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The French and Indian War

June 19-July 11: The Albany Congress

Oct. 7: Proclamation of 1763

April 5: The Sugar Act
September 1: The Currency Act

March 22: The Stamp Act
March 24: The Quartering Act of 1765
May 29: Patrick Henry's "If this be treason, make the most of it!" speech
May 30: The Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions
Oct. 7-25: The Stamp Act Congress

March 18: The Declaratory Act

June 29: The Townshend Revenue Act

August 1: Boston Non-Importation Agreement

March 5: The Boston Massacre

June 9: The Gaspee Affair

May 10: The Tea Act Dec. 16: The Boston Tea Party

March 31: Boston Port Act, one of the " Intolerable Acts" May 20: Administration of Justice Act, one of the " Intolerable Acts" May 20: Massachusetts Government Act, one of the " Intolerable Acts" June 2: Quartering Act of 1774, one of the " Intolerable Acts" June 22: Quebec Act, one of the " Intolerable Acts" Sept. 5-Oct. 26: The First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia and issues Declaration and Resolves Oct. 10: Battle of Point Pleasant, Virginia (disputed as to whether it was a battle of the American Revolution or the culmination of Lord Dunmore's War) Oct. 20: The Association (prohibition of trade with Great Britain) Oct. 24: Galloway's Plan rejected

March 23: Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech Apr. 18: The Rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes Apr. 19: Minutemen and redcoats clash at Lexington and Concord, "the shot heard 'round the world." May 10: Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys seize Fort Ticonderoga May 10: The Second Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia June 15: George Washington named Commander-in-Chief June 17: Battle of Bunker Hill: The British drive the Americans from Breed's Hill July 3: Washington assumes command of the Continental Army Nov. 13: Richard Montgomery's Continental Army forces occupy Montreal in Canada Dec. 11: Virginia and NC patriots rout Loyalist troops and burn Norfolk Dec. 22: Colonel Thomson with 1,500 rangers and militia capture Loyalists at Great Canebrake, SC Dec. 23-30: Snow Campaign, in SC, so called because patriots are impeded by 15" of snow Dec. 30-31: American forces under Benedict Arnold fail to seize Quebec

Jan. 1: Daniel Morgan is taken prisoner during his attempt to take Quebec City Jan. 15: Paine's Common Sense published Feb. 27: Revolutionaries drive the loyalists from Moore's Creek Bridge, North Carolina March 3: The Continental fleet captures New Providence Island in the Bahamas March 17: The British evacuate Boston; British Navy moves to Halifax, Canada June 8: Revolutionaries fail to take Three Rivers, Quebec June 12: The Virginia Declaration of Rights June 28: Sullivan's Island, SC, failed British naval attack June 29: The First Virginia Constitution June 28: American forces decisively defeat the British Navy at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina July 1: At the instigation of British agents, the Cherokee attack along the entire southern frontier July 1-4: Congress debates and revises the Declaration of Independence. See Chronology of the Declaration July 4: Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence; it's sent to the printer July 8: The Declaration of Independence is read publicly July 15: Lyndley's Fort, SC, Patriots fend off attack by Indians and Tories dressed as Indians Aug. 1: Ambushed by Cherokees, Patriots are saved by a mounted charge at Seneca, SC Aug. 2: Delegates begin to sign The Declaration of Independence Aug. 10: Tugaloo River, SC, Andrew Pickens defeats Cherokees Aug. 12: Andrew Pickens' detachment surrounded by 185 Cherokee Indians, forms a ring and fires outward. It is known as the "Ring Fight." Aug. 12: Colonel David Williamson and Andrew Pickens burn Tamassy, an Indian town Aug. 27: Redcoats defeat George Washington's army in the Battle of Long Island. Washington's army escapes at night. Sept. 15: The British occupy New York City Sept. 16: Generals George Washington, Nathanael Greene, and Israel Putnam triumphantly hold their ground at the Battle of Harlem Heights Sept. 19: Colonel David Williamson's Pennsylvania militia forces attacked by Cherokees at Coweecho River, NC Oct. 11: Benedict Arnold defeated at the Battle of Valcour Island (Lake Champlain), but delayed British advance Oct. 28: The Americans retreat from White Plains, New York. British casualties (~300) higher than American (~200). Nov. 16: The Hessians capture Fort Washington, NY Nov. 20: Lord Cornwallis captures Fort Lee from Nathanael Greene Dec. 26: Washington crosses the Delaware and captures Trenton from Hessians

Jan. 3: Washington victorious at Princeton Jan. 6-May 28: Washington winters in Morristown, NJ Apr. 27: Benedict Arnold's troops force a British retreat at Ridgefield, Connecticut. May 20: Treaty of DeWitt's Corner, SC: Cherokees lose most of their land east of the mountains June 14: Flag Resolution July 5: St. Clair surrenders Fort Ticonderoga to the British July 27: Lafayette arrives in Philadelphia Aug. 6: The Redcoats, with Iroquois support, force the patriots back at Oriskany, NY, but then have to evacuate Aug. 16: American Militia under General Stark victorious at the Battle of Bennington, VT (actually fought in Walloomsac, New York, several miles to the west) Aug. 23: British withdraw from Fort Stanwix, NY, upon hearing of Benedict Arnold's approach Aug. 25: British General Howe lands at Head of Elk, Maryland Sept. 11: The British win the Battle of Brandywine, Pennsylvania Sept. 16: Rainout at the Battle of the Clouds, Pennsylvania Sept. 19: Burgoyne checked by Americans under Gates at Freeman's Farm, NY. This is part of the "Battles of Saratoga." Sept. 21: Paoli Massacre, PA Sept. 26: British under Howe occupy Philadelphia Oct. 4: Americans driven off at the Battle of Germantown Oct. 7: Burgoyne loses second battle of Freeman's Farm, NY (at Bemis Heights). This is part of the "Battles of Saratoga." Oct. 17: Burgoyne surrenders to American General Gates at Saratoga, NY Oct. 22: Hessian attack on Fort Mercer, NJ repulsed Nov. 16: British capture Fort Mifflin, Pennsylvania Dec. 5-7: Americans repulse British at Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania Dec. 19: Washington's army retires to winter quarters at Valley Forge

Feb. 6: The United States and France sign the French Alliance March 7: British General William Howe replaced by Henry Clinton May 20: Battle of Barren Hill, Pennsylvania. Lafayette with 500 men and about 50 Oneida Indians successfully evade British onslaught June 18: British abandon Philadelphia and return to New York June 19: Washington's army leaves Valley Forge June 28: The Battle of Monmouth Court House ends in a draw July 4: George Rogers Clark captures Kaskaskia, a French village south of St. Louis Aug. 8: French and American forces besiege Newport, RI Sept. 28: The Tappan Massacre ("No Flint" Grey kills 30 Americans by bayonet) Dec. 29: The redcoats occupy Savannah

Feb. 3: Major General Moultrie defeats British detachment at Port Royal Island, SC Feb. 14: Patriots Andrew Pickens and Elijah Clarke beat Loyalists at Kettle Creek, GA Feb. 23-24: American George Rogers Clark captures Vincennes (in what is now Indiana) on the Wabash in the Western campaign March 3: British Lt. Colonel Jacques Marcus Prévost defeats Americans under General John Ashe at Brier Creek, GA May 11-13: Major General Augustin Prévost (brother of Jacques, see above) breaks his siege when American forces under Major General Lincoln approach June 20: Stono River, SC, Major General Lincoln inflicts extensive British casualties in indecisive battle June 21: Spain declares war on Great Britain July 8: Fairfield, CT, burned by British July 11: Norwalk, CT, burned by British July 15-16: American "Mad" Anthony Wayne captures Stony Point, NY Aug. 19: Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee attacks Paulus Hook, NJ Aug. 29: Newtown, NY, after two massacres, American forces burn Indian villages Sept. 23: John Paul Jones, aboard the Bonhomme Richard, captures British man-of-war Serapis near English coast
Oct. 9: American attempt to recapture Savannah, GA fails Nov.-June 23, 1780: Washington's 2nd winter at Morristown, NJ (the harshest winter of the 18th century)

