Curated playlist
Wars involving the United Kingdom
- War of the Third CoalitionMarshals Murat and Lannes took the Vienna bridge in 1805 by falsely claiming an armistice.
- Crimean WarFewer than half of 80,000 Russian soldiers in the Crimean War survived, mostly from disease.
- Iraq WarThe Iraq War's main reason, weapons of mass destruction, turned out to be false.
- War of the Fourth CoalitionAt Auerstedt, one badly outnumbered French corps beat the bulk of the Prussian army. Prussia's king then took command.
- French Revolutionary WarsFrance ordered the first mass conscription in history on the 23rd of August 1793.
- French invasion of Egypt and SyriaNapoleon's army in Egypt included 167 scientists and scholars. They founded the Institut d'Egypte.
- 2003 invasion of IraqThe 2003 invasion of Iraq opened with an airstrike on the Presidential Palace in Baghdad on the 20th of March 2003. It was the first stage of the Iraq War, and it lasted just over a month. A coalition led by the United States carried it…
- Second Boer WarIn the Second Boer War's Black Week, Britain lost three battles to farmer marksmen.
- War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)The war in Afghanistan lasted from 2001 to 2021, and it became the longest war in United States military history. It ran six months longer than the Vietnam War. A United States-led coalition launched it under the name Operation Enduring…
- Gulf WarA rounding error in a Patriot missile's computer let a Scud kill 28 US soldiers in Saudi Arabia.
- War of 1812News of Britain's concession reached the United States too late to stop the War of 1812.
- Falklands WarThe Falklands War was predicted out loud, in a private room, more than a year before it began. In December 1980, Nicholas Ridley, a British Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, had just been attacked in Parliament. Critics called his…
- Boxer RebellionThe Boxer Rebellion, an anti-foreign uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, rested on a belief that bullets could not kill its fighters. To convince new initiates, members fired guns loaded with blank rounds at one another. The…
- Anglo-Iraqi WarIn May 1941, a British flying school struck first against a besieging Iraqi army.
- The TroublesThe Troubles in Northern Ireland lasted roughly thirty years and killed more than 3,500 people.
- Korean WarThe UN approved force in Korea because the Soviet Union was absent. It had boycotted the Council since January 1950.
- Second French intervention in MexicoOn June 19, 1867, Emperor Maximilian of Mexico faced a firing squad ordered by Mexico's republicans.
- Greek Civil WarShots rang out at a march of at least 200,000 people in Athens in 1944. It began the Greek Civil War.
- Peninsular WarNapoleon called the Peninsular War a wound that would not close. He named it the "Spanish ulcer."
- Taiping RebellionA man who believed he was Jesus's younger brother led a Chinese rebellion. The Taiping Rebellion ran from 1850 to 1864.
- Indian Rebellion of 1857The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began when sepoys at Meerut freed 85 jailed comrades.
- Syrian civil warSyria's civil war ended when the government simply vanished overnight. Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow in December 2024.
- World War IIHistorians still disagree about the day World War II began. Most choose 1 September 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.
- World War IWorld War I began with two pistol shots in a Sarajevo street. Gavrilo Princip's shots killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
- War on terrorThe war on terror aimed at a tactic, not a country. The U.S. began it after the September 11 attacks.
- Phoney WarDuring the Phoney War, the RAF helped bury German airmen at Clacton-on-Sea. Wreaths of sympathy lay on the coffins.
- Finnish WarIn February 1808, 24,000 Russian troops crossed into Swedish Finland. By November, Russia had overrun all of Finland.