Wars & battles

In-depth guides that start simply enough for children and go deep enough for researchers.

54 articles

• History · 1274 BCEBattle of KadeshThe Battle of Kadesh was a huge chariot battle fought in Syria in about 1274 BC between the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II and the Hittite king Muwatalli II, which neither side really won and which led, years later, to one of the oldest peace treaties in the world.Map
• History · 770–221 BCEWars of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States PeriodsFrom 771/770 to 221 BCE the states of ancient China fought recurrent wars, ending with Qin’s conquest of the other six major powers and the founding of its empire.Map
• War · 499–449 BCEGreco-Persian WarsThe Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BCE) were a half-century of conflict between the vast Achaemenid Persian Empire and a group of small Greek city-states, famous for the battles of Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis, in which the Greeks stopped two Persian invasions of their homeland.Map
• History · 490 BCEBattle of MarathonIn 490 BCE, on a coastal plain northeast of Athens, a small army of Athenians and Plataeans defeated a Persian force sent by King Darius I, a victory that Athens never stopped celebrating and that gave its name to the modern marathon race.Map
• War · 431–404 BCEPeloponnesian WarThe Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE) was a long and terrible war between Athens and its sea empire on one side and Sparta and its allies on the other, and it ended with Athens defeated and the Greek world exhausted.Map
• History · 331 BCEBattle of GaugamelaAt Gaugamela, in northern Iraq, on 1 October 331 BCE, Alexander of Macedon defeated the army of the Persian king Darius III, a battle that brought the end of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.Map
• History · 230–221 BCEQin’s Wars of UnificationBetween 230 and 221 BCE the state of Qin conquered its six rival kingdoms one by one, ending centuries of war and creating the first empire to rule most of China, at an enormous human cost.Map
• War · 218–201 BCESecond Punic WarThe Second Punic War (218–201 BCE) was a seventeen-year struggle between Rome and Carthage in which Hannibal crossed the Alps and won stunning victories in Italy, but Rome refused to give up and finally defeated Carthage in Spain and Africa, becoming the strongest power in the western Mediterranean.Map
• War · 206–202 BCEChu–Han ContentionThe Chu–Han Contention (206–202 BC) was the civil war that followed the collapse of China’s first empire, the Qin, in which the peasant-born Liu Bang defeated the aristocratic warrior Xiang Yu and founded the Han dynasty.Map
• War · 58–51 BCEGallic WarsThe Gallic Wars (58–50 BCE) were the campaigns in which Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, a vast region covering modern France, Belgium and parts of neighbouring countries, at enormous human cost, ending with the siege of Alesia and the surrender of the Gallic leader Vercingetorix.Map
• History · 184–280 CEWars of the Late Han and the Three KingdomsBetween 184 and 280 the Han empire of China broke apart in rebellion and civil war, split into the three rival states of Wei, Shu and Wu, and was finally reunited by the Jin dynasty, a century of war later retold in the influential novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.Map
• History · 598–614 CEGoguryeo–Sui WarsThe Goguryeo–Sui Wars were four invasions of the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo by the Chinese Sui dynasty in 598 and 612–614; all failed, the huge losses helped bring down the Sui, and the Battle of the Salsu River became one of the most famous victories in Korean history.Map
• War · 633–654 CEThe Muslim Conquest of PersiaBetween the 630s and 651, armies of the early Islamic caliphate defeated the Sasanian Empire of Iran, ending more than four centuries of Sasanian rule and beginning a long, gradual transformation in which Iran became a mainly Muslim land while keeping its own language and much of its culture.Map
• History · 660–676 CESilla's wars of unification (660–676)Between 660 and 676 the Korean kingdom of Silla, first as the ally of Tang China and then as its enemy, took part in the destruction of its rivals Baekje and Goguryeo and ended up ruling most of the Korean peninsula south of the Taedong River — an outcome that Koreans have long called “unification”, although historians in South Korea, North Korea, China and Japan describe it in different ways.Map
• War · 722–1492 CEReconquista“Reconquista” is the name later historians gave to the long, uneven process, from the eighth century to 1492, by which Christian kingdoms in the north of the Iberian Peninsula expanded south and took over the lands of Muslim al-Andalus.Map
• History · 751 CEBattle of TalasThe Battle of Talas was a clash in 751 in Central Asia between the army of Tang China and the army of the new Abbasid Caliphate, the only major battle ever fought between the Chinese and Arab empires.Map
• War · 1095–1291The CrusadesThe Crusades were a series of religious wars, beginning in 1095, in which Latin Christian armies called by the popes tried to win and hold Jerusalem and other lands, leaving a legacy of conquest, violence, exchange and bitter memory that is still argued about today.Map
• War · 1180–1185Genpei WarThe Genpei War (1180–1185) was a civil war in Japan in which warriors rallied by the Minamoto family destroyed the powerful Taira family, opening the way for the first samurai government, the Kamakura shogunate.Map
• War · 1211–1234Mongol conquest of the Jin dynastyBetween 1211 and 1234 the Mongols under Genghis Khan and his son Ögedei fought a long, destructive war against the Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty of northern China, ending with the fall of the Jin and giving the Mongols a base from which they later conquered all of China.Map
• War · 1337–1453The Hundred Years’ WarThe Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453) was a long, on-and-off struggle between the kings of England and the kings of France over land and the French crown, which ended with England driven out of almost all of France and helped both countries develop stronger states and a sharper sense of national identity.Map
• War · 1354–1683Ottoman wars in EuropeFrom the mid-fourteenth century to the late seventeenth century the Ottoman Empire fought a long series of wars that carried its rule from Anatolia across the Balkans to the gates of Vienna, and then, after 1683, slowly pushed it back.Map
• History · 1560–1615Wars of Japan’s Unification (1560–1615)Between 1560 and 1615 three warlords — Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu — fought their way through a Japan split among rival lords and armed temples, ending more than a century of civil war and founding the Tokugawa shogunate, which kept the peace for 250 years.Map
• War · 1592First Siege of Jinju (1592)In November 1592 (the tenth lunar month), Jinju fortress in southern Korea, defended by a garrison of roughly 3,000–3,800 men under the magistrate Kim Si-min and supported by government troops and righteous armies operating outside the walls, held out for about six days against a much larger Japanese army and forced it to withdraw, keeping an important overland gateway to Jeolla Province, Joseon’s grain base, in Korean hands for the time being.Map
• War · 1592Battle of Chungju (Tangeumdae, 1592)On 7 June 1592 (the 28th day of the fourth lunar month), the Joseon commander Sin Rip, who had decided not to hold the mountain pass of Joryeong but to fight on open ground near Chungju, drew up an army of roughly 8,000 men, built around cavalry, in front of the hill of Tangeumdae with the rivers at his back, and saw it surrounded and destroyed by Konishi Yukinaga’s First Division; two days later King Seonjo left the capital, and the Japanese entered it about twenty days after first landing at Busan.Map