May 12: British capture Charleston, SC May 29: British crush Americans at Waxhaw Creek, SC June 20: Patriots rout Tories at Ramseur's Mill, NC July 11: French troops arrive at Newport, RI, to aid the American cause Aug. 6: Patriots defeat Tories at Hanging Rock, SC Aug. 16: British rout Americans at Camden, SC Sept. 23: John André arrested, leading to the exposure of Benedict Arnold's plans to cede West Point to the British Oct. 7: King's Mountain, SC: battle lasts 65 minutes. American troops led by Isaac Shelby and John Sevier defeat Major Patrick Ferguson and one third of General Cornwallis's army Oct. 14: Washington names Nathanael Greene commander of the Southern Army

Jan. 1: Mutiny of unpaid Pennsylvania soldiers Jan. 17: American General Daniel Morgan overwhelmingly defeats British Colonel Tarleton at Cowpens, SC Feb. 1: The Battle of Cowan's Ford, Huntersville, NC March 2: Articles of Confederation adopted March 15: British win costly victory at Guilford Courthouse, NC April 25: Greene defeated at Hobkirk's Hill, SC May 15: British Major Andrew Maxwell cedes Fort Granby, SC to Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee June 6: Americans recapture Augusta, GA June 18: British hold off Americans at Ninety Six, SC July 6: "Mad" Anthony Wayne repulsed at Green Springs Farm, VA Sept. 8: Greene defeated at Eutaw Springs, SC Sept. 15: French fleet drives British naval force from Chesapeake Bay Oct. 19: Cornwallis surrounded on land and sea by Americans and French and surrenders at Yorktown, VA

March 8: Gnadenhutten massacre, a.k.a. the Moravian massacre.
March 20: Lord North resigns as British prime minister July 11: British evacuate Savannah, GA Nov. 30: British and Americans sign preliminary Articles of Peace Dec. 14: British leave Charleston, SC

April 19: Congress ratifies preliminary peace treaty Sept. 3: The United States and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Paris Nov. 25: British troops leave New York City Dec. 23: Washington resigns as Commander

Sept. 17: U.S. Constitution signed

June 21: U.S. Constitution adopted, when New Hampshire ratifies it

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The French and Indian War June 19-July 11: The Albany Congress Oct. 7: Proclamation of 1763 April 5: The Sugar Act September 1: The Currency Act March 22: The Stamp Act March 24: The Quartering Act of 1765 May 29: Patrick Henry's "If this be treason, make the most of it!"

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Explore some important dates during this war in America.

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Featured

The Revolutionary War (1775-1783) arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain's 13 North American colonies and the colonial government. The American colonists, led by General George Washington, won political independence and eventually formed the United States of America.
Read more Read more about Revolutionary War

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American Revolution: Causes and Timeline | HISTORY

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The Revolutionary War waged by the American colonies against Britain influenced political ideas around the globe, as a small fledgling nation won its freedom from the greatest military force of its time.

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This fast paced video explains the process of the Revolutionary War.

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Who Won the American Revolution?: Crash Course US History #7

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Using the map of the 13 colonies, Encyclopedia Britannica shows the movements of the Revolutionary War while telling the story.

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April 19, 1775. Four hundred British regulars approached the small village of Lexington, Massachusetts. Eighty men of the local militia meet them on the town green. "Stand your ground" their commander shouts. "Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war let it begin here." How did it come to this? Why are these American subjects facing down there King George III and his empire?

The rallying cry is, "no taxation without representation." For ten years, the American colonists have protested the taxes levied by the British crown. The protests are sometimes eloquent and sometimes violent. No matter the method, the Americans have no voice in the British government. Most colonists are not yet ready to break away, yet they are determined to defend their rights to assembly, free speech, trial by jury, taxation by their own representatives, and to bear arms.

The controversy explodes on that April morning. Two British companies form a line of battle on the Lexington Green. A British officer orders the militia to disperse. Most of the men began to scatter, but a few stubbornly stand their ground. A moment later, a shot rings out, who fired that first shot heard around the world may never be known. The British then unleash a full volley into the militia. When the smoke clears, eight Americans lay dead, and another nine are wounded.

In search of a rumored stockpile of American weapons, the British advance to Concord. Word of the movement spreads among the American Patriots. At Concord, the British find only remnants of the Patriot stockpile. The real weapons are in the hands of the militia. Three hundred Americans attack the British column near the Concord River. The British withdrawal. The Americans pursue, and it devolves into a running battle.

More militiamen, sometimes called Minutemen, arrive using country paths to ambush their exhausted foes. British soldiers are killed or wounded continuously. Most run out of ammunition. Some consider surrendering. The British limp back into Boston having lost nearly 300 men. Almost miraculously, the American Patriots win their first battle, but the revolution has only just begun.

Within weeks, Boston is surrounded by an army of New England militia. As news of the first victory spreads, other Americans take action. In May, a group of men who call themselves the Green Mountain Boys, seize Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York. In June, the British attack an American position near Boston, a rise known to the locals as Bunker Hill. As a red coat battle lines approach, an American commander tells his men, "not to fire until you see the whites of their eyes."

The British are slaughtered. Although the British capture the hill, American morale rises as British morale plummets. Despite these early successes, American leaders know that they will need more than enthusiastic militia to win the conflict. The Continental Congress in session in Philadelphia, creates the Continental Army and appoints George Washington, a member of the Virginia delegation, to lead it.

Washington rushes to join the Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts telling Congress that he will need heavy artillery to drive the British out of Boston. In January, he orders Thomas Paine's pamphlet, Common Sense, which advocates independence from Great Britain, to be read aloud to his soldiers in order to strengthen their resolve for the cause. Washington is aided by 25-year-old Henry Knox, who spends the winter removing cannons from Fort Ticonderoga and bringing them to Boston. Despite having to sled across frozen rivers and scale snowy mountains, Knox doesn't lose a single gun.

By March of 1776, the American artillery is in place. Unwilling to suffer a bombardment or risk another attack, the British evacuate the city. Washington watches as the fleet sails away. He knows the enemy will soon return in even greater numbers. The question is where?

That Patriots face enormous challenges. The British empire wields incredible power. To win the revolution the Americans will need foreign support. In early 1776, France begins to secretly send weapons to the colonists. But before the French will do more, the Americans need to demonstrate their determination. On July 4, 1776, congressional delegates sign the Declaration of Independence, signaling to France that the United States of America is committed to victory and capable of achieving it. The war for independence has officially begun.

Washington moves the Continental Army from Boston to New York anticipating a British attack. By the end of June, 19,000 Patriots have joined him. And then the British return. One hundred and thirty ships carrying more than 20,000 soldiers sail into New York harbor. One amazed American exclaims that "all of London is afloat."

August 22, the British land on Long Island sweeping aside the American defenders at the battle or Brooklyn. Washington skillfully retreats across Manhattan to Harlem Heights. In September the British land on lower Manhattan and capture the city then dislodge the Americans from the defenses of Harlem Heights. Washington retreats again. Part of the Army withdraws North to White Plains, while another occupies a strong position astride the Hudson at Forts Washington and Lee. William Howe, the British commander defeats Washington in the battle of White Plains on October 28th.

In November, he decides to remove the threat to his rear at Forts Washington and Lee. The battle of Fort Washington is a disaster. Three thousand Americans are overwhelmed and captured by the British assault. Four days later, the British crossed the Hudson and capture Fort Lee.

Washington's army is reduced to but a few thousand men. With morale low and enlistment set to expire, he retreats across New Jersey into Pennsylvania. All that is stopping the British is the Delaware River and the coming winter. Convinced the rebels are all but defeated, the British spread out in numerous outposts throughout New Jersey. Washington must rekindle his army's confidence. He tells his men that if you will consent to stay only one month longer, you will render that service to the cause of liberty and to your country, which you probably never can do under any other circumstances. Thomas Paine writes a second pamphlet, The American Crisis, which circulates around campfires and steals the resolve of the Patriots.

