Most Interesting War?

WWII and The Cold War are wars that I don't think and hope will ever be matched.

@Stete said:

The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides.

This dude knows what's up.

@antikorper: its not a war in the traditional sense but i think in many ways it the most dangerous war that ever took place. at several times during the cold war the human race was allmost wiped out. i think it might have even had a greater impact on the world than WW2 did but thats up for debate.

The Spanish Civil War interests me most. I've studied it extensively. You have two factions, one a typical early 1900's fascist regime, and one an idealist group of Republicans. Franco was just as evil and nationalist as Mussolini and Hitler, both of whom were his buddies during this war. What separates him from them is that Franco held power until his death in 1975. The fascists one this war in part because of great support from foreign regimes. The republicans didn't get help from anyone but the USSR. Most everyone stayed out to avoid a global-scale conflict, which in reality was only a few years away. A lot of foreign support for the republicans came from idealists who just flew to Madrid and hopped into the action (For Whom the Bell Tolls, one of my favorite books, is about this). It was a precursor to WWII in many ways, as well.

As many others have said, the Napoleonic wars are also super interesting.

@BoG: ive allways wanted to know more about it. i love how the first 20 or 30 years of the 20th century revolve around america trying to not ignite a global war such as with the one you mentioned but it ended up happening anyways. makes me wonder if they had just jumped into it if the cost would have been so high.

Some of the ones I find the most interesting are:

Charles the 8th's invasion of Italy

Carthaginian/punic wars

Peleponisian war

Wars of early Rome against Etruscans

The Reconquista

Creation of Arabic empire

Justinians reconquest of the western empire

Six Days war

Edited for: Spanish Civil war, can't believe I forgot this one, such an interesting time period. The influence of foreign powers on the war is the most interesting part for me personally.

@Mushir said:

WWII and The Cold War are wars that I don't think and hope will ever be matched.

You do realize that The Cold War isn't an actual war right?

I've never been that interested in traditional military history (tactics and all that), or at least, not since I've been old enough to claim to be interested in History.

Culturally, I find the period around WWI probably one of the most significant moments in history, and most of the C20th's greatest art was produced immediately after it. Likewise, although I don't know much about it and I'm not sure you could call it a war, I've always been interested in the Moorish occupation of southern spain, just because the marks its left on the culture and life of that area makes it a really interesting place to be. You sort of expect it to be a clash between western european architecture and more arabic modes, but actually they blend together really nicely, so that southern spain feels more like the doorstep of North Africa than the southern tip of Europe.

I'm also quite interested in the Sino-Japanese war, just before WWII (in fact, I think the two kind of bleed together, iirc?). I can't claim to know a huge amount about it, but it piqued my interest when I was younger, probably a bit too young to really dedicate myself to learning about it. Mostly I think it just seems like a moment in Japan's history where they were more forward - less insular - than they'd ever been before or since. For all that we look down our noses (some of us, anyway) at Japan's otherness, it's interesting to look at their history and ask whether part of the reason for that is that (seemingly) every time they've ventured out onto the world stage they've been properly fucked.

I liked the one where everybody died.

cowboys vs aliens

The Great Console Wars

Cold War. I used to be absolutely fascinated with it when I was in high school.

The Napoleonic Wars are the best in my opinion.

Just think that France fought against Austrian Empire,Prussia, Russian Empire,two Sicilies,Spain,Kingdom of Sweden, UK and Portugal. LOL, that is very crazy!!

Napolean was so amazing that till my country(brazil) was "attacked".

Well, other interesting thing about the Napoleonic Wars is that same with all these countries in war, we could never say "Napolean will sure lose the war". Nap was an excellent strategist. War are tragic and sad but remember them is fascinating.

@Mushir said:

WWII and The Cold War are wars that I don't think and hope will ever be matched.

This

Wars aren't interesting because war, war never changes.

I find anything having to do with WWII absolutely fascinating (and that era in general) and I will eat up any and all information given to me through any medium about it. WWI I find to be the second most interesting war, but that's probably a result of my reading into the Lost Generation and their various novels. Btdubs, HUGE fan of the conflict in Afghanistan.

The War of the Roses is very interesting to me not only because it lead to one of the most interesting ruling houses of England, but also because of the on/off of the fighting, and the way the throne ultimately went to a distant relative of the head of one of the competing houses(Henry Tudor), since by the time the fighting was over, many of the prominent members of the houses which had started the fighting (the Yorks and Lancasters) had been killed.

The First World War, aka The Great War, aka WW1.

It's been almost totally neglected by mainstream media, study, and interest in favor of the Second World War. Ask most people simply when it started and ended, and you'll probably just get blank looks. There are a lot of really inaccurate misconceptions about how it was fought and what actually happened. I think this is a bit of a shame, really, since in many ways it was a more pivotal conflict in terms of how it shaped the twentieth (and 21st) century afterwards than WW2:

• The League of Nations, precursor to the UN, happened largely because of this war.
• The modern middle east? Repartitioned by the victors of WW1.
• The Soviet Union? Look to the 1917 revolutions, of which the war played a pivotal role.
• The tank was first used in 1916, and as a result, the entire concept of armoured warfare became feasible. Today, this kind of warfare is considered a pretty big deal.
• The shift of global power towards America was in no small part due to crippling debt and several weak post-war governments in Europe (not least of which being the Wiemar Republic).

But as it slips further back into history, I highly doubt more people will start to care. Just the way it goes I suppose.

EDIT: Went link-happy to save curious people the three seconds it would take to check Wikipedia.

@Turambar said:

World War I is pretty interesting because of some of the tangential stuff related to it. For example, while everyone knows that Britain and France drew up lines to carve up the Middle East for the sake of oil, did you know that Germany had France's spot, and one day before the deal between the two countries were finalized, Ferdinand was assassinated?

I'm sorry, but what do you mean Germany had france spot in what?

@Joeybagad0nutz: I believe he may be referring to Syria and Lebanon. Germany would have been running those regions instead of France.

For me it's probably Vietnam because it was such a disaster on the homefront and in the jungle. Plus, y'know, LSD.

American Revolution

The cold war was definitely really interesting!

WW III - it can be anything I want it to be.

I'd either go with The Civil War or the Mexican War. Those wars are interesting because they aren't about the personalities of great generals like Napoleon or Alexander, but they're in terms of small generals. Your Fightin Joe Hookers, your A.P. Hills, your Beauregards. The history of the civil war is really told as the history of the interrelationships of these men and their failures and successes when one's strengths was put against another's weaknesses.