General Awareness Important Wars of the 20th Century

Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)

- The Russo-Japanese War erupted when Japan and Russia began a rivalry for control over Korea and Manchuria.
- Japan was greatly annoyed with Russia because she had seized Port Arthur and connected it by railway with the Trans-Siberian line across Manchuria.
- In 1903 when Japan tried to negotiate a sphere of influence agreement over Korea and Manchuria, the attempt was foiled by Russia. As a result, Japan attacked Port Arthur without any declaration of war.
- Japan's victory over Russia had far-reaching consequences. It demonstrated to the world that Japan had become a first-class power in her own right, and could not be ignored in the politics of Far East.

First World War (1914-18)

- World War I, also called First World War or Great War, was an international conflict that in 1914–18 that involved most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions.
- The war pitted the Central Powers—mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—against the Allies—mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United States.
- It ended with the defeat of the Central Powers.
- The war was virtually unprecedented in the slaughter, carnage, and destruction it caused.
- It resulted in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and in its destabilisation of European society, laid the groundwork for World War II.

Second World War (1939-45)

- The years between the first and second world wars were a time of instability during the worldwide Great Depression that began around 1930.
- It was also a time when some nations, including Germany, Italy and Japan developed intense nationalist feelings that led to a desire to expand - Germany in Northern and Eastern Europe, Italy in Africa and Greece, and Japan in Asia and the South Pacific. Competing ideologies further fanned the flames of international tension.
- The instability created in Europe by the World War I (1914-18) set the stage for another international conflict– World War II, which broke out two decades later and proved even more devastating than the first one.
- Rising to power in an economically and politically unstable Germany, Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist (Nazi Party) rearmed the nation and signed strategic treaties with Italy and Japan to further his ambitions of world domination.
- Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 drove Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany, and World War II had begun.
- Over the course of next six years, the war took more lives and destroyed more land and property around the globe than any previous war.
- Among the estimated 45-60 million people killed, 6 million were Jews, murdered in Nazi concentration camps as part of Hitler’s diabolical “Final Solution,” now known as the Holocaust.

The Korean War (1950-53)

- On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began 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.
- People in South Korea were unaware of the upcoming attack on that morning, which started a war that would kill more than 3,000,000 lives. Seoul, the capital of South Korea was quick to be captured by the North Korean troops, due to the fact that the attack had been unaccounted for.
- This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf.
- After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them.
- Meanwhile, American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans.
- The alternative, they feared, would be a wider war with Russia and China or even, as some warned, World War III.
- Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end.
- In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives during the war. The Korean peninsula is still divided today.

The Vietnam War (1954-75)

- 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.
- The Vietnam War is the commonly used name for the Second Indochina War, 1954–1973.
- Usually, it refers to the period when the United States and other members of the SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) joined the forces of the Republic of South Vietnam in contesting communist forces comprised of South Vietnamese guerrillas and regular-force units, generally known as Viet Cong (VC), and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA).
- The U.S. had the largest foreign military presence and basically directed the war from 1965 to 1968. For this reason, in Vietnam today it is known as the American War.
- It was a direct result of the First Indochina War (1946–1954) between France, which claimed Vietnam as a colony, and the communist forces then known as Viet Minh. In 1973 a “third” Vietnam war began a continuation, actually between North and South Vietnam but without significant U.S. involvement.
- It ended with communist victory in April 1975.

The Iran-Iraq War (1980-90)

- Iran-Iraq War (1980–88), prolonged military conflict between Iran and Iraq during the 1980s.
- Open warfare began on Sept. 22, 1980, when Iraqi armed forces invaded western Iran along the countries’ joint border, though Iraq claimed that the war had begun earlier that month, on September 4, when Iran shelled a number of border posts.
- Fighting was ended by a 1988 cease-fire, though the resumption of normal diplomatic relations and the withdrawal of troops did not take place until the signing of a formal peace agreement on Aug. 16, 1990.
- The roots of the war lay in a number of territorial and political disputes between Iraq and Iran. Iraq wanted to seize control of the rich oil-producing Iranian border region of Khūzestān, a territory inhabited largely by ethnic Arabs over which Iraq sought to extend some form of suzerainty.
- Estimates of total casualties range from 1,000,000 to twice that number. The number killed on both sides was perhaps 500,000, with Iran suffering the greatest losses.
- In August 1990, Iraq and Iran restored diplomatic relations, and Iraq agreed to Iranian terms for the settlement of the war - the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from occupied Iranian territory, division of sovereignty over the Shaṭṭ al-ʿArab waterway, and a prisoner-of-war exchange.