On Christmas night, 1776, Washington makes good on his promise. He moves his forces across the ice-choked Delaware River. It is a desperate and dangerous maneuver, but it works. His men gather on the opposite bank, and Washington launches a surprise attack on Trenton New Jersey.

The battle of Trenton is a storing American victory. Over 1,000 Hessians are captured along with six cannons, and enough supplies to outfit several American brigades. Seven days later, Washington presses his advantage, outmaneuvering the main British army and striking the garrison at Princeton. He wins another victory and captures nearly 200 British regulars. With his army rejuvenated, Washington marches to Morristown and settles in for the rest of the winter. There was almost constant skirmishes between Patriots and British foraging parties, forcing the New York City British-controlled garrison to rely on supplies bought by sea.

In the spring of 1777, the British devise a plan to isolate New England from the other American colonies. Three columns are ordered to converge on Albany, New York. One column is stopped at Fort Stanwix. One disregards the plan and instead moves toward Philadelphia, defeating an American force at the Battle of Brandywine and capturing the American Capital. Washington attempts to recapture this city, but is defeated at the Battle of Germantown.

Afterward, he moves his army to Valley Forge for the winter. The third British column meets heavy resistance from partisan fighters, giving the Americans time to assemble a large force near Saratoga. The fighting at Saratoga rages from September to October. Victory sways in the balance. Finally, the Americans surround the British army and force them to surrender.

The Continental Army suffers through a brutal winter at Valley Forge but holds together. Discipline actually improves due to the training regimen implemented by Baron von Steuben, a European officer who lends expertise to the cause. It is one of the war's greatest displays of American determination. In the wake of the American victory at Saratoga, France signs an alliance with the United States and declares war on Britain.

Threatened by the French fleet, the British abandon Philadelphia. Washington pursues them across New Jersey. On June 28, Washington attacks a British rear guard at Monmouth, New Jersey. Although the battle is inconclusive, the winter training at Valley Forge has paid off. The Continentals had stood firm against British regulars who continue their movement to New York.

Throughout 1778, Washington maintains pressure on New York City. The countryside between the armies becomes a no man's land of spies, forging parties, and skirmishes. Unable to make headway in the Northeast, British strategists shift their focus to the southern colonies, where a guerrilla war had raged since 1775. They're banking on the support of Southern loyalists. In December, the British establish a foothold by capturing Savannah, Georgia. Months later, French troops join the Americans in an attempt to recapture Savannah, but the allies suffered severe losses and are unable to retake the city.

The Southern offensive continues into 1780. On May 12, a British army captures Charleston, South Carolina, along with more than 5,000 American soldiers and nearly the entire American force in the South. American reinforcements rushed to the Carolinas, but they fare little better. In August, another American army is crushed at the Battle of Camden. The countryside is still engulfed in a vicious partisan war. Neighbors take up arms against each other. The British troops burn homes and farms in their search for Patriots. They harden the revolutionary resolve of the Southern people.

In October, a force of more than 1,000 British loyalists is annihilated at the Battle of Kings Mountain. Washington sends more men to the south where they unite with Patriot militia fighters. Daniel Morgan leads the Americans to a major victory at Cowpens. But years of campaigning forced him to retire. Nathaniel Greene takes over.

In a grueling campaign in early 1781, he grinds down the British forces during a series of strategic retreats toward the Dan River. Greene is able to keep one step ahead of the British. He crosses on February 14, and the British without boats, are unable to pursue, the race is over. After a brief rest, Greene, now reinforced, re-crosses the dam.

On March 15, at Guilford Courthouse, Greene finally faces the British, fighting them to a bloody standstill.

After Guilford, Cornwallis withdraws his battered and exhausted army toward Wilmington. Soon after, he marches north to Virginia, hoping to stop the flow of men and supplies into the southern colonies. With Cornwallis gone, Greene swiftly re-enters the Carolinas. At Utah Springs, though a draw, Greene inflicts enough casualties to compel a British withdraw to Charleston, where Greene pins them for the rest of the war.

Thwarted in the north and in the south, British strategists now try to attack the center. Cornwallis marches into Virginia and chases a continental force before marching his weary army to Yorktown in July 1781, where he expects reinforcements by sea. On September 5, the British and French fleets battle each other off the Virginia Capes. The French are victorious, and Cornwallis is cut off.

A combined American and French force marches south and lays siege to the British on September 26. On October 14, American defense units storm two British [INAUDIBLE]. Cornwallis realizes there will be no reinforcements, no escape. He surrenders. More than 8,000 soldiers about one-fourth of all British troops in the United States are taken prisoner.

News of Yorktown reaches London in late November 1781. In February 1782, the British parliament adopts a resolution against further prosecution of offensive warfare on the continent of North America. The final treaty of peace is signed in September 1783.

After eight years of war, the longest war ever fought in North America. The United States win their independence. The American Revolution began the most important experiment the world has ever witnessed. Can people govern themselves? Can they treat each other as equals? Can liberty produce power? So far through many rigorous tests, America has answered-- yes.

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Major events of the American Revolutionary War examined

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Learn about major events of the Revolutionary War (1775-83), which won 13 American colonies their political independence from Great Britain.

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How did Britain lose the American Revolution? 

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How did Britain lose the American Revolution? 

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Watch and learn what caused the British army to lose the Revolutionary War.

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How did Britain lose the American Revolution? | Animated History

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Explore important facts about the Civil War in this brief overview.

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The Civil War is the central event in America's historical consciousness. While the Revolution of 1776-1783 created the United States, the Civil War of 1861-1865 determined what kind of nation it would be. The war resolved two fundamental questions left unresolved by the revolution: whether the United States was to be a dissolvable confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government; and whether this nation, born of a declaration that all men were created with an equal right to liberty, would continue to exist as the largest slaveholding country in the world.

Northern victory in the war preserved the United States as one nation and ended the institution of slavery that had divided the country from its beginning. But these achievements came at the cost of 625,000 lives--nearly as many American soldiers as died in all the other wars in which this country has fought combined. The American Civil War was the largest and most destructive conflict in the Western world between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the onset of World War I in 1914.

The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states. When Abraham Lincoln won election in 1860 as the first Republican president on a platform pledging to keep slavery out of the territories, seven slave states in the deep South seceded and formed a new nation, the Confederate States of America. The incoming Lincoln administration and most of the Northern people refused to recognize the legitimacy of secession. They feared that it would discredit democracy and create a fatal precedent that would eventually fragment the no-longer United States into several small, squabbling countries.

The event that triggered war came at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay on April 12, 1861. Claiming this United States fort as their own, the Confederate army on that day opened fire on the federal garrison and forced it to lower the American flag in surrender. Lincoln called out the militia to suppress this "insurrection." Four more slave states seceded and joined the Confederacy. By the end of 1861 nearly a million armed men confronted each other along a line stretching 1200 miles from Virginia to Missouri. Several battles had already taken place--near Manassas Junction in Virginia, in the mountains of western Virginia where Union victories paved the way for creation of the new state of West Virginia, at Wilson's Creek in Missouri, at Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, and at Port Royal in South Carolina where the Union navy established a base for a blockade to shut off the Confederacy's access to the outside world.

But the real fighting began in 1862. Huge battles like Shiloh in Tennessee, Gaines' Mill, Second Manassas, and Fredericksburg in Virginia, and Antietam in Maryland foreshadowed even bigger campaigns and battles in subsequent years, from Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to Vicksburg on the Mississippi to Chickamauga and Atlanta in Georgia. By 1864 the original Northern goal of a limited war to restore the Union had given way to a new strategy of "total war" to destroy the Old South and its basic institution of slavery and to give the restored Union a "new birth of freedom," as President Lincoln put it in his address at Gettysburg to dedicate a cemetery for Union soldiers killed in the battle there.

