War is any conflict involving the organized use of arms and physical force between countries or other large scale armed groups. Carl von Clausewitz wrote in his book, On War: "Der Krieg ist nichts als eine Fortsetzung der politschen Verkehrs mit Einmischung anderer Mittel" ("War is the continuation of politics and diplomacy by other means") and "...war therefore is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will". Wars have been fought to control natural resources, for religious or cultural reasons, over political balances of power, legitimacy of particular laws, to settle economic and territorial disputes, and many other issues.
Sometimes a distinction is made between a conflict and the formal declaration of a state of war. Those who make this distinction often restrict the term "war" to those conflicts where the countries have formally declared such a state. Smaller armed conflicts are often called riots, rebellions, coups, etc. When one country sends armed forces to another allegedly to restore order or prevent genocide or other crimes against humanity, or to support a legally recognized government against insurgency, that country sometimes refers to it as a police action. This usage is not always recognized as valid, however, particularly by those who do not accept the connotations of the term.
A war where the forces in conflict belong to the same country or empire or other political entity is known as a civil war.
War is contrasted with peace, which is usually defined as the absence of war.
A number of treaties regulate warfare, the most pervasive of those are the Geneva conventions, the earliest of which began to take effect in the late 1800s. Treaty signing has since been a part of international diplomacy, and too many treaties to mention in this scant article have been signed. A couple of examples are: Resolutions of the Geneva International Conference, Geneva, 26-29 October 1863 and Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, 75 U.N.T.S. 135, entered into force Oct. 21, 1950.
Significant Wars in History
| Dates (some approximate) | War |
|---|---|
| 1454 - 1466 | Thirteen Years War. Between Poland and Teutonic Knights, which finally broke the power of the latter. |
| 1618 - 1648 | Thirty Years War. Ends with the Peace of Westphalia. |
| 1639 - 1652 | English Civil War. |
| 1648 - 1656 | The Deluge. Series of civil wars in Poland and wars with Sweden, Prussia, Russia and Transylvania, which ended its status as European power and which begun march of Russia to power status. |
| 1700 - 1718 | Great Scandinavian war between Denmark/Norway and Sweden. In 1718, during fighting on the Norwegian border, Swedish king Karl XII is shot dead, after having waged several war campains on Russia in the previous decades. |
| 1754 - 1763 | Seven Years War, known as the French and Indian War in North America. |
| 1774 - 1781 | American Revolutionary War with the United Kingdom. |
| 1798 - 1815 | The Napoleonic Wars. |
| 1809 | The war between Russia and Sweden wherein Sweden cedes Finland to Russia. |
| 1812 - 1814 | War of 1812 fought between the United States and England, a continuation of the American Revolutionary War |
| 1835 | Toledo War between US territory of Michigan and the US state of Ohio |
| 1846 - 1848 | Mexican War between the United States and Mexico. |
| 1854 - 1856 | Crimean War. |
| 1861 - 1865 | American Civil War in the United States of America. |
| 1898 | Spanish-American War |
| 1899 - 1902 | Boer War in South Africa |
| 1905 | Russo-Japanese War |
| 1912 - 1913 | The first and second Balkan wars are fought for control of the European territories of the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1914 - 1918 | World War I, primarily between countries in Europe. |
| 1918 - 1922 | Russian Civil War, fought between "the reds" (communists) and "the whites" (tsarists) directly after the Russian Revolution. France and Great Britain also intervened to "kill communism in the crib" |
| 1936 - 1939 | Spanish Civil War |
| 1939 - 1945 | World War II. |
| 1950 - 1953 | Korean War. |
| 1964 - 1973 | Vietnam War. War between US-led coalition including government of South Vietnam and coalition including Viet Cong and North Vietnam. |
| 1967 | Six-Day War in Israel. |
| 1973 - 1974 | Yom Kippur War between Israel and Arab states. |
| 1980 - 1988 | Iran-Iraq War between Iran and Iraq. |
| 1990 - 1991 | Gulf War between Iraq and US-led coalition. |
| 2001 - | US-led "War on Terrorism", including U.S. Attack on Afghanistan |
see also military, Military technology and equipment, Military History, military-industrial complex, war on terrorism, weapon, Arab-Israeli conflict