Quizbowl Military History list

World War II

(1939-45) Global conflict led to the downfall of Nazi Germany; imperial Japan

World War I

(1914-18) Trench warfare between European alliances produced “Lost Generation”

American Civil War

(1861-65) Union forces defeated Confederate secession attempt; abolished slavery

American Revolution

(1775-83) 13 colonies gained independence from Britain; established U.S.

War of 1812

(1812-15) Inconclusive war caused in part by impressment of U.S. sailors

French Revolution (Uprising)

(1789) Fall of the Bourbon monarchy led to series of short-lived regimes

Vietnam War

(1955-75) Vietnam unified after U.S. defeat in Southeast Asian guerrilla war

Trojan War

(c. 12th century BC) Semilegendary conflict between attacking Greeks; Priam’s city of Troy

Mexican War

(1846-48) War of “Manifest Destiny” gained Southwestern territory for U.S.

Peloponnesian War

(431-404 BC) Thucydides wrote about this war in which Sparta defeated Athens

Spanish-American War

(1898) U.S. seized Spanish colonies like Cuba; Puerto Rico; and Philippines

Battle of Waterloo

(1815) Final defeat of Napoleon by British/Dutch/Prussian coalition

Crimean War

(1854-56) British and French joined to seize Russian naval bases on Black Sea

Crusades (Operation)

(1096-1300s) Medieval European campaigns to seize control of the Holy Land

Hundred Years' War

(1337-1453) Struggle between England and France for control of French throne

Battle of Gettysburg

(1863) Ended Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania; inspired address by A. Lincoln

Korean War

(1950-53) “Forgotten War” that resulted in DMZ across Korean peninsula

Cold War

(c. 1946-91) Struggle for influence between rival superpowers U.S. and USSR

Thirty Years' War

(1618-1648) Catholic-Protestant war in Germany that drew in Spain; Sweden; France

Spanish Civil War

(1936-39) Francisco Franco’s forces overthrew the Spanish republic

Napoleonic Wars

(1803-15) Bonaparte’s attempt to conquer Europe foiled by hostile coalition

Attack on Pearl Harbor

(1941) Japan’s infamous surprise attack on U.S. naval base in Oahu; Hawaii

Franco-Prussian War

(1870-71) United Germany emerged from Bismarck’s destruction of French empire

Battle of Hastings

(1066) William the Conqueror killed Harold II; took over Anglo-Saxon England

Battle of Bosworth Field

(1485) Richard III died at this final battle of the Wars of the Roses

English Civil War

(1642-51) Struggle between king and Long Parliament that cost Charles I his head

Third Crusade (Campaign)

(1189-92) Richard Lionheart; Frederick Barbarossa failed to recapture Jerusalem

Treaty of Versailles

(1919) Ended WWI; blamed for causing WWII due to its harsh treatment of Germany

Russian Revolution (Uprising)

(1917) Lenin’s Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government

War of the Roses

(1455-85) Struggle between Houses of York and Lancaster for English throne

Battle of Yorktown

(1781) Cornwallis’s army trapped at Virginia port by Americans; French

Spanish Armada (Military Unit)

(1588) “Invincible” fleet scattered and sunk by Elizabeth I’s ships; storms

Russo-Japanese War

(1904-05) Tsar Nicholas II’s empire weakened by loss to a rising Asian power

Battle of Antietam

(1862) Union victory in Maryland led to the Emancipation Proclamation

Seven Years’ War

(1756-63) Prussia’s Frederick the Great held off French; Austrians; Russians

Battle of Chancellorsville

(1863) Stonewall Jackson killed during Lee’s victory over Joseph Hooker

Battle of the Little Bighorn

(1876) Sitting Bull’s Sioux beat the 7th Cavalry in Custer’s Last Stand

Battle of Agincourt

(1415) French knights routed by Henry V's outnumbered army of English archers

Battle of Marathon

(490 BC) Athenian phalanx turned back Darius’s Persian invasion of Greece

Louisiana Purchase (Treaty)