For three long years, from 1862 to 1865, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia staved off invasions and attacks by the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by a series of ineffective generals until Ulysses S. Grant came to Virginia from the Western theater to become general in chief of all Union armies in 1864. After bloody battles at places with names like The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, Grant finally brought Lee to bay at Appomattox in April 1865. In the meantime Union armies and river fleets in the theater of war comprising the slave states west of the Appalachian Mountain chain won a long series of victories over Confederate armies commanded by hapless or unlucky Confederate generals. In 1864-1865 General William Tecumseh Sherman led his army deep into the Confederate heartland of Georgia and South Carolina, destroying their economic infrastructure while General George Thomas virtually destroyed the Confederacy's Army of Tennessee at the battle of Nashville.

By the spring of 1865 all the principal Confederate armies surrendered, and when Union cavalry captured the fleeing Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Georgia on May 10, 1865, resistance collapsed and the war ended. The long, painful process of rebuilding a united nation free of slavery began.

Learn More: This Day in the Civil War

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A Brief Overview of the American Civil War

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The Civil War of 1861-1865 determined what kind of nation the United States would be.

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How one piece of legislation divided a nation

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How one piece of legislation divided a nation

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Watch and learn how the Kansas-Nebraska Act caused tension and a divide in America, becoming a major contributor to the Civil War.

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How one piece of legislation divided a nation - Ben Labaree, Jr.

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Learn about some significant players during the Civil War.

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People are the reason for the war and behind the reason for which it was fought. There were Heroes and Villains on both sides, politicians, civilians and military alike. It is the human factor which makes history so compelling.

Often, the "why" answer is only discovered through learning the personalities of the players involved. Through this section you will find the background and bibliographies of the Generals, the Politicians, the Women and others who shaped the conflict and determined the outcome.

Further study is recommended through the source documents located in the Reference Section. And if you have a relative who fought, or information on a participant who's story you would like to share through this site, let us know.

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People are the reason for the war and behind the reason for which it was fought. There were Heroes and Villains on both sides, politicians, civilians and military alike. It is the human factor which makes history so compelling. Often, the "why" answer is only discovered through learning the personalities of the players involved.

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Explore items documenting the Civil War from the Library of Congress's Civil War Exhibition.

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November 12, 2012-January 11, 2014

The Civil War in America assembles more than 200 unique items, many of which have never been seen by the public, to commemorate the sesquicentennial of this nation's greatest military and political upheaval. Drawing from hundreds of thousands of items from across many collections of the Library of Congress, the materials included in this exhibition attest to the valor, sacrifices, emotions, and accomplishments of those in both the North and South whose lives were affected by the bitter conflict of 1861-1865.

Exhibition Location

Southwest Gallery

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The Civil War in America | Exhibitions - Library of Congress

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November 12, 2012-January 11, 2014 The Civil War in America assembles more than 200 unique items, many of which have never been seen by the public, to commemorate the sesquicentennial of this nation's greatest military and political upheaval.

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Watch a quick run down of some important points of the Civil War.

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Learn about the causes and the history of World War I.

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World War I, an international conflict that in 1914-18 embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions. The war pitted the Central Powers-mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey-against the Allies-mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United States. It ended with the defeat of the Central Powers. The war was virtually unprecedented in the slaughter, carnage, and destruction it caused.

World War I was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It led to the fall of four great imperial dynasties (in Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey), resulted in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and, in its destabilization of European society, laid the groundwork for World War II.

The last surviving veterans of World War I were American serviceman Frank Buckles (died in February 2011), British-born Australian serviceman Claude Choules (died in May 2011), and British servicewoman Florence Green (died in February 2012), the last surviving veteran of the war.

The outbreak of war

With Serbia already much aggrandized by the two Balkan Wars (1912-13, 1913), Serbian nationalists turned their attention back to the idea of "liberating" the South Slavs of Austria-Hungary. Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, head of Serbia's military intelligence, was also, under the alias "Apis," head of the secret society Union or Death, pledged to the pursuit of this pan-Serbian ambition. Believing that the Serbs' cause would be served by the death of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph, and learning that the Archduke was about to visit Bosnia on a tour of military inspection, Apis plotted his assassination. Nikola Pašić, the Serbian prime minister and an enemy of Apis, heard of the plot and warned the Austrian government of it, but his message was too cautiously worded to be understood.

At 11:15 am on June 28, 1914, in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand and his morganatic wife, Sophie, duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead by a Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip. The chief of the Austro-Hungarian general staff, Franz, Graf (count) Conrad von Hötzendorf, and the foreign minister, Leopold, Graf von Berchtold, saw the crime as the occasion for measures to humiliate Serbia and so to enhance Austria-Hungary's prestige in the Balkans. Conrad had already (October 1913) been assured by William II of Germany's support if Austria-Hungary should start a preventive war against Serbia. This assurance was confirmed in the week following the assassination, before William, on July 6, set off upon his annual cruise to the North Cape, off Norway.

The Austrians decided to present an unacceptable ultimatum to Serbia and then to declare war, relying on Germany to deter Russia from intervention. Though the terms of the ultimatum were finally approved on July 19, its delivery was postponed to the evening of July 23, since by that time the French president, Raymond Poincaré, and his premier, René Viviani, who had set off on a state visit to Russia on July 15, would be on their way home and therefore unable to concert an immediate reaction with their Russian allies. When the delivery was announced, on July 24, Russia declared that Austria-Hungary must not be allowed to crush Serbia.

Serbia replied to the ultimatum on July 25, accepting most of its demands but protesting against two of them-namely, that Serbian officials (unnamed) should be dismissed at Austria-Hungary's behest and that Austro-Hungarian officials should take part, on Serbian soil, in proceedings against organizations hostile to Austria-Hungary. Though Serbia offered to submit the issue to international arbitration, Austria-Hungary promptly severed diplomatic relations and ordered partial mobilization.

Home from his cruise on July 27, William learned on July 28 how Serbia had replied to the ultimatum. At once he instructed the German Foreign Office to tell Austria-Hungary that there was no longer any justification for war and that it should content itself with a temporary occupation of Belgrade. But, meanwhile, the German Foreign Office had been giving such encouragement to Berchtold that already on July 27 he had persuaded Franz Joseph to authorize war against Serbia. War was in fact declared on July 28, and Austro-Hungarian artillery began to bombard Belgrade the next day. Russia then ordered partial mobilization against Austria-Hungary, and on July 30, when Austria-Hungary was riposting conventionally with an order of mobilization on its Russian frontier, Russia ordered general mobilization. Germany, which since July 28 had still been hoping, in disregard of earlier warning hints from Great Britain, that Austria-Hungary's war against Serbia could be "localized" to the Balkans, was now disillusioned insofar as eastern Europe was concerned. On July 31 Germany sent a 24-hour ultimatum requiring Russia to halt its mobilization and an 18-hour ultimatum requiring France to promise neutrality in the event of war between Russia and Germany.

Both Russia and France predictably ignored these demands. On August 1 Germany ordered general mobilization and declared war against Russia, and France likewise ordered general mobilization. The next day Germany sent troops into Luxembourg and demanded from Belgium free passage for German troops across its neutral territory. On August 3 Germany declared war against France.

In the night of August 3-4 German forces invaded Belgium. Thereupon, Great Britain, which had no concern with Serbia and no express obligation to fight either for Russia or for France but was expressly committed to defend Belgium, on August 4 declared war against Germany.

Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia on August 5; Serbia against Germany on August 6; Montenegro against Austria-Hungary on August 7 and against Germany on August 12; France and Great Britain against Austria-Hungary on August 10 and on August 12, respectively; Japan against Germany on August 23; Austria-Hungary against Japan on August 25 and against Belgium on August 28.

