Portal:War

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The War Portal

Introduction

The Battle of Austerlitz by François Gérard.

War is a state of conflict between relatively large groups of people (such as nations, states, organizations, social groups) which is characterized by the use of armed lethal violence between combatants or upon civilians. Other terms for war, which often serve as euphemisms, include armed conflict, hostilities, and police action.

A common look on war is a series of military campaigns between at least two or more opposing sides involving a dispute over sovereignty, territory, resources, ideology or a host of other issues. A war to liberate an occupied country is sometimes characterised as a "war of liberation", while a war between internal elements of the same state is called as civil war.

Aside from humans and other primates, ants are the only other animals known to exhibit such behavior on a large scale.

A battle is a single engagement fought between two or more parties, wherein each party or aligned group will seek to defeat their opponent. Battles are most often fought during military campaigns and can usually be well defined in time, space and action. Wars are generally the continuum of a related series of battles and are guided by strategy, whereas individual battles are the stage on which tactics are employed.

Military history is the recording and analysis of those events in the history of humanity that fall within the category of organised armed conflict, and that relate to the institutions and organizations that prosecute such conflict.

“

If you want peace, prepare for war.(Si vis pacem, para bellum)

”

— Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus

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Władysław Sikorski was a Polish military and political leader. Before World War I, he became a founder and member of several underground organizations that promoted the cause of Polish independence. He fought with distinction during the Polish–Soviet War, in which he played a prominent role in the decisive Battle of Warsaw. During World War II he became Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile, Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces, and a staunch advocate of the Polish cause on the diplomatic scene. He supported the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Poland and the Soviet Union, which had been severed after the Soviet alliance with Germany in the 1939 invasion of Poland. In April 1943, however, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin broke off Soviet–Polish diplomatic relations following Sikorski's request that the International Red Cross investigate the Katyn massacre. In July 1943, Sikorski was killed in a plane crash into the sea immediately on takeoff from Gibraltar. The exact circumstances of his death remain in dispute, which has given rise to ongoing conspiracy theories.

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Clockwise from top-left: members of the XI International Brigade at the Battle of Belchite; Granollers after being bombed by Nationalists aviation in 1938; Bombing of an airfield in Spanish Morocco; Republican soldiers at the siege of the Alcázar; Nationalist soldiers operating an anti-aircraft gun; The Lincoln Battalion

The Spanish Civil War (Spanish: Guerra Civil Española) was a civil war in Spain fought from 1936 to 1939. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic, in alliance with anarchists, of the communist and syndicalist variety, fought against a revolt by the Nationalists, an alliance of Falangists, monarchists, conservatives and traditionalists, led by a military group among whom General Francisco Franco soon achieved a preponderant role. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war had many facets and was variously viewed as class struggle, a war of religion, a struggle between dictatorship and republican democracy, between revolution and counterrevolution, and between fascism and communism. According to Claude Bowers, U.S. ambassador to Spain during the war, it was the "dress rehearsal" for World War II. The Nationalists won the war, which ended in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.

The war began after a pronunciamiento (a declaration of military opposition, of revolt) against the Republican government by a group of generals of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces, with General Emilio Mola as the primary planner and leader and having General José Sanjurjo as a figurehead. The government at the time was a coalition of Republicans, supported in the Cortes by communist and socialist parties, under the leadership of centre-left President Manuel Azaña. The Nationalist group was supported by a number of conservative groups, including CEDA, monarchists, including both the opposing Alfonsists and the religious conservative Carlists, and the Falange Española de las JONS, a fascist political party. After the deaths of Sanjurjo, Emilio Mola and Manuel Goded Llopis, Franco emerged as the remaining leader of the Nationalist side. (Full article...)

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Major topics and categories

Did you know...? - show different entries

... that horse-mounted elements of the French 1st Cavalry Brigade helped hold up the advance of tanks from the 1st Panzer Division for a day in May 1940?
... that after the Battle of Inverkeithing, Oliver Cromwell deliberately left open a route for the Scottish army to invade England?
... that after Sweden defeated the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Lemberg, the Polish troops joined Sweden and were stationed in the city they had just lost?
... that Konstantinos Smolenskis, a future general and hero of the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, was expelled from the Greek military academy by his own father for unruly behaviour?
... that one of the survivors of the Battle of Fakhkh, Idris ibn Abdallah, went on to establish his own dynasty in Morocco?
... that in Eve Online, the Battle of Asakai became one of the largest online battles after a single player made an accidental move that escalated the conflict to include more than 3,000 players?

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A young Marine private waits on the beach during the Marine landing at Da Nang, Vietnam — August 3, 1965.
Photo credit: Unknown - NARA archive

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Selected anniversaries

February 27

1617 - Sweden and Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea
1864 - American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.
1900 - Second Boer War: In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronje.
1942 - World War II: the USS Langley, the first United States aircraft carrier, is sunk by Japanese warplanes.

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General images

The following are images from various war-related articles on Wikipedia.

War-damaged buildings in Beirut
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of French Protestants, 1572
The victory of the Polish-Lithuanian forces over the Muscovites at the Battle of Orsha in 1514
Saladin and Guy of Lusignan after the Battle of Hattin of 1187
Illustration of an "eruptor," a proto-cannon, capable of firing cast-iron bombs filled with gunpowder, from the 14th century Ming Dynasty book Huolongjing
Medieval Indian weapons
A 155 mm M198 howitzer firing a shell
The Vickers was the successor to the Maxim gun and remained in British military service for 79 consecutive years.
A Greek trireme
Assault rifle CZ-805 BREN (produced in Czech Republic).
Infantry were the first military forces in history. This warrior statuette demonstrates that military culture was an important part of historical societies, c.480 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen.
The 3rd-century Great Ludovisi sarcophagus depicts a battle between Romans and Goths.
Battle of Crécy (1346) between the English and French in the Hundred Years' War.
A four-wheeled ballista drawn by armored cataphract horses, c. 400.
Fulani jihad states of Africa, c. 1830
A battle of the Reconquista from the Cantigas de Santa Maria
Eighty Years' War, or Dutch Revolt against Spain, painting by Sebastiaen Vrancx
Relief of Ramses II located in Abu Simbel fighting at the Battle of Kadesh on a chariot.
An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools.
Ancient Chinese cannon displayed in the Tower of London.
Demolished home in Balata, 2002, Second Intifada
A sample scene of the Taiping Rebellion.
Franco-Prussian War
The Canadian War Museum.
The bayonet is used as both knife and, when attached to a rifle, a polearm.
A small English Civil War-era cannon
Selection of weapons collected by security officers at an airport
Japanese samurai boarding Mongol ships in 1281

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War on Wikinews	War on Wikiquote	War on Wikisource	War on Wiktionary	War on Wikimedia Commons
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Military on Wikinews	Military on Wikiquote	Military on Wikisource	Military on Wiktionary	Military on Wikimedia Commons
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