Wars and Military Conflicts

Conflicts from the Revolution to Afghanistan — their causes, course, and costs.

26 entries, in chronological order

Colonial America1607–1763

Illustration of George Washington on horseback at the Battle of the Monongahela

1754 – Feb 10, 1763War

The French and Indian War

The North American front of the Seven Years’ War, 1754–1763

Revolution and Independence1763–1789

1732–1799Person

George Washington

Commander of the Continental Army and first president

John Trumbull’s painting of the British surrender at Yorktown

Apr 19, 1775 – Sep 3, 1783War

The American Revolution

The War of Independence, 1775–1783

The Early Republic1789–1828

Illustration of the British burning of Washington in 1814

Jun 18, 1812 – Feb 18, 1815War

The War of 1812

The United States fights Britain again, 1812–1815

Expansion and Sectional Conflict1828–1860

Robert Jenkins Onderdonk’s painting The Fall of the Alamo, about 1903, showing Davy Crockett swinging his rifle as Mexican soldiers storm the mission

Feb 23 – Mar 6, 1836Event

The Alamo and the Texas Revolution

The thirteen-day siege of 1836 and the war that made Texas an independent republic

Carl Nebel’s print of General Winfield Scott’s entry into Mexico City

May 13, 1846 – Feb 2, 1848War

The Mexican-American War

The United States conquers half of Mexico, 1846–1848

Civil War and Reconstruction1861–1877

1822–1885Person

Ulysses S. Grant

Union general who won the Civil War and eighteenth president

Currier and Ives print of the Battle of Gettysburg

Apr 12, 1861 – Apr 9, 1865War

The Civil War

The war over union and slavery, 1861–1865

Jul 1–3, 1863Event

The Battle of Gettysburg

The bloodiest battle of the Civil War, July 1–3, 1863

Industrialization and the Gilded Age1877–1900

Jun 25–26, 1876Event

The Battle of the Little Bighorn

Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors destroy Custer’s command, June 1876

Dec 29, 1890Event

The Wounded Knee Massacre

The U.S. Army kills hundreds of Lakota at Wounded Knee Creek, December 1890

Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders on San Juan Hill in 1898

Apr 25 – Dec 10, 1898War

The Spanish-American War

A short war that made the United States an overseas empire, 1898

The Progressive Era and World War I1900–1920

James Montgomery Flagg’s “I Want You” recruiting poster

Apr 6, 1917 – Nov 11, 1918War

World War I

The United States enters the Great War, 1917–1918

The Twenties and the Great Depression1920–1939

Japan’s foreign minister signing the instrument of surrender aboard USS Missouri

Dec 7, 1941 – Sep 2, 1945War

World War II

The United States in the global war, 1941–1945

World War II and the Early Cold War1939–1960

1890–1969Person

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Commander of the D-Day invasion and thirty-fourth president, who presided over the prosperous, anxious 1950s

The battleship USS Arizona burning after the Japanese attack

Dec 7, 1941Event

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Japan’s surprise attack that brought the United States into World War II

American soldiers wading ashore from a landing craft on Omaha Beach

Jun 6, 1944Event

D-Day

The Allied invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944

Mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Aug 6–9, 1945Event

Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The first and only use of nuclear weapons in war, August 1945

1947 – Dec 25, 1991War

The Cold War

The global rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, 1947–1991

U.S. Marines climbing a seawall during the Inchon landing

Jun 25, 1950 – Jul 27, 1953War

Korean War

The first major armed conflict of the Cold War, 1950–1953

Civil Rights and Social Transformation1954–1980

U.S. aerial reconnaissance photograph of a Soviet medium-range ballistic missile launch site at San Cristobal, Cuba, November 1, 1962

Oct 14 – Nov 20, 1962Event

The Cuban Missile Crisis

The October 1962 showdown in which the superpowers came closest to nuclear war

A U.S. soldier guiding a UH-1 helicopter in to land in Vietnam

Aug 7, 1964 – Jan 1973War

Vietnam War

America’s longest war of the Cold War era, 1964–1973

Conservative Realignment and the End of the Cold War1980–2001

East and West Germans at the Brandenburg Gate in 1989

1989 – Dec 25, 1991Event

The End of the Cold War

The fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union, 1989–1991

U.S. Air Force jets flying over burning Kuwaiti oil fields during Desert Storm

Aug 2, 1990 – Feb 28, 1991War

Persian Gulf War

The U.S.-led coalition that expelled Iraq from Kuwait, 1990–1991

The United States in the Twenty-First Century2001–present

U.S. soldiers on horseback in Afghanistan in 2001

Oct 7, 2001 – Aug 2021War

War in Afghanistan

America’s longest war, 2001–2021

The toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad

Mar 20, 2003 – Dec 18, 2011War

Iraq War

The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, 2003–2011