Exploring the art of global gratuity
The Northwest Indian War was an armed conflict for control of the Northwest Territory. Despite the earlier clash with the Cherokee, the US Army considers it the first of the American Indian Wars.
The undeclared Quasi-War pitched the navies of the United States and the French First Republic. The conflict resulted in the Convention of 1800, a treaty confirming the principle of 'free trade, free goods' between the two countries. Pictured is the USS Constellation capturing the French frigate L'Insurgente.
The First Barbary War broke out in 1801 between the United States and Tripolitania (the northern part of modern-day Libya). Tripolitania had declared war against Sweden and the United States over disputes regarding payment of tribute to the piratical rulers of the North African Barbary States of Algiers, Tunis, Morocco, and Tripoli. Pictured is the captured USS Philadelphia ablaze in Tripoli Harbor. A further conflict, the Second Barbary War, took place in 1815.
The Texas–Indian Wars took place during the American Indian Wars and the long-running Mexican Indian Wars. The Texas–Indian Wars were specifically a series of conflicts between settlers in Texas and the Southern Plains Indians.
The annexation of Texas from Mexico by the United States in 1845 and a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River or the Rio Grande sparked the Mexican–American War. It resulted in Mexican recognition of US sovereignty over Texas and California (among other territories).
The United Sates found itself briefly caught up in the Opium Wars in China after the Chinese garrison at Canton shelled a United States Navy vessel. The US Navy retaliated in the Battle of the Pearl River Forts, which involved the USS Portsmouth (pictured) and the USS Levant.
The significance of the American Civil War cannot be overstated. The conflict confirmed the single political entity of the United States, led to freedom for more than four million enslaved Americans, established a more powerful and centralized federal government, and laid the foundation for America's emergence as a global power in the 20th century.
Few are aware of the American military and political intervention in Korea in 1871. Known as the United States expedition to Korea, it resulted in upwards of 250 Korean dead and just three Americans killed in action predominantly on and around Ganghwa Island. The month-long conflict ultimately led to the signing of the United States–Korea Treaty of 1882.
A little over seven months in duration, the Spanish–American War broke out in the wake of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to United States intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. While a little over seven months in duration, the consequences of the war were significant and resulted in US acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Pictured is Theodore Roosevelt and the "Rough Riders" after the Battle of San Juan Hill.
Victory in the Spanish-American War led to United States involvement in the Philippine Revolution and later to the Philippine–American War. That conflict claimed 250,000 lives and helped establish the United States as a power in the Pacific.
The United States military saw further action in the Far East during the Boxer Rebellion. America was part of the Eight-Nation Alliance of foreign powers that quelled the rebellion, an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising that surfaced in North China.
Taking place during the wider Mexican Revolution, the Mexican Border War was the fifth and last major conflict fought on US soil, its predecessors being the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, and the American Civil War.
Direct US involvement in the First World War began in 1917 after the the Senate voted in support of the measure to declare war on Germany. The official figures of military war deaths listed by the Department of Defense for the period ending December 31, 1918, are 116,516; which includes 53,402 battle deaths and 63,114 non-combat deaths.
The United States was among those countries offering military support to the Russian Empire during the Russian Civil War. Pictured are the flag-draped coffins of 111 American servicemen killed during the fighting, arriving on board a ship at Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1920.
The United States entered the Second World War on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The country numbered over one million casualties as a result of the global conflict, of which 407,316 lost their lives.
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when some 75,000 Soviet-backed soldiers from the North Korean People's Army poured across the 38th parallel into the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea's behalf.
The United States entered the Vietnam War on March 8, 1965, when 3,500 United States Marines came ashore at Da Nang as the first wave of US combat troops into South Vietnam. According to the National Archives, 58,220 American combatants lost their lives over the next 10 years.
Also in 1965, American troops were fighting in the Dominican Republic, sent there by President Lyndon B. Johnson in an effort to forestall what he claimed would be be a "communist dictatorship."
United States armed forces were among those deployed to Lebanon in 1982 as part of a multinational force, there essentially to keep the peace. On October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut housing American and French service members. The attack killed 307 people: 241 US and 58 French military personnel, six civilians, and two terrorists.
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush ordered US troops into Panama, the primary purpose of the invasion being to depose the de facto ruler of the country, General Manuel Noriega. Noriega was wanted by US authorities for racketeering and drug trafficking.
