An armed conflict between state actors, typically for the furtherence of a political or economic aim.
6
votes
2answers
136 views
Was the American Civil War the first to include multiple multi-day battles?
Looking at wikipedia reveals that there were plenty of multi-day battles in the American Civil War.
I looked at its article on the Crimean War, which as far as I know
was the previous significant ...
10
votes
2answers
269 views
Why did the Monitor and Merrimac (aka Virginia) have such radically different designs?
This is something that's always baffled me. You have one ship that appears to sit just above the water with one little canon on a turret (the Monitor) and a second that sits high and is brimming with ...
8
votes
5answers
288 views
Is there any documentation regarding the use of war elephants in battles?
Does anyone know of any battles where war elephants played either a major or decisive part in the victory of whoever had them? As far as I know, they were mostly used for the fear factor and were ...
7
votes
1answer
199 views
Was the UN critically involved in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Is there any evidence to show that the Cuban Missile Crisis was scaled back because of the actions of UN personnel acting in their UN role?
The topic came up recently about precedent for UN having ...
7
votes
2answers
183 views
Army formation: veterans at the first line
I am trying to understand the early roman legion deployment. I can see some advantages to putting the inexperienced warriors at the first line and the veterans at the last.
But have there been ...
4
votes
3answers
261 views
What started the Korean war?
Is it true that the catalyst was a conflict about a tree right on the border? I heard it from a teacher at a US university as he was teaching a course about nation-states in and out of war.
4
votes
3answers
273 views
Was Russo-Polish of 1919-1920 a war of independence?
What evidence is there to call the 1919-1920 conflict between Poland and the Soviet Union a "war of independence"? As for a definition of independence, I would say it is a full political, legal, and ...
3
votes
1answer
189 views
How do war elephants fight?
Do they just run breaking phalanx? Do they pull their front food and then crush enemies below?
What do elephants do?
Or are the fighters on top of it just shoot arrows?
-3
votes
3answers
181 views
Why did so many rulers want to aquire more land? [closed]
It seems that until around the 20th century, a relatively large portion of rulers saw it as their goal to acquire more land. What was the main rationale behind this?