Romania had renewed its secret anti-Russian alliance of 1883 with the Central Powers on February 26, 1914, but now chose to remain neutral. Italy had confirmed the Triple Alliance on December 7, 1912, but could now propound formal arguments for disregarding it: first, Italy was not obliged to support its allies in a war of aggression; second, the original treaty of 1882 had stated expressly that the alliance was not against England.

On September 5, 1914, Russia, France, and Great Britain concluded the Treaty of London, each promising not to make a separate peace with the Central Powers. Thenceforth, they could be called the Allied, or Entente, powers, or simply the Allies.

The outbreak of war in August 1914 was generally greeted with confidence and jubilation by the peoples of Europe, among whom it inspired a wave of patriotic feeling and celebration. Few people imagined how long or how disastrous a war between the great nations of Europe could be, and most believed that their country's side would be victorious within a matter of months. The war was welcomed either patriotically, as a defensive one imposed by national necessity, or idealistically, as one for upholding right against might, the sanctity of treaties, and international morality.

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World War I | History, Summary, Causes, Combatants, Casualties, Map, & Facts

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World War I, international conflict that in 1914-18 embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the U.S., the Middle East, and other regions. It led to the fall of four great imperial dynasties and, in its destabilization of European society, laid the groundwork for World War II.

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A brief video providing a timeline of major Word War I dates and events through the use of the world map.

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Take a photographic tour of World War I and learn about those directly effected by the war and what life looked like for those living during this time.

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A century ago, an assassin, a Serbian nationalist, killed the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary as he visited Sarajevo. This act was the catalyst for a massive conflict that lasted four years. More than 65 million soldiers were mobilized by more than 30 nations, with battles taking place around the world. Industrialization brought modern weapons, machinery, and tactics to warfare, vastly increasing the killing power of armies. Battlefield conditions were horrific, typified by the chaotic, cratered hellscape of the Western Front, where soldiers in muddy trenches faced bullets, bombs, gas, bayonet charges, and more. On this 100-year anniversary, I've gathered photographs of the Great War from dozens of collections, some digitized for the first time, to try to tell the story of the conflict, those caught up in it, and how much it affected the world. This entry is part 1 of a 10-part series on World War I. In this installment, I hope to give a glimpse of the war's beginnings, and a preview of what is to come.

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A century ago, in the summer of 1914, a series of events set off an unprecedented global conflict that ultimately claimed the lives of more than 16 million people, dramatically redrew the maps of Europe, and set the stage for the 20th Century.

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U.S. War Department authorizes Chemical Warfare Service

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How long did World War I last? Who fought whom? Journey through the story of the Great War with our Interactive WWI Timeline, covering the world events of 1914‑1920.

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Watch and learn about America's contributions to the war effort.

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America in World War I: Crash Course US History #30

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World War II: Causes and Timeline | HISTORY

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World War II was fought from 1939 to 1945. Learn more about World War II combatants, battles and generals, and what caused World War II.

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This video provides a quick introduction to World War II.

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Explore some of the digital resources offered by the National World War II Museum, including research starting points or digital project ideas.

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Explore WWII History | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

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The National WWII Museum is here to help you explore the history and lessons of WWII and to learn how WWII helped shape the world we live in today.

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Use these visual aids to help understand some key components of the war, like the economic size of each side of the war.

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World War II was a great tragedy, claiming 60 million lives and throwing millions more into turmoil. Yet the war also spurred rapid technological development, hastened the end of colonialism, and laid the foundation for institutions like the United Nations and the European Union. Here are 42 maps that explain the conflict - how it started, why the Allies won, and how it has shaped the modern world.

Background

1) World War II, animated

World War II was the biggest conflict in world history, with major battles on three continents and some of the largest naval engagements in history. This amazingly detailed animated map, by YouTube user Emperor Tigerstar, provides a global view of the conflict. It shows Japanese conquests in the Pacific, German gains in Europe, and then the slow but inexorable Allied effort to recapture the lost territory. The full YouTube animation, available here is even more detailed, with a frame for each day of the war.

2) The Allied countries had larger economies, a crucial factor in their triumph

A lot of factors contributed to the ultimate victory of the Allies over the Axis powers. But the most important factor was economics. Once the United States and the Soviet Union entered on the Allied side of the war in 1941, the combined economic output of the Allies was approximately twice that of the Axis powers. And that was crucial because World War II was the most mechanized war in history up to that point. Troops needed a constant supply of new tanks, guns, airplanes, ships, bombs, and other manufactured goods. It was only a matter of time before the gap in economic output provided a decisive advantage on the battlefield.

3) After World War I, the allies took territory away from Germany

Meeting in Paris in 1919, at the end of World War I, the victorious Allies redrew the map of Europe. They dismembered the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and shrank the borders of Germany, creating several new countries in Central Europe. Adolf Hitler exploited German resentment of the war's outcome to aid his rise to power. When Hitler began forcefully annexing territory to his east in 1938, it provoked a political crisis and, a year later, the start of World War II.

The Axis (and the Soviet Union) attacks

4) Japan and China were already at war in 1937

People often describe World War II as beginning in September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. But Japan and China had already been at war for several years at that point. China was politically chaotic in the early 1930s, and Japan saw opportunities for territorial expansion. Japan established a puppet state called Manchukuo in Manchuria in 1932 and dispatched troops to the area. Tensions escalated into full-scale war by 1937. This map shows the situation in 1940; the areas in pink were under Japanese control. Japan never gained full control of China, but neither could Chinese forces under Chiang Kai-shek expel the Japanese from Chinese territory without help from the United States.

5) Hitler demands the Sudetenland, the German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia

Hitler annexed neighboring Austria in 1938, an event that was welcomed by many of the country's inhabitants. Next, he set his sights on the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia with large German-speaking populations. This map shows the fraction of German speakers in each of the judicial districts in the modern-day Czech Republic (which was then the western half of Czechoslovakia) in the 1930s. As you can see, areas near the borders with Germany (to the Northwest) and Austria (to the Southwest) were predominantly German-speaking. Hitler claimed that these regions should be part of Germany, and his threats to take them by force sparked a political crisis. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler in Munich, in September 1938 to discuss the crisis. The Czechoslovakian government wasn't invited the the negotiations. Chamberlain agreed to let Hitler annex these portions of Czechoslovakia in exchange for a promise from Hitler not to seek further territorial gains. Chamberlain declared that the agreement represented "peace for our time," which of course it didn't.

6) Germany and the Soviet Union shock the world with a non-aggression pact

People were used to thinking of Nazis and Communists as occupying opposite ends of the political spectrum, so the world was stunned in August 1939 when Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin made a non-aggression pact. While the existence of the pact was made public, the world didn't know about a secret addendum detailing Hitler and Stalin's joint plan to dismember the countries that lay between them. So when Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, the British and French responded by declaring war on the Nazis. In contrast, Stalin merely made plans to invade Poland from the other direction. By the end of 1940, the Soviet Union had not only annexed part of Poland, but the nations of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia as well.

7) Russia invades Finland in the "winter war"

Americans mostly remember World War II as a conflict to stop aggression by Germany and Japan. But it's important to remember that America's ally, the Soviet Union, was also guilty of unprovoked aggression. Not only did Soviet troops annex the Eastern half of Poland shortly after Hitler invaded the country, but the Russians launched the little-remembered "Winter War" against Finland in November 1939. The vastly outnumbered Finnish troops put up a surprisingly stiff resistance, imposing heavy losses on a Russian army that wasn't well prepared for combat in the bitterly cold environment of a Finnish winter. Finland fought the Soviets to a standstill, losing about 10 percent of their territory but maintaining their sovereignty. Finland's hostility toward the Soviets forced the relatively liberal democracy into an awkward de facto alliance with Nazi Germany. As a result, Finland was diplomatically isolated after the war and wasn't invited to join the anti-Soviet NATO alliance.