(1803) U.S. acquired vast territory west of the Mississippi from France

Battle of Actium

(31 BC) Octavian’s naval victory over combined fleets of Antony and Cleopatra

War of the Spanish Succession

(1701-14) British; Dutch; Austrians fought to keep Louis XIV off Spanish throne

Persian Gulf War

(1990-91) International alliance ended Saddam Hussein’s occupation of Kuwait

French and Indian War

(1754-63) Britain; colonists seized Canada from French/Native American alliance

Battle of Trafalgar

(1805) Lord Nelson destroyed Napoleon’s navy off the coast of Spain

Iraq War

(2003-11) U.S. forces deposed Hussein; searched for weapons of mass destruction

Glorious Revolution (Uprising)

(1688) Catholic James II fled from England; letting William III take the throne

War of the Austrian Succession

(1740-48) France and Prussia disputed Maria Theresa’s claim to the throne

Battle of Thermopylae

(480 BC) Leonidas and 300 Spartans died delaying Xerxes’ Persian invasion

Great Northern War

(1700-21) Struggle for Baltic dominance ended with Russia’s win over Sweden

Punic Wars

(264-146 BC) Struggle between Rome and Carthage for control of Mediterranean

First Battle of Bull Run

(1861) Inexperienced Union forces routed at first major Civil War battle

Second Boer War

(1899-1902) British empire annexed South African republics after costly struggle

Falklands War

(1982) Britain ended Argentine occupation of disputed South Atlantic islands

Battle of Salamis

(480 BC) Greek triremes crushed Persian fleet at island near Athens

Treaty of Ghent

(1814) Ended War of 1812; news arrived in America too late to prevent battles

D-Day

(1944) Allied amphibious invasion of five Normandy beaches on June 6; 1944

Battle of New Orleans

(1815) Andrew Jackson’s victory over British invaders after signing of treaty

Battle of Austerlitz

(1805) Napoleon’s triumph over Russia; Austria in “Battle of Three Emperors”

Battle of Shiloh

(1862) Grant’s army barely survived surprise attack near the Tennessee River

Battle of Zama

(202 BC) The final defeat of Hannibal in Africa by Romans under Scipio

Second Punic War

(218-201 BC) Roman republic narrowly survived long struggle against Hannibal

Boxer Rebellion (Uprising)

(1898-1901) Xenophobic Chinese revolt that included siege of Peking embassies

Six-Day War

(1967) Israel seized West Bank; Gaza Strip; and Golan Heights

Greco-Persian Wars

(499-449 BC) Ancient Greeks repelled two invasions by Achaemenid Persia

Rough Riders (Military Unit)

(1898) Volunteer cavalry organized by T. Roosevelt for Spanish-American War

Camp David Accords (Treaty)

(1978) Begin (Israel); Sadat (Egypt) sign treaty brokered by Jimmy Carter

Redshirts (Military Unit)

(1860s) Volunteers who followed Garibaldi during Italy’s Risorgimento

Mexican Revolution (Uprising)

(1910-20) F. Madero overthrew P. Diaz in this struggle for land reform

Treaty of Portsmouth

(1905) Russo-Japanese War ended with this treaty arranged by Teddy Roosevelt

Sherman’s March to the Sea (Operation)

(1864) Union general’s destructive path across Georgia

Battle of the Plains of Abraham

(1759) Wolfe and Montcalm were killed in this British victory at Quebec City

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

(1848) Nicholas Trist negotiated this treaty that ceded California to the U.S.

Battle of Puebla

(1862) Mexican victory over French intervention forces on “Cinco de Mayo”

First Crusade (Campaign)

(1096-99) Urban II called for this campaign to seize Jerusalem from Islamic rule

Battle of Tours

(732) Charles Martel’s repulse of Muslim raiders into medieval France

Battle of Saratoga

(1777) Surrender of John Burgoyne’s army led to 1778 U.S.-French alliance

Battle of the Bulge

(1944-45) German winter offensive in Ardennes Forest repelled by U.S. Army