Flashcards › History › World History
Famous Wars and Battles
Major conflicts from ancient times to the twentieth century, with where, when and why they mattered.
0 of 73 known
73 cards
- Battle of Marathon (490 BCE)War or battleAthens defeated a Persian invasion in Greece
- Battle of Thermopylae (480 BCE)War or battleSmall Greek force held a mountain pass against Persia
- Battle of Salamis (480 BCE)War or battleGreek fleet defeated the Persian navy
- Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE)War or battleSparta defeated Athens
- Battle of Gaugamela (331 BCE)War or battleAlexander the Great defeated Persian king Darius III
- Punic Wars (264-146 BCE)War or battleRome defeated Carthage in three wars
- Battle of Cannae (216 BCE)War or battleHannibal's great victory over Rome
- Battle of Zama (202 BCE)War or battleScipio defeated Hannibal
- Battle of Actium (31 BCE)War or battleOctavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra
- Battle of Hastings (1066)War or battleWilliam of Normandy won England
- Battle of Tours (732)War or battleCharles Martel stopped a Muslim army in France
- First Crusade (1096-1099)War or battleChristian knights captured Jerusalem
- Mongol conquestsWar or battleGenghis Khan and successors built the largest land empire in the 1200s
- Hundred Years' War (1337-1453)War or battleEngland and France fought; Joan of Arc rallied the French
- Battle of Agincourt (1415)War or battleEnglish longbows beat French knights
- Fall of Constantinople (1453)War or battleOttomans took the Byzantine capital
- Spanish Armada (1588)War or battleEnglish defeated Spain's invasion fleet
- Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)War or battleReligious and political war in central Europe
- French and Indian War (1754-1763)War or battleBritain defeated France in North America
- Battle of Lexington and Concord (1775)War or battleFirst fights of the American Revolution
- Battle of Saratoga (1777)War or battleAmerican victory that brought France into the war
- Siege of Yorktown (1781)War or battleLast major battle of the American Revolution
- Battle of Trafalgar (1805)War or battleBritish Admiral Nelson defeated the French and Spanish fleets
- Battle of Austerlitz (1805)War or battleNapoleon's greatest victory, over Russia and Austria
- Battle of Waterloo (1815)War or battleNapoleon's final defeat
- War of 1812War or battleUS versus Britain; ended in a stalemate in 1815
- Battle of New Orleans (1815)War or battleAndrew Jackson defeated British troops
- Battle of the Alamo (1836)War or battleTexas defenders fell to Mexican forces
- Mexican-American War (1846-48)War or battleUS won California and the Southwest
- Crimean War (1853-56)War or battleBritain, France and the Ottomans fought Russia; Florence Nightingale nursed there
- Battle of Fort Sumter (1861)War or battleFirst shots of the American Civil War
- Battle of Gettysburg (1863)War or battleTurning point of the Civil War in the East
- Siege of Vicksburg (1863)War or battleUnion victory that took control of the Mississippi River
- Appomattox (1865)War or battleLee's surrender to Grant
- Franco-Prussian War (1870-71)War or battlePrussia defeated France and united Germany
- Battle of Little Bighorn (1876)War or battleLakota and Cheyenne defeated Custer's troops
- Spanish-American War (1898)War or battleUS gained Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines
- Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)War or battleJapan defeated Russia
- Battle of Verdun (1916)War or battleLong battle between France and Germany in WWI
- Battle of the Somme (1916)War or battleBritish offensive in WWI with heavy losses
- Battle of Britain (1940)War or battleRAF stopped German air attacks
- Dunkirk evacuation (1940)War or battleRescue of Allied troops from France by many boats
- Battle of Stalingrad (1942-43)War or battleSoviet victory on the Eastern Front
- Battle of Midway (1942)War or battleUS Navy victory in the Pacific
- Battle of El Alamein (1942)War or battleBritish victory in North Africa
- D-Day (June 6, 1944)War or battleAllied landings in Normandy
- Battle of the Bulge (1944-45)War or battleGermany's last big offensive in the West
- Iwo Jima (1945)War or battleUS Marines captured the island
- Korean War (1950-53)War or battleUN forces helped South Korea against North Korea
- Vietnam War (1955-75)War or battleLong conflict between North and South Vietnam; the US supported the South
- Six-Day War (1967)War or battleIsrael and neighboring Arab states fought in June 1967
- Gulf War (1991)War or battleCoalition forces freed Kuwait after Iraq's invasion
- Chinese Civil War (1927-1949)War or battleFighting between Nationalists and Communists, which the Communists won
- Russian Civil War (1917-1922)War or battleReds under the Bolsheviks defeated Whites
- American Civil War (1861-1865)War or battleUnion defeated the Confederacy; slavery ended
- English Civil War (1642-1651)War or battleParliament defeated the king, Charles I
- Wars of the Roses (1455-1487)War or battleEnglish families York and Lancaster fought for the throne
- Boer War (1899-1902)War or battleBritain fought two Boer republics in South Africa
- Battle of Adwa (1896)War or battleEthiopia defeated Italy
- Battle of Plassey (1757)War or battleBritish East India Company victory that brought it power in Bengal
- Opium Wars (1839-42, 1856-60)War or battleBritain defeated China, forcing trade concessions
- Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901)War or battleUprising against foreign influence in China
- Battle of Lepanto (1571)War or battleChristian fleet defeated the Ottoman navy at sea
- Siege of Vienna (1683)War or battleDefeat of Ottoman forces outside Vienna
- Seven Years' War (1756-1763)War or battleGlobal war involving Britain, France, Prussia and others
- Battle of Bunker Hill (1775)War or battleBritish won but lost many men
- Battle of Tippecanoe (1811)War or battleWilliam Henry Harrison defeated Tecumseh's followers
- Battle of San Jacinto (1836)War or battleTexans defeated Mexican forces and won independence
- Battle of Antietam (1862)War or battleBloodiest day of the Civil War
- Pearl Harbor (1941)War or battleJapanese surprise attack that brought the US into WWII
- Siege of Leningrad (1941-44)War or battleLong German siege of the Soviet city
- Battle of Okinawa (1945)War or battleLast major battle of the Pacific
- Fall of Saigon (1975)War or battleEnd of the Vietnam War
Download this deck
- CSVExcel, Google Sheets, Numbers
- Anki / Quizlet (tab-separated)Import straight into Anki or Quizlet
- JSONFor programmers and apps
- Plain textOne card a line, “front : back”, ready for Peabody's flashcard maker to print
Want paper cards? Paste the plain-text download into the flashcard maker.