8) France's Maginot Line helped more than you think

The trench warfare of World War I convinced the French that a strong defense would be crucial to stopping a future German invasion. So France constructed a series of fortifications known as the Maginot Line (the heavy blue line in the lower-right of the map here) that stretched along the common border between France and Germany. Hitler realized that a frontal assault on the Line would be counterproductive. Instead, in a repeat of German strategy from World War I, Germany attacked through Belgium and Holland, two small countries that lay north of France. The Germans soon reached the portion of the French border not protected by the Maginot Line. The pink region in this map shows German gains between May 10 and May 16, 1940. The Maginot Line has become a symbol for backwards-looking bureaucracies that waste resources "fighting the last war." But this criticism is somewhat unfair. It's true that the fixed defenses of the Line were less useful against highly mobile Nazi tanks than they would have been against German troops circa 1914. But the Maginot Line still played an important role in the defense of France. It forced early fighting to occur on Belgian rather than French soil, giving the French army time to mobilize before German troops arrived. And it allowed the French - whose army was smaller than Germany's - to concentrate their forces along the portions of the border not protected by the Maginot Line. The Line didn't stop the Germans from overrunning French defenses, but it probably helped.

The Allies besieged

9) Tens of thousands of British troops escape from Dunkirk

The war in France didn't go well for the Allies. French and British troops were forced to retreat rapidly as German troops advanced. By May 21, German troops had encircled the British forces, effectively trapping them with their backs to the sea. As the Germans closed in from three sides (gaining the territory highlighted in pink here), the British troops were ordered to evacuate, which they did between May 27 and June 4. In all, 338,000 British and French troops escaped. While the circumstances that necessitated the evacuation weren't good news for the Allies, the successful evacuation was a minor triumph. It saved hundreds of thousands of British troops who would go on to fight the Nazis later in the war.

10) The amphibious invasion of the United Kingdom that never happened

Germany knocked France out of the war by the end of June 1940, leaving the United Kingdom to face the Nazis alone. This map shows Hitler's planned next step: an amphibious invasion of the British Isles. But first, Germany needed to gain control of the skies over Britain. The British were determined to prevent that. The conflict British Prime Minister Winston Churchill dubbed the "Battle of Britain" was the first large-scale conflict to be fought primarily in the air. It didn't go well for the Nazis. Between July and October, they lost dramatically more airplanes than the British. British industry was able to build planes more quickly than their enemies could destroy them, something that wasn't true for the Germans. As the British advantage in the air grew, Hitler was forced to shelve his invasion plans.

11) Hitler begins targeting British cities

As it became clear he wasn't going to be able to destroy the Royal Air Force, Hitler switched strategies and began bombing British cities, an event that became known as the Blitz. Thanks to the Bomb Sight project, you can see an interactive map of bombs dropped on London between October 7, 1940, and June 6, 1941. These attacks took a heavy toll, with as many as 43,000 British civilians killed and 139,000 injured. And those Londoners not directly touched by tragedy were profoundly affected by having to spend many long, uncomfortable nights in bomb shelters. Hitler hoped that attacking civilian populations could break the spirit of the British people, but he underestimated his foes. Brits emerged from months of bombings as determined as ever. The British and Americans bombers would subject German cities to even more intensive bombings later in the war. A three-day bombing campaign against Dresden in February 1945 took more than 20,000 German lives.

12) A Nazi-friendly French government takes power in Vichy

Officially, Germany didn't complete its conquest of France in 1940. Instead, France signed an armistice that preserved a degree of French sovereignty in the southern parts of France that had not yet been overrun by German troops. In a July 10 vote, the French Parliament voted to give power to a new, Nazi-friendly regime under former general Philippe Pétain. What sovereignty the Vichy government had was ended in November 1942, when the Nazis occupied the rest of France. While the Vichy government maintained nominal control after 1942, it was a puppet regime for the remainder of the war. The degree to which the Vichy regime collaborated with the Nazis - including participation in the persecution of Jews - has been a source of controversy and recrimination in French society ever since.

The USA and USSR are drawn into the conflict

13) Hitler betrays Stalin and invades Russia

In 1939, Hitler had signed a pact vowing not to attack the Soviet Union. But in June 1941 Hitler broke his promise and invaded his eastern neighbor. In the first few months, the campaign was stunningly successful. The Nazis were able to drive hundreds of miles east and reach the outskirts of Moscow by October. But then Stalin was saved by the bitterly cold winter. The Soviets had more experience operating in cold weather and were better prepared than the Nazis. German equipment was not designed for below-zero temperatures, German soldiers were under-dressed, and they lacked essentials such as antifreeze. Germany never took Moscow, and that failure proved to be a crucial turning point in the war. Germany simply didn't have the manpower or industrial base to fight a prolonged two-front war against the Soviet Union and the British Empire.

14) The Nazis begin a gruesome siege of Leningrad

One of the worst places to be during World War II was in Leningrad (modern-day St. Petersburg), which is located at a strategic location on the Gulf of Finland. When the Germans reached Leningrad in September 1941, they decided to simply encircle the city and starve its inhabitants into submission. They received some assistance from the nearby Finns, who took territory north of Leningrad. Hundreds of thousands of Leningrad residents died in the winter of 1941-42. The worst month of the famine, February 1942, had days when more than 20,000 people died. The city's suffering would have been even worse if the Soviets had not succeeded in building the "Road of Life," a route across the frozen Lake Ladoga that allowed some provisions to be brought into the city and some civilians to be sent out. The city remained under siege for more than two years before the Red Army finally drove the Nazis out of the area.

15) The Japanese stage a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor

As war raged in Europe and Asia, Americans remained ambivalent about the conflict. Many took a dim view of America's involvement in World War I, and they didn't want to send their sons to die on distant battlefields again. But everything changed on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii's Pearl Harbor. This map shows which ships were in the harbor that morning and how much damage the Japanese attack did. Japan regarded US entry into the war as inevitable (America had already imposed trade restrictions over Japanese attacks in China), and they hoped that a surprise attack would destroy enough of the American Navy to ensure Japanese dominance of the sea. This proved to be a miscalculation. For one thing, the most powerful ships in the American fleet, its aircraft carriers, were not in the area on that fateful day. But more important, the American economy was more than five times as large as Japan's - the US quickly replaced the ships that had been destroyed, and would eventually build many more.

16) The Japanese empire expands in the Pacific

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor was intended to knock the US Navy out of commission, clearing the way for an ambitious military campaign in the Pacific. It is illustrated by this map prepared by Douglas MacArthur, one of the top American commanders in the Pacific. (Solid lines show actual Japanese attacks, dotted lines show attacks the Americans feared could come next.) In the months after the Hawaii attack, the Japanese attacked the Philippines, Burma, New Guinea, and the Dutch East Indies. The Japanese took the British colonies of Hong Kong in December and Singapore in February. By the summer of 1942, the Japanese had conquered a broad swath of Southeast Asia, shattering the aura of European and American invincibility that had allowed Western nations to dominate the region for so long.

17) Japanese kill thousands in the Bataan Death March

When the Japanese invaded the Philippines, a US colony at the time, the American and Filipino troops stationed there were outgunned, and they soon got cornered on the Bataan Peninsula. They surrendered after a 3-month siege. The victorious Japanese took around 75,000 prisoners, including around 10,000 American troops. The prisoners were then forced to march 65 miles up the peninsula to San Fernando, where they boarded railcars bound for a prisoner-of-war camp further north. Japanese troops beat the prisoners, denied them food and water, and coldly executed stragglers. Precise casualty counts are disputed, but it is believed that the march cost hundreds of American lives along with several thousand Filipinos. The Bataan Death March, as it became known to Americans, was hardly the worst atrocity of the war - the Japanese atrocities in Nanking killed many more non-combatants, for example. But Bataan was one of the biggest atrocities to take American lives, and so became widely known in the United States. A Japanese general who oversaw the Philippines campaign was tried for war crimes and executed in 1946.

18) Hitler suffers a crucial defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad

After a 1941 campaign that tried and failed to take the northerly cities of Moscow and Leningrad, Hitler turned his attention to the south in 1942. The plan was to capture the Caucasus and its rich oil fields. But in what historian Max Hastings calls "the decisive blunder of the war in the east," Hitler decided in July to divert a large part of his forces to capture the city of Stalingrad, which is on the right-hand side of the map here. Stalingrad didn't have any great strategic importance, but the city's name gave the fight symbolic significance for both Hitler and Stalin. Weeks of brutal urban warfare followed, as the German's sought to take the city one building at a time. In November, the Russians launched a counteroffensive to relieve the city, encircling the German attackers and taking tens of thousands of prisoners. The Stalingrad conflict cost the Germans as many as 800,000 casualties, while Soviet casualties numbered more than a million. Many historians consider the Battle of Stalingrad to be a decisive turning point in the European war.

The Allies retake Europe and Africa

19) Britain goes to war in North Africa

After the fall of France, Britain didn't have the military strength required to mount an amphibious invasion of the Axis-held European continent. But British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was anxious to demonstrate to his people that Britain could continue making a contribution in the fight against fascism. So he dispatched troops to North Africa, where he hoped to dislodge the Italians - a German ally - from their colony in Libya. The British routed the Italians, taking tens of thousands of prisoners. But an exasperated Hitler dispatched a contingent of German troops commanded by the brilliant Erwin Rommel, who was able to reverse some of the British gains and extend the war in North Africa for another two years.

20) De Gaulle's conquests in Africa

Of the French troops evacuated to Dunkirk, three quarters asked to be sent home to France, where they would be under the authority of the Nazi-friendly Vichy regime. But a minority of French troops opted to join the Free French, a government-in-exile led by Charles de Gaulle. Over the next few years, de Gaulle and his troops fought alongside the Allies. This map shows one of de Gaulle's most important contributions to the Allied cause: wresting control of many of France's colonial possessions away from the Vichy government. These military victories deprived Hitler of much-needed resources while building up de Gaulle's own legitimacy in the eyes of the French people.

21) The Allies invade Italy

In 1943, the Western Allies still doubted they were strong enough for a direct assault on the Germans in France. So they attacked the Italian Peninsula instead. They hoped to knock the Italians out of the war, leaving Germany to fight the Allies alone. An amphibious assault on Italy began in September 1943. While the Allies did make progress up the Italian peninsula, it was too slow to play a decisive role in the outcome of the war. The British and Americans were still working their way north nine months later when they opened up another front with an amphibious landing in France.

22) A massive invasion on the beaches of Normandy

Since 1941, Stalin had been urging his British and American allies to open a second front in France. The stakes of such an invasion couldn't have been higher. A failed amphibious landing could have not only cost tens of thousands of lives, it would have handed the Nazis a valuable propaganda victory as well and shaken the world's confidence in the Allies. The Western Allies finally felt ready to retake France in June 1944. This map shows the invasion plan, which was dubbed Operation Overlord. It involved the amphibious landing of 150,000 British, American, French, and Canadian troops to beaches in Normandy, across the English Channel from Great Britain.

23) The Allies advance in Europe

Operation Overlord succeeded. The summer and fall of 1944 saw the Axis powers in Europe retreating along all fronts. In the West, British, American, and French troops recaptured France. In the East, the Soviets took parts of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the Balkan nations. The Allies also advanced somewhat on the Italian front. This progress set the stage for the final advance on Germany's homeland in 1945.

24) The Soviet Union's sacrifice dwarfed that of the Western allies

For obvious reasons, American memories of World War II focus on episodes where the United States or our English-speaking allies played an important role. But it's important to remember that the people of the Soviet Union bore a disproportionate share of the burden in fighting the German war machine. The Americans and British each suffered around 400,000 deaths of military personnel. France suffered 200,000. The number of Soviet deaths is disputed, but the Soviets lost at least 8.6 million soldiers and possibly as many as 13.8 million. In other words, around 90 percent of the Allies who died fighting the Nazis were Soviet.

25) The aircraft carrier

The aircraft carrier came of age during World War II. In previous wars, ships shot at each other with increasingly powerful and long-range guns. Aircraft carriers rendered these older ships practically obsolete. Ships became floating platforms for aircraft that could fly much further than any gun could shoot, dropping bombs or torpedoes on enemy ships. The major naval battles of World War II revolved around each side's efforts to sink the other's carriers. This aerial photographs shows the first three American aircraft carriers, Lexington (top), Saratoga (middle), Langley (bottom) moored at Bremerton, WA, in 1929.

26) Radar

When Germany tried to bomb Great Britain into submission in 1940, the Brits had a secret weapon: a new technology called radar that allowed them to "see" incoming aircraft while they were still crossing the English channel. That allowed the defenders to send up their own pilots to intercept the attackers. The Germans had developed their own radar technology, but the British developed much better techniques for integrating the intelligence obtained from radar to guide tactical decisions.

27) The Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project, the top-secret project to develop the first atomic bombs, was one of the most ambitious and expensive military research projects in history. The project employed as many as 130,000 people and cost more than $2 billion (about $25 billion in modern-day dollars). This map shows the sites where the most important Manhattan Project work was conducted. A key site was in Oak Ridge, TN, where the military constructed facilities for separating uranium. The scientific research needed to develop the bomb was centered at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The Hanford Engineer Works facility near Richland, WA, was the site of plutonium enrichment efforts. Scientists detonated the first nuclear explosion in history at the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945.

28) The Allied code-breaking advantage

The British and Americans enjoyed a huge strategic advantage: for much of the war, they could decipher their enemies' coded messages. The center for British code-breaking was Bletchley Park, an estate about 50 miles northwest of London. Here, a team of brilliant mathematicians and code-breakers, backed by as many as 9,000 support staff (predominantly women), analyzed coded enemy messages that had been transmitted by radio. To help them break the sophisticated German codes, the Bletchley Park team constructed some of the world's most elaborate computing devices, which became the forerunners of modern computers. American code-breakers enjoyed similar success in cracking Japanese codes. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US commander Dwight Eisenhower, and other observers all gave these code-breaking efforts a major share of the credit for winning the war. This map shows the modern-day Bletchley Park, which has been turned into a museum.

29) Germany's V-2 rocket

While American and British scientists were inventing the atomic bomb, German scientists were creating a super-weapon of their own: the long-range V-2 rocket. Between September 1944 and April 1945, the Germans fired around 3,000 V-2 rockets at Allied targets, killing at least 7,000 people. While the V-2 was a technological marvel, it wasn't a terribly practical weapon. It was expensive, and unlike bombers it could only be used once. V-2 rockets were not accurate enough to reliably hit high-value military targets. The V-2 was the forerunner of the Intercontinental ballistic missiles the US and the USSR both developed in the 1950s to deliver nuclear warheads. Many of the German scientists who had built the V-2 went on to build rockets for the American space program.

30) The Battle of Midway was a turning point in the Pacific War

The turning point in the Pacific war came in June 1942, when American and Japanese naval forces met near the American-held Midway Islands. The Japanese attacked the islands, hoping to provoke a battle with what they expected to be an inferior American fleet. But the Americans had cracked the Japanese codes, so they knew exactly what they were up to. On June 4, four Japanese aircraft carriers (on the left in this map) engaged three American ones (at right). The Japanese made the mistake of launching an initial strike against land-based forces on Midway rather than against the American carriers. That allowed the US to launch the first carrier-to-carrier attack of the battle. The results were devastating: all four Japanese carriers suffered fatal blows. The single remaining Japanese carrier managed to cripple the American carrier Yorktown, which sank the next day. Still, the battle marked a turning point in the Pacific War. The Japanese, whose navy had previously dominated the Pacific, struggled to replace the carriers it lost at Midway. A growing fleet of American aircraft carriers soon had the Japanese on the defensive.

31) A desperate Japanese gambit at Leyte Gulf

In October 1944, American and Japanese forces fought one of the biggest and most dramatic naval battles of the war. The Americans were trying to retake the Philippines, and they decided to begin by taking the island of Leyte. By this point, the Japanese were severely outgunned, but they staged a last, desperate effort to ward off defeat. The Japanese divided their forces up into three groups. One group of Japanese ships approached from the west and were attacked by American aircraft carriers (#1 on the map). The second group of Japanese ships - a group of four under-supplied aircraft carriers the Japanese hoped to sacrifice as decoys - appeared to the north, drawing America's aircraft carriers away from the invasion site. (Toward #3 on the map.) Meanwhile, the final group of Japanese ships attacked from the south, drawing additional American ships away (#2 on the map). That left the American invasion force in the Leyte Gulf vulnerable. The middle Japanese group steamed east and caught the few remaining ships by surprise. The Americans were desperately outgunned and lost several ships. The Japanese could have inflicted more damage, but their commander lost his nerve. Fearing that more powerful American ships were about to return from the south, he broke off his own attack and retreated after a little more than 2 hours of fighting. The Japanese not only failed to stop the invasion in the Philippines, they lost so many ships that they would never again be able to launch an attack of this scale.

32) American bombs devastate Japanese cities

As the war in the Pacific reached its final phase in early 1945, American bombers began firebombing major Japanese cities. This map, from the US Military Academy, shows the extent of the damage in six of Japan's largest cities. A single attack in Tokyo on the night of March 9-10, 1945 killed more than 100,000 people. It may have been the single deadliest air raid of the entire war.

33) The US drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima

In the summer of 1945, the Japanese military situation was hopeless. The US Navy controlled the waters around Japan and could bomb its cities with impunity. Yet the Japanese refused to surrender, hoping that by holding out they could negotiate more favorable terms. In August, the Americans dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This map shows the devastating consequences. The trauma of these attacks - and fears that America might drop atomic bombs on Tokyo next - led to Japanese surrender on August 14, 1945.

34) 6 million Jews die in the Holocaust

When reports began to come in about the mass slaughter of Jews, many in the West dismissed it as propaganda - exaggerated reports of enemy atrocities were common during World War I. It was only after the war was over, and the Allies had a chance to see the results of the Nazis' actions first-hand, that the awful reality became clear. A campaign of mass murder, organized from the highest levels of the Nazi regime, killed around 6 million Jews. The Nazis dispatched death squads into occupied territories, where they would kill as many as 30,000 people in a single operation. They also organized a network of death camps to aid in the slaughter. This map shows the results. More than 80 percent of Jews in Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia were killed, as were large numbers in Hungary, Austria, and Romania. A smaller but still significant percentage of Jews in Italy and France perished. Notably, Denmark (north of Germany) was under German occupation, yet few of its Jews perished. That's because Danish resistance fighters managed to smuggle 7200 of the country's 7800 Jews to neutral Sweden. After the war, hundreds of Nazi officials were convicted of war crimes for their role in the Holocaust.

35) Jews create the new state of Israel

The end of World War II brought a flood of Jewish refugees from across Europe to Palestine, which had been under British rule since World War I. The newly-formed United Nations adopted a 1947 resolution calling for the region to be divided between a Jewish state and a Palestinian state. The proposal received support from the region's Jews, but widespread opposition among Arabs, who both felt that Jewish settlers were being given a disproportionate share of the land and rejected the basic principle that Jews deserved a state in Palestine altogether. When Britain ended its supervision of Palestine in May 14, 1948, the Jews declared the creation of a new state of Israel. The new state was not recognized by its neighbors; Egypt, Jordan, and Syria all attacked the next day. The Israelis won the war, gaining control of more territory than they would have received under the UN proposal and creating many Palestinian refugees.

36) The Berlin Airlift saves West Berlin from Communist domination

European countries liberated from the Nazis by British, French, or American troops were allowed to become independent, democratic nations. In contrast, the Soviets installed Communist client states in their areas of occupation. This tension was most acute in Germany, which was carved up into four zones of influence - one each for the British, French, Russians, and Americans. The British, French, and American zones were combined to form the democratic state of West Germany. The Soviet zone became the authoritarian East Germany. But awkwardly, the German capital of Berlin, which had also been divided into four zones, was 100 miles inside the Communist zone. In 1948, in an effort to seize control over all of Berlin, Stalin stopped allowing surface shipping between West Germany and the Western-occupied sections of Berlin. The West responded with the Berlin Airlift, delivering vast quantities of supplies to the West Berliners by air. After a year, the Soviets relented and lifted their blockade, allowing goods to be delivered by truck and rail once again. But West Berlin would be surrounded by a hostile Communist government for another 40 years.

37) America goes to war to defend South Korea

After the war, the Korean Peninsula became divided much as Germany had been. The southern half of the peninsula was administered by the United States, while the Soviet Union took control in the north. As in Germany, this resulted in rival governments: a Western-friendly South Korea and a communist North Korea. In 1950, the North invaded the South with Stalin's blessing. The United States intervened to defend South Korea and not only repelled the invasion force but continued on to invade into the north. That triggered an intervention from China, which helped push the Americans back to the south. The war ended with an armistice signed in 1953. Since then, South Korea has evolved into a wealthy, liberal democracy, while North Korea has one of the most repressive and economically backwards regimes on the planet.

38) The European powers lose their colonies

World War II fatally undermined the legitimacy of European rule over populations in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Not only did Japanese conquests shatter the European aura of invincibility, but non-whites resented the way their white rulers had treated them as second-class citizens during the war. The war's end triggered a series of independence movements that ended European colonial rule almost everywhere by the 1960s. India gained independence from Britain relatively peacefully in 1947. Guerilla fighters in Vietnam drove the French out between 1946 and 1954. An insurgency in Algeria forced France to give up that territory in 1962, and France granted most of its other African possessions independence in 1960. By 1980, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom had also granted their African colonies independence.

39) US military bases in Germany

After the war, America established military bases in Germany to oversee the reconstruction of the country, ensure stability, and prevent another militarist regime from taking hold there. Seven decades later, many of those bases are still there (this map shows bases as of 2008), with around 40,000 Americans troops stationed at them. The American military presence, and Germany's membership in the anti-Soviet (and now effectively anti-Russian) NATO alliance, allows Germany to spend just 1.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product on defense, about a third of what the United States spends.

40) US military bases in Japan

The United States has also maintained its bases in Japan, which spends even less - 1 percent of GDP - on defense than the Germans do. The American military presence has sometimes created tensions in Japan. This is especially true on one of Japan's southernmost islands, Okinawa. Okinawa hosts a disproportionate share of American troops, and there have been periodic scandals in which Americans have been accused of sexually assaulting Japanese women.

41) The European Union

In the first half of the 20th century, there had been two devastating wars that pitted the Germans against the French. A major motivation for the European Union, which began in 1957 as a free-trade area, was the hope that tighter economic and political integration among Europe's major powers would help prevent another war. Over time, the EU has become both larger and more deeply integrated. Perhaps as a result, the continent's major powers have never fought another war against each other.

42) The United Nations

In the wake of World War I, the victorious Allies attempted to create a League of Nations that could help mediate disputes and prevent the outbreak of another war. That obviously didn't work, but the winners of World War II were determined to try again. They created the United Nations and established its headquarters in New York. As this map shows, almost every sovereign nation on Earth has become a member of the organization. The body's most important institution is probably the UN Security Council whose five veto-wielding permanent members - the United States, Britain, France, China, and Russia - were the major victors of the Second World War.

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Credits

Editor: Matthew Yglesias

Special thanks: Zack Beauchamp

Correction: The article originally misstated the number of aircraft carriers the Japanese lost at the Battle of Midway.

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World War II was the biggest conflict in world history, and it profoundly shaped the modern world.

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You may wonder how this man came to lead the Nazi party during World War II. This video explains what led this man to lead Germany before and during World War II.

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How did Hitler rise to power? - Alex Gendler and Anthony Hazard