The Most important war in your countrys history

[A Can of Man]

Korea's been in so many wars and all of them have been important.

 

[c/Mcpl.Lynam]

I feel that 1812 was the best war for canada we defended our selves and burned the white house aren't some of us just pyros :firedevi:

 

[Doppleganger]

For Britain you have to appreciate that for much of our history our island was divided into 2 parts, Scotland and England/Wales. Despite that, it's easy to pick out the decisive wars that helped define what we are today:

1. The Battle of Hastings 1066 - ensured a Norman influenced England for centuries and explains why the French claimed the English Crown (the result of which was many wars between the 2 nations)

2. The Battle of Bannockburn 1314 - ensured that a Scottish crown and nation would last a few more centuries and allow a more equal merging of the 2 nations fully in 1707.

3. The Battle of Agincourt 1415 - this famous victory against the odds ensured that England as a nation would be independent from France.

4. The Battle of Trafalgar 1805 - Nelson's brilliant victory ensured that England survived as a nation and also was vital in ensuring her worldwide empire remained intact.

4. WW1 - Great Britain entered this war as a superpower and ended it weakened and impoverished.

5. WW2 - Truly a World War unlike WW1 which was still Euro-centric. The most important war in the history of mankind since Chalons in 461.

 

[Damien435]

Well, I must say it was the Spanish-American War for America, we had proved several times before that we could defeat europeans on our own territory but this time we took the war to the enemy and we won a resounding victory, in Manilla we destroyed the Spanish Pacific Fleet with only one loss of life, and that guy died of a heart attack. For a while Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Phillipines were all part of America, we had an empire and we were the new kids on the block who had just beat the snot out of one of the big boys. One of the president's advisors are the time made the comment that he was trying to build an empire in the America's to rival what Spain had hundreds of years before, but we stood back, took a good look at what we had, and decided it wasn't for us.

The war proved we could take the war to the enemy but America also showed that we had no interest in colonizing other lands, we had what was at the time the second largest nation in the world and that was enough for us, basically two things were born from this war, the birth of America, the Superpower, and the birth of the isolationist movement in America.

And about the War of 1812, did Canada even exist at the time? I am pretty sure that it was still a colony of Britain at the time, and please don't tell me this is Canada's claim to fame, that they stopped two half *ss American invasions that most the country did not support and that their mother country then burnt down our capital building in response for our burning parts of Toronto.

 

[redcoat]

we had an empire and we were the new kids on the block who had just beat the snot out of one of the big boys.

.

Sorry, but at the end of the 19th century Spain wasn't one of the big boys.
In fact to european eyes the USA was a bully picking on an weak opponent

 

[Charge 7]

Yes, we're all black kettles here, Pot. You are quite correct that that was a clear case of US imperialism. Gee, I wonder what nation coined that term?

 

[Damien435]

we had an empire and we were the new kids on the block who had just beat the snot out of one of the big boys.

.

Sorry, but at the end of the 19th century Spain wasn't one of the big boys.
In fact to european eyes the USA was a bully picking on an weak opponent

Yes, Spain was on the decline and was not near the power it used to be, but I had never heard that statement before, US being seen as the bully picking on a weaker opponent, but I assume that is a compliment, not an insult, since Europeans had been doing that to each other for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years and hence they would recognize when something like that was being done.

 

[serbianpower]

This thread is really good. I've never even heard of the 1812 war.

OK in my country (Slovenia) it was definetly the independence war of 1991. This is when we gained our independence from Yugoslavia, wich was at that time fast becoming a Greater Serbia. Altough the war lasted for only 10 days it asssured our soverieignty.

For a 10 day war it was quite intense - Slovenia only has about 20.000 square kilometers. And there were 19 dead and 182 wuonded on our side, the JLA (Jugoslovanska ljudska armija or Yugoslavian Peoples Army) had 44 dead and 146 wounded. Furthermore there were 4693 POW from the JLA and 252 POW from the Federal Police. We captcured or destroyed 31 tanks 22 armored veichles 6 helicopters 6787 infantry weapons 87 pices of artilery and 124 AAA pices.

And this is also more or less the only national war we had besides a few peasant rebelions in the Middle Ages and fighting the Germans guerilla style during WW2.

that was not war. slovenia was never in real war during it`s history.

 

[Damien435]

This thread is really good. I've never even heard of the 1812 war.

OK in my country (Slovenia) it was definetly the independence war of 1991. This is when we gained our independence from Yugoslavia, wich was at that time fast becoming a Greater Serbia. Altough the war lasted for only 10 days it asssured our soverieignty.

For a 10 day war it was quite intense - Slovenia only has about 20.000 square kilometers. And there were 19 dead and 182 wuonded on our side, the JLA (Jugoslovanska ljudska armija or Yugoslavian Peoples Army) had 44 dead and 146 wounded. Furthermore there were 4693 POW from the JLA and 252 POW from the Federal Police. We captcured or destroyed 31 tanks 22 armored veichles 6 helicopters 6787 infantry weapons 87 pices of artilery and 124 AAA pices.

And this is also more or less the only national war we had besides a few peasant rebelions in the Middle Ages and fighting the Germans guerilla style during WW2.

that was not war. slovenia was never in real war during it`s history.

Tell that to the men and women who lost their lives, or their families. Just because they secured their independence in only 10 days does not mean it wasn't a war. Some countries don't fight wars under the theory that countless numbers of human wave or suicide charge attacks will eventually wear down the enemy's supply of ammunition.

 

[serbianpower]

first thing, no woman died in that conflict. second thing is: to have a war u must have two sides in conflict. in slovenia in 1991. u had only one side-slovenia. jna was not in war. it was just tragedy and result of human stupidity. same result would be achived if politicians were just reasnoble. do you know anything about this "war" at all?

