
provocation. Also, it was one of the hottest and driest summers on record, and desperately thirsty
American soldiers were often forced to drink water from rice paddies that had been fertilized with human
waste. As a result, dangerous intestinal diseases and other illnesses were a constant threat. By the end of
the summer, President Truman and General Douglas MacArthur(1880-1964), the commander in charge of
the Asian theater, had decided on a new set of war aims. Now, for the Allies, the Korean War was an
offensive one: It was a war to “liberate” the North from the communists.
Initially, this new strategy was a success. An amphibious assault at Inchon pushed the North Koreans out
of Seoul and back to their side of the 38th parallel. But as American troops crossed the boundary and
headed north toward the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and Communist China, the Chinese
started to worry about protecting themselves from what they called “armed aggression against Chinese
territory.” Chinese leader Mao Zedong (1893-1976) sent troops to North Korea and warned the United
States to keep away from the Yalu boundary unless it wanted full-scale war.
As President Truman looked for a way to prevent war with the Chinese, MacArthur did all he could to
provoke it. Finally, in March 1951, he sent a letter to Joseph Martin, a House Republican leader who
shared MacArthur’s support for declaring all-out war on China–and who could be counted upon to leak
the letter to the press. “There is,” MacArthur wrote, “no substitute for victory” against international
communism. For Truman, this letter was the last straw. On April 11, the president fired the general for
insubordination.
Finally, after more than two years of negotiations, the adversaries signed an armistice on July 27, 1953.
The agreement allowed the POWs to stay where they liked; drew a new boundary near the 38th parallel
that gave South Korea an extra 1,500 square miles of territory; and created a 2-mile-wide “demilitarized
zone” that still exists today.
The Korean War was relatively short but exceptionally bloody. Nearly 5 million people died. More than
half of these–about 10 percent of Korea’s prewar population–were civilians. (This rate of civilian
casualties was higher than World War II’s and Vietnam’s.) Almost 40,000 Americans died in action in
Korea, and more than 100,000 were wounded.
Vietnam War- Vietnam was the longest war in American history and the most unpopular American war of
the 20th century. It resulted in nearly 60,000 American deaths and in an estimated 2 million Vietnamese
deaths. Even today, many Americans still ask whether the American effort in Vietnam was a sin, a
blunder, a necessary war, or whether it was a noble cause, or an idealistic, if failed, effort to protect the
South Vietnamese from totalitarian government.
Between 1945 and 1954, the Vietnamese waged an anti-colonial war against France, which received $2.6
billion in financial support from the United States. The French defeat at the Dien Bien Phu was followed
by a peace conference in Geneva. As a result of the conference, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam received
their independence, and Vietnam was temporarily divided between an anti-Communist South and a
Communist North. In 1956, South Vietnam, with American backing, refused to hold unification elections.
By 1958, Communist-led guerrillas, known as the Viet Cong, had begun to battle the South Vietnamese
government.
To support the South's government, the United States sent in 2,000 military advisors--a number that grew
to 16,300 in 1963. The military condition deteriorated, and by 1963, South Vietnam had lost the fertile
Mekong Delta to the Viet Cong. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson escalated the war, commencing air
strikes on North Vietnam and committing ground forces--which numbered 536,000 in 1968. The 1968 Tet
Offensive by the North Vietnamese turned many Americans against the war.
The next president, Richard Nixon, advocated Vietnamization, withdrawing American troops and giving
South Vietnam greater responsibility for fighting the war. In 1970, Nixon attempted to slow the flow of
North Vietnamese soldiers and supplies into South Vietnam by sending American forces to destroy
Communist supply bases in Cambodia. This act violated Cambodian neutrality and provoked antiwar
protests on the nation's college campuses.
From 1968 to 1973, efforts were made to end the conflict through diplomacy. In January 1973, an
agreement was reached; U.S. forces were withdrawn from Vietnam, and U.S. prisoners of war were
released. In April 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to the North, and Vietnam was reunited.
1. The Vietnam War cost the United States 58,000 lives and 350,000 casualties. It also resulted in
between one and two million Vietnamese deaths.
2. Congress enacted the War Powers Act in 1973, requiring the president to receive explicit Congressional
approval before committing American forces overseas.
Persian Gulf War- Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring
Kuwait in early August 1990. Alarmed by these actions, fellow Arab powers such as Saudi Arabia and
Egypt called on the United States and other Western nations to intervene. Hussein defied United Nations
Security Council demands to withdraw from Kuwait by mid-January 1991, and the Persian Gulf War
began with a massive U.S.-led air offensive known as Operation Desert Storm. After 42 days of relentless
attacks by the allied coalition in the air and on the ground, U.S. President George H.W. Bush declared a
cease-fire on February 28; by that time, most Iraqi forces in Kuwait had either surrendered or fled.
Though the Persian Gulf War was initially considered an unqualified success for the international
coalition, simmering conflict in the troubled region led to a second Gulf War–known as the Iraq War–that
began in 2003.
Iraq War- After the First Gulf War there was a UN mandate, this mandate was called the United Nations
Security Council Resolution 687. This mandate said that all Iraq long range missiles, nuclear, biological
and chemical weapons were destroyed. When George W. Bush (Jr.) came to power in 2001 the chances of
war in Iraq grew rapidly. Bush accused Iraq of starting to develop weapons of mass destruction and to
ensure UN weapons inspectors were allowed full access to Iraq weapons, something they had not fully
had. Iraq countered this by saying there were no weapons of mass destruction and that they were not
allowing UN weapons inspectors as the 1999 checks included U.S. intelligence agents. Through late 2002
into 2003 Iraq reluctantly allowed weapons inspectors back in the country and were seen to be making
progress, but this did not stop the United States pushing issues further.
On March 20th 2003 the Iraq War started in earnest. The first teams into Iraq actually went in during the
summer of 2002 and these were covert CIA operatives. It was officially 5:34am in Baghdad on March
20th 2003 when the war began and the United States led a coalition of some forty countries into battle
with Iraq. The action was swift as the coalition forces invaded Iraq at speed. The main bulk of the forces
were US and UK forces but there were also Australian, Polish and other forces involved.
The invasion while being quick and decisive was not as easy as first expected. The Iraqi forces were
expecting an attack and devised their own plans in dealing with the coalition, this involved conventional
warfare which turned to unconventional when larger coalition forces were in battle. An example would be
the withdrawal of smaller Iraqi forces when facing a larger coalition force, the idea was to lure the
coalition forces forward so Iraqi forces in civilian clothing could then attack in the rear.
This move by the Iraq forces was successful in slowing the advance but did not stop the giant coalition
war machine from completing their objectives. The coalition invasion combined land, air and water
assaults and methodically moved through Iraq until it finally achieved its objective of controlling most of
the large cities. It was 15th April 2003 when the invasion was declared complete. Over the rest of 2003
the coalition forces began to hunt down and capture all government figures from the Saddam regime, this
included the capture of Saddam Hussein himself in December 2003.
After the completion of the invasion there were a few small scale attacks, but over time these grew
dramatically to become constant barrages of small attacks. These attacks were seen as coming from AntiIraq forces, thus meaning Islamic terrorist organizations against the coalition position in Iraq. Through
2004 the Anti-Iraq forces insurgency grew dramatically with both coalition forces and civilians bearing
the brunt of the attacks. This fighting saw four Blackwater private security workers killed and their dead
bodies paraded in an undignified manner thus causing the outbreak of the first and second Battles of
Fallujah that resulted in a victory to the coalition.
2005 saw the first election of an Iraqi government and the ratification of the Iraqi constitution, it also saw
the heaviest insurgency to date. 2006 saw a small scale civil war start when a highly revered mosque was
bombed by insurgents, this small scale civil war accumulated in the death of some 165 civilians. A group
of American soldiers raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl Abeer Hamza al-Janabi before going on to kill her and
her family. The soldiers were sent to prison for their crimes but the damage from the crimes reverberated
further by increasing negativity towards the coalition and increasing insurgent attacks.
In June 2006 the Iraqi leader of al-Qaeda called Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was tracked and killed in a well
planned operation. The Iraq government also took office in 2006 and Saddam Hussein was executed by
hanging for his crimes against Iraq in December of the same year. 2007 saw a massive increase in United
States forces numbers in Iraq and this increase in troops coincided in a huge decrease in insurgent activity.
It was also the year where the Iraq government voted in favour of coalition forces leaving the nation.
2008 saw Iraq finally able to start defending itself as the new Iraqi army was formed and its troops started
completing basic training. This same year also saw a decrease in the number of insurgent attacks,
although there was a spring offensive by insurgent groups. 2009 to date saw a reduction in troops in Iraq
and a redeployment of coalition troops within the country. This was able to happen as the Iraqi armed
forces started controlling security of their own nation. In 2009 American and Iraqi forces in a combined
operation killed the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
Afghan War- After 9/11, President George W. Bush gave the rulers of Afghanistan an ultimatum: hand
over the terrorists responsible for 9/11, or “share in their fate.” The Taliban—the Islamic fundamentalists
who ruled the country—refused to surrender their ally, terrorist leader Osama bin-Laden. Air strikes
began on 10/7/01, less than a month after 9/11. American, British and other soldiers fought together with
Afghans opposed to the Taliban. The goals: remove the Taliban from power, find bin-Laden and his
lieutenants, and destroy his organization, known as Al-Qaeda.
Taliban forces fled from Kabul, the capital city, on 11/12/01, and retreated toward the mountainous border
of Afghanistan and Pakistan. With U.S. support, a new government was installed, with Hamid Karzai as
President. The Taliban gradually rebuilt its fighting forces and carried out attacks against the new
government and American soldiers.
Noting the Taliban’s growing strength and the difficulty of fighting an enemy hidden in remote caves and
mountains, many observers said that the war was unwinnable. On 12/1/09, President Obama announced a
new strategy: the rapid deployment of 30,000 additional troops, to break the Taliban’s momentum and
turn the war around.
Despite slow progress, serious obstacles remain. President Karzai’s followers have been accused of
brazen fraud in his 2009 reelection, further eroding support for his government among the Afghan people,
who complain of widespread corruption. The Taliban has proven difficult to uproot. Nevertheless, after
the assassination of Osama bin-Laden in May, 2011, President Obama announced he would accelerate the
withdrawal of that American forces—reflecting, in part, America’s war-weariness and lingering
economic woes.