The so-called Yugoslav Wars saw the United States take part in the Bosnian War and Croatian War (1992–1995), and the Kosovo War (1998–1999).
The War in Afghanistan was the direct response to the September 11 attacks. It began when an international military coalition led by the United States launched an invasion of the country as part of the earlier-declared war on terror. American service members killed in Afghanistan by the war's end numbered 2,448, according to the Associated Press.
US military intervention in Yemen began as early as 2002. In 2018, US Army Special Forces were deployed to the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border to help defeat the Houthi rebels. The American MQ-1 Predator (pictured) is commonly used in drone strikes in Yemen.
The latest American military action is Operation Prosperity Guardian, a United States-led military operation by a multinational coalition formed in December 2023 to respond to Houthi-led attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
Sources: (The Nation) (War History Online) (American Battlefield Trust) (U.S. Census Bureau) (The National World War II Museum) (National Archives) (Associated Press)
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America's intervention in the Somali Civil War led to the infamous downing of three Black Hawk helicopters, two of which crash-landed in hostile territory, during the Battle of Mogadishu. Casualties included 18 dead American soldiers and 73 wounded.
The Ghost Dance War, part of the wider American Indian Wars, is remembered for one of the darkest chapters in American military history: the Wounded Knee Massacre. On December 29, 1890, nearly 300 Lakota people were shot and killed by soldiers of the United States Army.
The United States again led a coalition force against the regime of Saddam Hussein from 2003 to 2011. The Iraqi dictator was captured in Operation Red Dawn on December 13, 2003. He was executed on December 30, 2006.
The Seminole Wars were a series of three military conflicts between the United States and the Seminoles that took place in Florida. They were part of the wider American Indian Wars.
A notable episode during the Texas-Indian Wars was the Texas Revolution. A rebellion of American colonists and Tejanos (Hispanic Texans) opposed to the regime of Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna, the conflict was marked by the historic Battle of the Alamo, fought from February 23 to March 6, 1836.
The War of 1812 came about after the United States became ensnarled in the European conflict that pitted Napoleonic France against Great Britain and her continental allies. It ended with the exchange of ratifications of the Treaty of Ghent, which restored relations between the British and Americans. Pictured is the famous Battle of New Orleans.
Part of the American Indian Wars and the War of 1812, Tecumseh's War was a conflict between the United States and Tecumseh's Confederacy, led by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh in the Indiana Territory. It's especially remembered for the decisive Battle of Tippecanoe, which resulted in victory for US forces.
Two days later on October 25, 1983, the United States invaded Grenada, ostensibly as an action to protect American citizens living on the island as civil strife enveloped the nation. American dead numbered 19, with 116 wounded.
The American Indian Wars were initially fought by European governments and also by the colonists in North America against various American Indian tribes. However, by the mid-18th century, the United States government and American settlers had become embroiled in the conflict. One of the first of these later series of frontier battles was the Cherokee–American Wars (1776–1794).
The Apache Wars were fought out against the backdrop of the wider Texas–Indian Wars and the American Indian Wars. Essentially a series of armed conflicts between the United States Army and various Apache tribal confederations, blood was being spilled on both sides as late as 1924.
A coalition of 42 countries led by the United States responded to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in two key stages: Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. Kuwait was liberated on February 28, 1991.
The American Revolutionary War was an insurrection by Patriots in the 13 colonies against British rule, resulting in American independence. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. Throughout the course of the war, an estimated 6,800 Americans were killed in action, 6,100 wounded, and upwards of 20,000 taken prisoner, according to the American Battlefield Trust.
So, what are some of the most infamous military engagements that have seen America at war on and off since its birth? Click through and find out why peace has never really been given a chance.
The US has not been involved in wars for only 6% of its existence
Why has the United States rarely been at peace?
LIFESTYLE History
Did you know that since its declaration of independence in 1776, the United States has only had 15 years or so of continuous peace? Granted, it took military action to establish the nation in the first place, but since the American Revolutionary War ended in 1783 there's rarely been a time when the country has not taken up arms. And with the latest exchange of fire in the Middle East, Washington appears yet again to ready itself for armed conflict.
So, what are some of the most infamous military engagements that have seen America at war on and off since its birth? Click through and find out why peace has never really been given a chance.