 

[AussieNick]

I'd say the battle of kokoda, and generally the pacific campaign in WW2 was the most important due to the fact that Australia was directly under threat, being bombed etc, but WW1 and Gallipoli is what shaped the ANZAC legend.

The Australians were the first soldiers to stop the Japanese assault through the pacific. To actually cease the advance and turn them back. And take into account that these were not battle hardened soldiers, these were poorly trained, under-equiped national militia (becuase PNG was part of australia back then), who had barely been taught to use the weapons. They were issued Bren guns without knowing how to strip and clean them, they just had to make do since all our main fighting force were in Europe and Africa at the time. It wasn't until the 2/27th Regiment got sent back from Africa that we had experienced troops in PNG.

To put it into perspective, the first battle of Kokoda was 15 Australians holding off a force of over 1000 Japanese, upon the second assault the japanese found the australians were gone. The Australians returned with a meagre 77 soldiers and drove the Japanese out of Kokoda.... only to start one of the bloodiest and hard fought stages of the second world war.

 

[Vitaly]

As a person born in Moscow, USSR, I consider myself a Russian even though i have spent the last ten years of my life in America. Throughout the long history of my nation many wars have occurred. I thought of writing about the Napoleonic invasion of 1812 and his defeat starting on the fields of Borodino, or I could of gone with the Great Patriotic War (known as WWII here), The glorious turn around at Stalingrad, the 900 day siege of St.Petersburg (called Leningrad at the time), the fact that not a single Nazi invader stepped foot into my city of Moscow, the heroism displayed by my country men at the Brest Stronghold ( http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng&section=fwareng&row=4 for those who haven't heard of it). While in all actuality the most important war of Russia was the repelling of the Mongol Hordes in 1380. The Mongols rode through Russia capturing city-state by city-state. When one city fell, the others would do anything due to the lack of cohesiveness and individual princes. To defeat the Hordes, Russia became unified and became a powerhouse in military might and in the amount of land which stretched from sea to sea.

 

[Dean]

Ok, I'm gonna risk a flame war, but what the hay. Many Americans are saying the Revolutionary War, with which I have to disagree.. First of all, had the British won, I highly doubt that the U.S. would still be controlled by Britain. After all, Britain allowed all of the major countires in its empire de facto independence in the 1950s and total independence soon after. If you want to make a comparison, Canada, which was part of the British Empire was basically independent after WW I and completely independent in 1967. Because of this I would have to believe that the most important war for the US was WW 2. The consequences of losing that war would have been colossal for both the US and for the rest of the Allies.

Dean.

 

[rotc boy]

that woulda been good to know
just wait 200 more years and we could have been completely independant without a war :?
i dont think thats worth it dean...

 

[Farseer]

I think that all wars (not including Lappland war, maybe) which Finland has taken part are so important that not one of them should be picked. If civil war would have been won by red side we would almost certainly have been annexed by Soviets in matter of time. In winter war it was their certain goal to annex entire Finland but our forces slowed them down and forced Stalin to negotiate. Same with continuation war, Stalin wanted to crush Finland defenses by massive summer offensive while Western Allies landed in Normandy. Once again, with support of Germany, our forces managed to stop them even we lost Viipuri (second-largest town of Finland before we lost it).

Small country has usually much more to lose than great one. And small one has more often to accept unlikely terms than great one. And I have to say that maybe Hitler saved Finland in a way, even I know that some of you can't believe it. History is quite ironical, I suppose.

 

[r031Button]

first thing, no woman died in that conflict. second thing is: to have a war u must have two sides in conflict. in slovenia in 1991. u had only one side-slovenia. jna was not in war. it was just tragedy and result of human stupidity. same result would be achived if politicians were just reasnoble. do you know anything about this "war" at all?

Your saying no women and children died in the break up of Yugoslavia? If that was the case, Canadians would have fought and died to keep ther peace there.

Definitly the mos timportant was in Canadian history was the First World War; for most Canadian hisotrians, it was there, and perituclarly at Vimmy Ridge, that Canada became it's own nation, rather then just a mini Britain.

 

[serbianpower]

first thing, no woman died in that conflict. second thing is: to have a war u must have two sides in conflict. in slovenia in 1991. u had only one side-slovenia. jna was not in war. it was just tragedy and result of human stupidity. same result would be achived if politicians were just reasnoble. do you know anything about this "war" at all?

Your saying no women and children died in the break up of Yugoslavia? If that was the case, Canadians would have fought and died to keep ther peace there.

Definitly the mos timportant was in Canadian history was the First World War; for most Canadian hisotrians, it was there, and perituclarly at Vimmy Ridge, that Canada became it's own nation, rather then just a mini Britain.

no woman and children died in slovenia. that is all I am saying. read carefuly.

 

[Corocotta]

The most importants war for Spain, in my opinion, were:

- The reconqueor of Spain from the muslims( from 711-1492), 800 years fight! If we have not done this epopee, the spaniards would have been praying in Meca´s direction right now, and probably all southern Europe.

- War against the Otomans( middle of XVI century) We stooped the advanced of muslims again in the Mediterranean sea.

- The war against the USA(1898) We lost Cuba and the Philipines. It had a big psycological effect.

- The Civil war( 1936-39) We stopped the advance of comunism. We had to choose btw right or left dictatorship.

 

[CABAL]

War of Unification in Germany

 

[danthepirate]

revoulutionary

for us americans, the revoulutionary war was our independence. A small country broke off form one of the most powerful world powers of the age. It was amazing.

:horsie: