The French and Indian War. Fought between 1754 and 1763, was the North American theater of the larger Seven Years’ War, where British colonists and their Native American allies battled against French colonists and their Native American allies over control of the Ohio Valley, ultimately leading to a British victory and the acquisition of vast new territories in North America, including Canada, from France through the Treaty of Paris in 1763
The American Revolution.
The U.S. War of Independence—was the insurrection fought between 1775 and 1783 through which 13 of Great Britain’s North American colonies threw off British rule to establish the sovereign United States of America, founded with the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
The U.S. Civil War. The American Civil War was a conflict between the Union (Northern States) and the Confederacy (Southern States) that took place from 1861 to 1865. The war was fought over a number of issues, including: (1) Slavery: The main cause of the war was the disagreement over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in new territories. (2) States’ rights. (3) Westward expansion. (4) Economic differences: The North had a well-established manufacturing and industry, while the South’s economy was based on large-scale farming that relied on enslaved Black people. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederates bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay, South Carolina. The war ended in 1865 when the Confederacy surrendered with General Robert E. Lee signed the terms of surrender in Appomattox Court House in the presence of General Ulysses Grant. The war was the deadliest war in US history, killing about 2% of the population or more than 620,000 deaths and millions wounded.
War of 1812.
Sometimes referred to as the “Second War of Independence,” the War of 1812 was the first large scale test of the American republic on the world stage. With the British Navy impressing American sailors, and the British government aiding Native American tribes in their attacks on American citizens on the frontier, Congress, for the first time in our nation’s history, declared war on a foreign nation: Great Britain. Battles raged on the high seas. British soldiers invaded American soil, captured Washington D.C., and even burned the White House. In the end the Star-Spangled Banner waved “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Explore the battlefields and personalities of this critical time in American history.
The American Indian Wars (1609-1924). America’s real longest war was the conflict against Indigenous Americans, called the American Indian Wars, which most historians characterize as beginning in 1609 and ending in 1924 or 313 years, mainly over land control. The conflict was about sovereignty in the new world by the United States by putting Indian tribes to established reservations. Many treaties, truces, and armistices were made and broken which resulted to massive indigenous population decline, deportation and forced assimilation. While most location of battles happened in the U.S. territory, various battle spilled over to Alaska, Canada, and Mexico.
World War I. World War I, also known as the Great War, started in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe that lasted until 1918. During the four-year conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers).
World War II. The U.S. involvement militarily began when Pearl Harbor, a U.S. Naval base in Oahu, Hawaii was bombed by the Japanese Imperial forces on December 7, 1941. The U.S. response was swift when President Franklin Rosevelt with the approval of Congress declared war on Japan on December 8. In turn, Germany declared war with the U.S. three days later on December 11, 1941.
The Normandy landings of Allied forces with airborne elements on 6 of June 1944 code named Operation Overlord referred as D-day marked the beginning of the final push towards Berlin. D-day was the largest seaborne invasion in history which liberated France and the rest of Western Europe which laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. Previous operations before D-Day were fought in North Africa known as Operation Torch, Sicily known as Operation Husky, and Italian campaign landing in Salerno known as Operation Avalanche. Watch a documentary video “The Light of Dawn” – D-day in Color here.
Korean War. The Korean war began on June 25, 1950, 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.
Vietnam War. Vietnam War, (1954–75), a protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States.
Persian Gulf War. The Gulf War, also known as the Persian Gulf War, was an international conflict that took place between 1990 and 1991. Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, ordered the invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, to acquire Kuwait’s oil reserves, cancel a debt, and expand Iraqi power. The war had two phases: (1) Operation Desert Shield: The buildup of troops and defense of Saudi Arabia from August 1990 to January 1991. (2) Operation Desert Storm: The combat phase, which began with an aerial bombardment on January 17, 1991, and ended with the liberation of Kuwait on February 28, 1991.
911. September 11 attacks, series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed in 2001 by 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda against targets in the United States, the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil in U.S. history. The attacks against New York City and Washington, D.C., caused extensive death and destruction and triggered an enormous U.S. effort to combat terrorism.
Iraq War. In March 2003, U.S. forces invaded Iraq vowing to destroy Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and end the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein. When WMD intelligence proved illusory and a violent insurgency arose, the war lost public support. Saddam was captured, tried, and hanged and democratic elections were held.
War in Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan was a 20-year conflict that began in 2001 after the September 11 attacks and ended in 2021 with the Taliban regaining power.