The Gulf War (1991)

- The Gulf War (Aug 28, 1990-Feb 28, 1991) was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of approximately 30 nations led by the United States and mandated by the United Nations in order to liberate the nation of Kuwait.
- The conflict is known by numerous alternative names such as Gulf War, Persian Gulf War, War in the Gulf, 1990 Gulf War, Gulf War Sr., or First Gulf War, Liberation of Kuwait, War of Kuwait, and Mother of Battles.
- The war began with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, following Iraqi contentions that Kuwait was illegally slant-drilling petroleum across Iraq’s border.
- The invasion was met with immediate economic sanctions by the United Nations against Iraq.
- Iraq also launched SS-1 Scud missiles against targets in Saudi Arabia and Israel.
- Although Saddam Hussein, the Iraq's President, had been aided by the West during the Iran-Iraq War, his dictatorial regime, belligerence toward Israel, and human rights violations, increasingly led the U.S. and allies to distance themselves from Iraq.
- On January 12, 1991, the United States Congress authorized the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.
- President Bush sent 430,000 troops to Saudi Arabia to lead the U.N.-sponsored coalition and protect that country from an attack by Iraq.
- The U.N. Security Council set January 15, 1991 deadline for Iraq to withdraw unconditionally from Kuwait. The next day, Congress gave approval for a huge air attack against military targets in Iraq and Kuwait.
- A ground war followed. U.S. and coalition forces were too much for Iraq President Saddam Hussein and his troops and the attack ended in four days.
- Iraq withdrew from Kuwait on February 28, 1991 though not before setting fire to more than 500 Kuwaiti oil wells.
- Official cease-fire declared, 1991; Iraq agreed to U.N. peace terms, and Saddam Hussein remained in power.

The Bosnian War (1992-98)

- Bosnian conflict, ethnically rooted war (1992–95) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a former republic of Yugoslavia with a multi-ethnic population comprising Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Serbs, and Croats.
- In April 1992, the government of the Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence from Yugoslavia. Over the next several years, Bosnian Serb forces, with the backing of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army, targeted both Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and Croatian civilians for atrocious crimes resulting in the deaths of some 100,000 people (80 percent Bosniak) by 1995.
- It was the worst act of genocide since the Nazi regime’s destruction of some 6 million European Jews during World War II.
- After years of bitter fighting that involved the three Bosnian groups as well as the Yugoslav army, Western countries with backing by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) imposed a final cease-fire negotiated at Dayton, Ohio, U.S., in 1995.
- In 2001, Serbian General Radislav Krstic, who played a major role in the Srebrenica massacre was convicted of genocide and sentenced to 46 years in prison.
- It was originally estimated that at least 200,000 people were killed and more than 2,000,000 displaced during the 1992–95 war.

The US-Afghan War (2001)

- Afghanistan War, international conflict in Afghanistan beginning in 2001 that was triggered by the September 11 attacks and consisted of three phases.
- The first phase - toppling the Taliban (the ultraconservative political and religious faction that ruled Afghanistan and provided sanctuary for al-Qaeda, perpetrators of the September 11 attacks)—was brief, lasting just two months.
- The second phase, from 2002 until 2008, was marked by a U.S. strategy of defeating the Taliban militarily and rebuilding core institutions of the Afghan state.
- The third phase, a turn to classic counterinsurgency doctrine, began in 2008 and accelerated with U.S. Pres. Barack Obama’s 2009 decision to temporarily increase the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan.
- The larger force was used to implement a strategy of protecting the population from Taliban attacks and supporting efforts to reintegrate insurgents into Afghan society.
- The strategy came coupled with a timetable for the withdrawal of the foreign forces from Afghanistan; beginning in 2011, security responsibilities would be gradually handed over to the Afghan military and police.
- The new approach largely failed to achieve its aims. Insurgent attacks and civilian casualties remained stubbornly high, while many of the Afghan military and police units taking over security duties appeared to be ill-prepared to hold off the Taliban.
- By the time the U.S. and NATO combat mission formally ended in December 2014, the 13-year Afghanistan War had become the longest war ever fought by the United States.

The Second Gulf War (2003-11)

- Iraq War, also called Second Persian Gulf War, (2003–11), conflict in Iraq that consisted of two phases.
- The first of these was a brief, conventionally fought war in March–April 2003, in which a combined force of troops from the United States and Great Britain (with smaller contingents from several other countries) invaded Iraq and rapidly defeated Iraqi military and paramilitary forces.
- It was followed by a longer second phase in which a U.S.-led occupation of Iraq was opposed by an insurgency.
- After violence began to decline in 2007, the United States gradually reduced its military presence in Iraq, formally completing its withdrawal in December 2011.

 
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