who can tell me what the shortest and longest war in history were
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who can tell me what the shortest and longest war in history were
depends on how you count. For instance the hundred years war could either be around 100 years, or a series of many short about 3 years long wars, or maybe considered to be a struggle over several centuries of rivalry between France and England... It's mostly a matter of definitions IMO - should traditional dates appointed as start and end of the wars be used, or should the beginning and end of conflict/rivalry be counted, or just the beginning and end of hot war be counted?
Couple of wierd candidates:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_war
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arauco_War
The shortest war in history would be the Anglo-Zanzibar war of 1896. It lasted a whopping 45 minutes. ~:)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Zanzibar_War
Oh my god...
If war can be funny, this has to be it!:laugh4:
Another good candidate would'nt make it for the shortest war but is noteworthy. It lasted 3(?) days from my memory. The war was between 2 south american countries over a soccer match.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arauco_War
Sorry to screw up, but I have no edit button... here's that second war again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_war
That's pretty ridiculous.
And yes, it's far too late at night for me to get anything other than Wikipedia. ~;)
1337 - 1453 hundred years war
Quote:
Originally Posted by Perplexed
ehhehehe by then i doubt anyone in the world knew what they were fighting about...:laugh4:
I know one major war in which almost nothing happend and was short: War for Bavarian Succession 1778-9 (so called Potato War (Kartoffelkrieg)).
so you are also around... how are you doing. Remember our fights in the colloseum... Ah the gooddays
I think that's the Guinness World Records one. The 2000 issue, though. :juggle2:Quote:
Originally Posted by AggonyDuck
Another short one would be, if you count it as a war, was the Japanese takeover of Manchuria. It was a lot longer at a few days long, but the KMT had ordered its troops not to retaliate, so not much fighting went on.
On the surface, the 1960s war between Honduras and El Salvador might indeed seem to be over a soccer match. But that was only the catalyst.Quote:
Originally Posted by Oaty
The war was actually fought out because the Salvadorean junta had expelled thousands of Honduran economic immigrants from its borders, and there was a serious economic conflict between the two. Indeed, the war saw quite some action, carrying on unofficially (after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire) for months, and it was the last war in which piston-powered planes fought for control of the skies.
At least better (or not) than the Anglo-Zanzibar war. ~:0
ehehehe Wiz good to see you man.
Well there was never an end to WWII, there was only a ceasefire, but it still wouldn't be that long, so I guess that doesn't really matter. :sweatdrop:
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Wizard
Ah yes thanks for the extra info wich gave me enough for wiki. And according to wiki it was 5 days long but had many longterm consequences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_War
I always suspected there was a whole lot more to it, it's the fact that media jsut too often warps reality.
Depends... When Dönitz, in the form of Reichführer, signed the unconditional surrender of all troops, he also surrendered Germany.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alexanderofmacedon
Since the Allies then held all of Germany, there was little need for a more ritual end of the war, which had normally been between two existing factions, now one side was gone.
??? What fight in Colloseum? I wasn't there over a year!:inquisitive:Quote:
Originally Posted by The Stranger
The Hundred Years' War doesn't count as it was a series of conflicts with often quite lenghty periods of peace inbetween (or what now amounted to peace in medieval Europe anyway). It was just later summed up under one general heading for convenience.
The Thirty Years' War, waged essentially nonstop from 1618 to 1648 pretty much with at least one major operation being conducted somewhere at any given time, ought to be a fairly good candidate as far as "hot" wars where lots of people die, economies are ruined and vast tracts of land rendered into uninhabited wasteland go.
War for Hungarian Independance, 1848-Spring 1849. Also one of the shortest periods of independancies ever, when Russia came rolling in with 200,000 troops that summer.
The Hundred years war.
There was never any true peace, but constant little localised conflicts taking place right through the period.
I accept that 'peace' was agreed a number of times turning the conflict, but real peace didnt come until 1453, with the lost of Aquintaine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Watchman
Fighting still continued in Brittany and Aquintaine even when 'peace' was in effect.
If you only class it as a war between England and France then you would be wrong as this war also included a French civil war, where we never had peace until Burgundy finally changed sides.
As a side point the final struggle started in 1415 and didnt finish until Aquintaine was lost in 1453, this was continuos war and large areas of France changed hands.
I know, the fight was in when you signed up. about the roman legion buildup :P i wrote a 1000 words reply and i only got for replies...damn i was pissed :P
Another very short war: The "Kettle War" was 'fought' between the Dutch Republic and the Holy Roman Empire on 8 October 1784. Emperor Joseph II sent 3 ships up the Scheldt to break the Dutch blockade of the river (which had been in effect since the 16th Century). The Dutch ship De Dolfijn shot one cannonball, which hit the cooking kettle aboard the Imperial warship Le Louis. The Imperials immediately surrendered and a year later a peace was signed.
There is an even longer battle, and thus war? This battle has been raging on for centuries.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I thought Russia v Berwick on Tweed might be a candidate (1853 to 1966) but it turns out that this only apochryphal.
If you choose to call those little conflicts between tiny barons and their couple retainers "wars" then basically there was war from the Great Migrations period until power started being centralized from the Renaissance onwards and the little potentates no longer had the ability to solve a local dispute by the sword.Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadesWolf
Brittany and The Aquataine were not small baronies but made up I believe almost all of Western France.
How about Rome and Carthage only making peace in 1985?
but admittedly, it only gets hot occasionally and neither side is very well organized, so most battles are just minor skirmishes in kitchens, and there are ceasefires frequently :laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by Craterus
I remind you of the fact that the feudal system was almost completely comprised of demesnes that became systematically smaller as you went down society's ladder. By far the largest part of the nobility was comprised of the lowest ranks -- the knights and their baronial masters that provided the largest part of European knighthood for battle.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bopa the Magyar
When there was peace between the different Kings, the top dogs of the feudal pile, then barons and other small feudal potentates passed the time with fighting out minor conflicts involving the age-old raids that had been the staple of Germanic free tribesmen. By far most warfare in medieval Europe consisted of small-scale raids of a couple hundred men -- hardly different from the time of the Great Migrations.
What about the battle of surviving... i guess i won
So Wizard would you conside the Napoleonic War to be a collection of smaller wars?
Or one complete conflict?
Just interested on you're view is all.
well, i think they are a collection of smaller wars. theyre not called Napoleonic warS for nothing. his march into russia was a different war than the war in spain, or with austria etc
So would you then consider the Thirty Years War a collection of two (or more) conflicts?
hmmm i cant say... im not specialised in the 30 years war. i know a bit. but not much. maybe give me some info. or i should start reading about it.
feel free to ask about ww1 or 2 and 3 :P napoleon and the dinosaurs
Longest
Hundred Years War
Shortest-Anglo Zanzibar War
In between
San Salvidor-Handuras Football War
1967 6 day war
Hideyoshi's war with Tokugawa Ieyasu (lasted a week, sorry that I can't recall it's formal name at the moment)
American Revoloution
Napoleanic War
30 Years War
Just a quick overview for you Stranger and anyone else who is interested.Quote:
Thirty Years' War, series of European conflicts lasting from 1618 to 1648, involving most of the countries of western Europe, and fought mainly in Germany. At first the struggle was primarily based on the profound religious antagonism engendered among Germans by the events of the Protestant Reformation. Religious animosity, especially among non-German adherents of the contending Protestant and Roman Catholic factions, broadened the war and was a substantial factor in its later stages. As the struggle gained momentum, however, its direction and character were decisively influenced by various other issues, including the dynastic rivalries of ambitious German princes and the determination of certain European powers, notably Sweden and France, to curb the power of the Holy Roman Empire, then the chief political instrument of Austria and the ruling Habsburg family. The religious hatreds that flared into the Thirty Years' War had smoldered for more than half a century before 1618. In large measure, this situation had resulted from the weaknesses of the Peace of Augsburg, an agreement concluded in 1555 between the Holy Roman emperor and the Lutheran princes of Germany. The war, which was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history, may be divided into four phases, usually styled and dated as follows: Palatine-Bohemian (1618-25), Danish (1625-29), Swedish (1630-35), and French (1635-48).
Palatine-Bohemian Phase
Religious tensions were seriously aggravated in Germany during the reign (1576-1612) of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Protestant churches in many parts of Germany were destroyed, restrictions were placed on the rights of Protestants to worship freely, and the emperor's officials made the Treaty of Augsburg the basis for a general resurgence of Roman Catholic power. With the establishment (1608) of the Evangelical Union, a Protestant defensive alliance of princes and cities, and of the Catholic League (1609), a similar organization of Roman Catholics, a violent solution to the crisis became inevitable. The Bohemian section of the Evangelical Union struck the first blow. Outraged by the aggressive policies of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Bohemia, the Bohemian Protestants, a majority of the population, demanded that Ferdinand II, then king of Bohemia, intervene. The king, an ardent Roman Catholic and the Habsburg heir presumptive, ignored the Protestant appeal. On May 23, 1618, the Protestants of Prague invaded the royal palace, seized two of the king's ministers, and threw them out a window. This act, known as the Defenestration of Prague, was the beginning of a national Protestant uprising.
Under the leadership of Count Heinrich Matthias von Thurn, the Protestant forces achieved numerous initial successes, and the rebellion swiftly spread to other parts of the Habsburg dominions. For a brief period early in 1619 even Vienna, the Habsburg capital, was threatened by Evangelical Union armies. Later in 1619 the Bohemians bestowed the crown of the deposed Ferdinand on Frederick V, elector of the Palatinate. Several sections of the Evangelical Union, which consisted chiefly of Lutherans, thereupon withdrew from the struggle, because Frederick was a Calvinist. Taking advantage of Protestant dissensions—particularly a declaration of war against Bohemia by Lutheran Saxony, and a Spanish invasion of the Upper, or Bavarian, Palatinate—Ferdinand, who had become Holy Roman emperor in August 1619, quickly assumed the offensive. On November 8, 1620, a Catholic League army, commanded by the German soldier Johann Tserclaes, graf von Tilly, routed the Bohemians at Weisserberg (White Mountain), near Prague. Bloody reprisals were inflicted on the Protestants of Bohemia after this victory, and Protestantism was outlawed. Although the Evangelical Union disintegrated, Frederick and a few allies continued the struggle in the Palatinate. The Protestants defeated Tilly's army at Wiesloch in April 1622 but thereafter met with successive disasters. By the end of 1624 the Palatinate, which was awarded to Maximilian I, duke of Bavaria, had been forcibly returned to the Roman Catholic fold.
Danish Phase
The second phase of the war assumed international proportions when various German Protestant states sought foreign assistance against resurgent Catholicism. England, France, and other western European powers were alarmed at the increasing might of the Habsburgs, but France and England, then allies against Spain, refrained from immediate intervention in the war because of domestic difficulties. Christian IV, king of Denmark and Norway, however, came to the aid of the German Protestants. Christian's intervention was substantially motivated by nonreligious considerations, mainly territorial ambitions in northwestern Europe and a determination to end Habsburg control of the Danish duchy of Holstein, Germany.
Supported by Lutheran and Calvinist German princes, Christian mobilized a large army in the spring of 1625 and invaded Saxony (Sachsen). The Protestant expedition encountered little effective resistance until a year later. In the meantime Albrecht von Wallenstein, duke of Friedland, had created a powerful army of mercenaries and entered the service of Ferdinand II, whose only other available force was that of the Catholic League under Tilly. Wallenstein's mercenaries won their first victory at Dessau, Germany, in April 1626. On August 27, 1626, Tilly completely defeated the main body of Christian's army at Lutter am Barenberge, Germany. The combined imperial armies subsequently overran all of northern Germany, leaving numerous pillaged towns and villages in their wake. With Wallenstein in pursuit, Christian retreated (1627) into the Jutland Peninsula. Total victory for the imperial cause was signaled on March 6, 1629, when Ferdinand issued the Edict of Restitution. This document nullified Protestant titles to all Roman Catholic property expropriated since the Peace of Augsburg. On May 22, 1629, King Christian accepted the Treaty of Lübeck, which deprived him of numerous small holdings in Germany.
Swedish Phase
Ferdinand's successes in the second phase of the war sharpened the anti-Habsburg orientation of the French cardinal and statesman Richelieu, chief minister of King Louis XIII. Because of recurring internal crises, Richelieu was unable to intervene directly in Germany, but he made overtures to Gustav II Adolph of Sweden. A zealous Lutheran, Gustav had already received appeals from the hard-pressed North German Protestants. Because of this circumstance, as well as the promise of French support and Swedish ambitions for hegemony in the Baltic region, Gustav entered the conflict. In the summer of 1630 he landed a well-trained army on the coast of Pomerania. The rulers of Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Saxony vacillated on whether to participate in the Swedish venture, seriously delaying the start of the campaign. While Gustav marked time, Tilly, who had been given command of Wallenstein's army, laid siege to Magdeburg, Germany, which was then in a state of insurrection against the Holy Roman Empire. The imperial armies captured and sacked the city on May 20, 1631, and massacred the Protestant inhabitants. Much of the city was destroyed by fires that spread during the fighting and pillaging.
Tilly was repulsed by the Swedes on three occasions in the following summer. In the last of these battles, fought at Breitenfeld, Germany (now Leipzig), on September 17, Gustav was supported by the Saxon army (see Breitenfeld, Battle of). The Saxons broke ranks and fled at the first charge, exposing Gustav's left flank and nearly costing him the battle; but he regrouped his forces and routed Tilly's troops, about 6000 of whom were killed or captured. After the Battle of Breitenfeld the Swedish army moved into southern Germany for the winter. The spring campaign brought numerous victories, notably the defeat (April 14, 1632) of Tilly, who was mortally wounded on the banks of the Lech River, and the capture of Munich, Germany. Faced with complete disaster, Ferdinand had meanwhile recalled Wallenstein to command the imperial war effort. Wallenstein, hurriedly recruiting a new army of mercenaries, invaded Saxony in the fall of 1632. The Swedish army followed and on November 16 attacked the imperial force, then entrenched at Lützen, Germany. The ensuing battle cost Gustav his life, but at the end Wallenstein's army was forced to withdraw. Bernhard, duke of Saxe-Weimar, who succeeded to Gustav's command at Lützen, overran Bavaria after this victory, but during 1633 Wallenstein struck repeated blows against the Swedish strongholds in Silesia. Toward the close of 1633 Wallenstein initiated a peace movement among leading circles of the imperial armies. Removed from his command by Ferdinand on suspicion of treason, Wallenstein then entered into peace negotiations with the Protestant leaders. His attempts to end the War aroused the enmity of his own officers, and on February 25, 1634, he was assassinated. The imperial armies inflicted a devastating defeat on Duke Bernhard at Nördlingen, Germany, on September 6, 1634. Dismayed by this catastrophe, the leaders of the Protestant coalition swiftly abandoned the struggle. The Peace of Prague (1635), which formally ended the third phase of the war, provided for certain concessions to the Saxon Lutherans, particularly basic modifications of the Edict of Restitution.
French Phase
In its final phase, the war became an imperialist conflict for hegemony in western Europe between the Habsburgs and France, which was still under the leadership of Richelieu. Religious issues were not significant in the final phase, which opened in May 1635, with France declaring war against Spain, the chief Habsburg dominion aside from Austria. France, which was allied with Sweden and various German Protestant leaders, including Duke Bernhard, was able to quickly overcome serious difficulties that developed during the first stage of the fighting. The Swedish general Johan Banér defeated a combined force of Saxons and Austrians at Wittstock, Germany, on October 4, 1636, materially damaging the Habsburg position in Germany. In 1636, Spanish invasions of French territory were repelled. The Habsburg position in Germany was further damaged by a defeat inflicted by Duke Bernhard at Rheinfelden, Germany, on March 2, 1638. After these setbacks the imperial armies were forced to surrender their European strongholds one after another. Between 1642 and 1645 the Swedish general Lennart Torstensson scored numerous triumphs, overrunning Denmark, which had become allied with the empire, and ravaging large sections of western Germany and Austria. In the west, the French, under generals Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, vicomte de Turenne, and Louis II, prince de Condé, were also generally successful. Condé routed a Spanish army at Rocroi, France, on May 18, 1643. During the following November the French suffered a severe defeat at Tuttlingen, Germany, but thereafter the Habsburgs were not successful in the war, except in some minor battles.
The combined armies of Condé and Turenne badly mauled a Bavarian army at Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, in August 1644. On August 3, 1645, the French commanders defeated an Austro-Bavarian army near Nördlingen. Representatives of the empire and the anti-Habsburg coalition began peace discussions at Münster, Germany, and Osnabrück in 1645, but the negotiations, primarily a concession to the war-weary peoples of western Europe, remained fruitless for a protracted period. After central Bavaria was invaded, however, Maximilian I of Bavaria concluded, on March 14, 1647, the Truce of Ulm, with Sweden and France.
Despite these and other reverses, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III refused to capitulate. Desultory fighting continued in Germany, Luxembourg, the Low Countries, Italy, and Spain throughout the remainder of 1647. In the fall of 1647 Maximilian I reentered the war on the side of the empire. Another army of Bavarians and Austrians was defeated in May 1648. This defeat, as well as the Swedish siege of Prague, the French and Swedish siege of Munich, and an important French victory (August 20) at Lens, France, forced Ferdinand, also confronted with the threat of an assault on Vienna, to agree to the peace conditions of the victors.
I wouldn't consider the conflicts in Brittany and the Aquitaine (among other places) during the Hundred Years War just your typical local feudal conflicts, as apart from these being very large and powerful territories in their own rights, the fighting was contextually a part of the larger conflict between the King of England and the King of France, with the opposing forces aligned with one or the other larger ruler (not just independent) and the kings taking an active, if sometimes secretive, interest in their affairs, often offering significant support with the hope of improving their own positions either militarily or diplomatically.
It was not a hundred years of 'hot' war directly between the two main forces involved, but conflict that WAS a part of the overall war continued pretty much throughout. There were of course also semi-independent brigands fighting throughout who might or might not declare allegiance to one side or the other, or who might change sides, and conduct war simply for personal economic benefit, but these were in addition to, not in place of, the major aligned partisans fighting each other.
Ajax
Have the Crusades officially ended? Has the Papacy let it go or just forgotten about it?
I dont see any Catholic forces Iinvading the middle east today!
The Crusades only began and ended when the Church declared them so. As such, yes, I do believe they're ended.Quote:
Originally Posted by IrishArmenian