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3000 BCE
Bow/Arrow
Bow and arrow changed the way warfare was waged at the tactical level. It introduced the concept of indirect engagement in combat. -
3000 BCE
Horses Domesticated
This impacted warfare because it gave people a way of travel besides by foot. That way they could travel to battle on horse. -
Period: 499 BCE to 449 BCE
Greco Persian Wars
he Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. -
Period: 431 BCE to 405 BCE
The Peloponnesian War
The two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta, went to war with each other from 431 to 405 B.C. The Peloponnesian War marked a significant power shift in ancient Greece. -
300 BCE
Trebuchet
In medieval wars the trebuchet and other siege engines were used to attack castles and destroy defenses. They catapulted huge boulders, smashing down walls. -
Period: 264 BCE to 146 BCE
Punic Wars
The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC. At the time, they were some of the largest wars that had ever taken place. -
Period: 1095 to 1492
Crusades
The crusades were a series of religious wars sanctioned by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best-known crusades are the campaigns in the eastern Mediterranean aimed at recovering the Holy Land from Muslim rule -
1180
Longbow
While bows have been used for hunting and warfare for thousands of years, few achieved the fame of the English Longbow. The weapon first rose to prominence when it was deployed by the Welsh during the Norman English invasions of Wales. -
1300
Gunpowder
Experimenting with life-lengthening elixirs around A.D. 850, Chinese alchemists instead discovered gunpowder. Their explosive invention would become the basis for almost every weapon used in war from that point on, from fiery arrows to rifles, cannons and grenades. -
Period: 1337 to 1453
One Hundred Years War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the French House of Valois, over the right to rule the Kingdom of France. Each side drew many allies into the war. -
1450
Hand cannon
It was one of the first true guns and impacted warfare greatly. -
Period: 1519 to 1521
Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire
Between 1519 and 1521, Spanish conquistadors, led by Hernán Cortés, overthrew the Aztec Empire. This event is called the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Cortés helped old enemies of the Aztecs defeat them in one of the most important events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. -
1578
Submarine
It was the first verified submarine capable of independent underwater operation and movement, and the first to use screws for propulsion. -
Period: to
Thirty Years War
The Thirty Years' War was a war fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648. One of the most destructive conflicts in human history, it resulted in eight million fatalities not only from military engagements but also from violence, famine, and plague.v -
Period: to
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists ("Cavaliers") principally over the manner of England's governance. -
Flintlock Musket
Muskets could be fitted with a bayonet that made them into a "spear that could shoot." The soldiers would use bayonets for hand-to-hand combat when they charged the enemy after firing their volleys. The bayonets had sharp points that were used to thrust and jab at the enemy. -
Period: to
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of major conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European powers formed into various coalitions, financed and usually led by the United Kingdom -
Revolver Handgun
It became very popular in North America at the time of Western expansion. -
Period: to
The Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion, which is also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion or civil war that was waged in China from 1850 to 1864 between the established Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. -
Period: to
The American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people. -
Iron Clad Warship
The Union's first ironclad warship was of the City class built by James B. Eads for operation on the rivers of the western front of the Civil War. -
Machine Gun
The first Gatling guns were used in the American Civil War. These guns were rapid-firing, but they depended on the arm of the operator to crank out the bullets. -
Period: to
Boxer Rebellion
In 1900, in what became known as the Boxer Rebellion (or the Boxer Uprising), a Chinese secret organization called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists led an uprising in northern China against the spread of Western and Japanese influence there. -
Period: to
World War I
World War I began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and lasted until 1918. During the conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan. -
Fighter Aircraft
The first jets developed during World War II and saw combat in the last two years of the war. -
Tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat. Tanks have heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield manoeuvrability provided by tracks and a powerful engine; usually their main armament is mounted in a turret. -
Period: to
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War. The Russian Civil War was to tear Russia apart for three years – between 1918 and 1921. The civil war occurred because after November 1917, many groups had formed that opposed Lenin's Bolsheviks. -
Period: to
World War II
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. -
AK-47
Kalashnikov started tinkering with designs for an automatic rifle that could help defend his country, and he finally perfected his design in 1947. The rifle is officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (Automatic Kalashnikov), and the “47” derives from its year of completion. -
Atomic Bomb
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb from a B-29 bomber plane called the Enola Gay on Japanese city of Hiroshima. The “Little Boy” exploded with about 13 kilotons of force, leveling five square miles of the city and killing 80,000 people instantly. -
Period: to
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union with its satellite states, and the United States with its allies after World War II. The historiography of the conflict began between 1946 and 1947. -
Hydrogen Bomb
The United States detonates the world’s first thermonuclear weapon, the hydrogen bomb, on Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific. The test gave the United States a short-lived advantage in the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. -
Period: to
Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, was a mass slaughter of Tutsi, Twa, and moderate Hutu in Rwanda, which took place between 7 April and 15 July 1994. -
Period: to
Second Congo War
The Second Congo War (also known as the Great War of Africa or the Great African War, and sometimes referred to as the African World War) began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 1998, little more than a year after the First Congo War, and involved some of the same issues. -
M.O.A.B.
This was used to scare countries and destroy in mass.