10 Real Wars That Ended Nations
#10: The Punic Wars
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264-146 BCE For over a century, the Roman and Carthaginian Empires fought these wars for supremacy of the Mediterranean. Rome ruled Southern Europe, while Carthage controlled Northern Africa. Rome had a powerful army but a small navy. Carthage was one of the preeminent maritime empires of the ancient world. The two fought bitterly over modern day Spain, Sicily, Tunisia, and Morocco. At first Carthage reigned supreme; at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BCE, Hannibal absolutely destroyed an army of 86,000 Roman and allied troops. The Romans never forgave and they never forgot. The nations fought for another seven decades until, at long last, Carthage was conquered.
#9: The Taiping War
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1850-64 The Taiping Rebellion was the bloodiest civil war in human history. At the end of 14 years of desperate fighting, over 20 million people were dead. Many millions more were permanently displaced, settling in neighboring regions. The rebelling Taiping forces fought bitterly against the ruling Qing Dynasty. The rebel leader, Hong Xiuquan, proclaimed himself the brother of Jesus Christ, and sought to replace other religions and establish a theocratic Christian state. His rival kingdom fell in 1864 and the last of the rebels were destroyed in 1871. Though the ruling Qing dynasty limped on, the civil war proved to be a slow but mortal wound to Imperial China. The Republic of China was formed in 1912, ending two thousand years of Imperial rule.
#8: The Byzantine–Ottoman Wars
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1299-1479 After the fall of Western Rome in 476 CE, Eastern Rome flourished under the Byzantine Empire. For nearly a thousand years, the Eastern Empire was a fixture of the Middle Ages. Centered around its capital city, Constantinople, Byzantium expanded and contracted over the centuries. At its apex, the Byzantine Empire controlled almost all of the land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea as well as all of modern-day Turkey. The beginning of the end for the Byzantines began with the sacking of Constantinople in 1204 by western crusaders. Rule of the region was in constant turmoil during two and a half centuries of conflict. The Ottoman Empire rose from the chaos. The Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, ending Byzantium forever.
#7: The Wars of Alexander the Great
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336-323 BCE Alexander the Great is remembered as one of the most skilled generals in military history. His tactics are still studied in academies the world over. He took the small Aegean nation of Macedon and forged it into one of the greatest empires of the ancient world. During his years of conquest, Alexander never lost a battle. He expanded Macedonian influence south into Egypt and east into modern-day Turkey. At the Battle of Gaugamela, Alexander defeated Darius III of Persia and ended the Achaemenid Empire. But he didn’t stop there; his wars took him all the way into western India. Tired of constant fighting, his army eventually refused to push any further. Alexander planned to expand south into Arabia and west into Rome, but died before he could.
#6: The Napoleonic Wars
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1803-15 For 12 long years, all of Europe revolved around the ambitions of Napoleon Bonaparte. After Napoleon consolidated power in France, he set his sights on domination. His military prowess led to one conquest after another. He defeated the Belgians, the Dutch, and the Swiss. He annexed most of Northern Italy and Western Germany. A puppet regime was installed in Spain. He secured Austrian allies through marriage. Napoleon changed the face of the world, fighting naval battles in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. He sold the territory of Louisiana to the United States. He looked unstoppable until he fell for a classic blunder when he invaded Russia… After his defeat, Europe’s borders were redrawn by the Congress of Vienna.
#5: The Warring States Period
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475 - 221 BCE The Warring States period in ancient China was a 250-year long stretch of unrest, warfare, and diplomacy. Seven rival kingdoms jostled for supremacy of the region that is now north-eastern China. Eventually, the most powerful kingdom - Qin - waged wars of conquest on its neighbors. One by one the kingdoms fell: Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan and finally Qi were conquered. The King of Qin, Ying Zheng, named himself Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of a united kingdom. Though the Empire would split and reform over time, Imperial China lasted for 2,000 years until 1912.
#4: The Saadian Invasion of the Songhai Empire
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1590-99 For over four centuries, the Mali Empire grew to be the major power in Western Africa. Mali was known throughout the region for the wealth of its kings. Its most famous ruler, Mansa Musa, ruled during its Golden Age. That era didn’t last long; one hundred years later, Mali was supplanted by the massive Songhai Empire as the largest kingdom in West Africa. Songhai extended over the territories of over a dozen modern African countries, flourishing under their king Askia the Great. But Askia’s sons revolted and overthrew him in 1531. A generation later, Songhai was invaded by Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur of the Saadian dynasty in Morocco. Nine years after the invasion began, the great Songhai Empire was destroyed.
#3: World War I
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1914-18 World War I changed the face of the globe with a rapidity and scope unseen during any previous conflict on earth. The Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires were broken up into nearly a dozen separate countries. Nations like Finland, Czechoslovakia, and Estonia declared independence. The Ottoman Empire was disbanded and its territories occupied and partitioned. Countries like Canada and Australia in the British Commonwealth took major strides towards autonomy. The British also lost Egypt, most of Ireland, and Afghanistan, while gaining territory elsewhere in the Middle East. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans lost their footholds in China to local control and to the Japanese. All told, 28 countries gained territory or independence after the war.
#2: The Mongol Invasions
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1206-1405 Genghis Khan united the Mongolian tribes under his rule by 1206. Then, he set his sights outward. He invaded China and the lands of north-eastern Iran. They conquered much of Eurasia, pushing to the Arabian Peninsula. They took most of Turkey and virtually all of modern-day China. It’s hard to imagine a territory as vast and diverse as imperial Mongolia in the modern context. At its height by the end of the 13th century, the Empire was tremendous, spanning from Korea in the east to Ukraine in the west. The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous kingdom in the history of the world.
#1: World War II
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1939-45 The Second World War was the most devastating war in human history. Entire cities and much of many countries were devastated and left in ruins. It also resulted in an extensive geopolitical shift. No corner of the globe was left untouched by its aftermath. Germany was broken up into East and West Germany. The Soviet Union occupied Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, and parts of Finland. In the east, the Soviets annexed former Japanese islands. Japan lost all their territory in China and the South Pacific. The following 20 years saw dozens of countries decolonized. The next 20 saw dozens more. Within a generation, the entire planet was completely reshaped.
