War and Civil Conflict - AP European History

The Seven Years’ War took place from 1756 until 1763 between the French and British Empires. It was fought all over the world, as at this time the colonial possessions of Britain and France were nearly everywhere. The war ended with British victory and in America resulted in the complete loss of French possessions in Canada and the North. This would have significant consequences, providing the motivation and circumstance for revolution. It also gave the British control of French holdings on the Indian subcontinent. The Seven Years War thus, while being a European War, had truly global consequences.

The Triple Entente was the alliance originally formed between France, Russia, and Great Britain to stand against the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. This complex alliance system became the political powder-keg that would explode into World War I after the assassination of the Archduke of Austria, Franz Ferdinand. The other answers are incorrect combinations of allied and enemy nations.

The Treaty of Versailles (1919) officially marked the end of WWI between Germany and the Allied Powers.

As part of the treaty, Germany (and her allies to a lesser extent) was to take sole responsibility for causing all of the damage and destruction of the Great War. Germany was required to give up extensive land rights, disarm their military, and pay reparations totaling what would amount to US $442 billion in today's terms.

The Nuremberg trials were a famous set of 13 trials held between 1945 and 1949 with the purpose of prosecuting Nazi war criminals. They were held in the German city of Nuremberg.

Some well-known Nazi figures that were tried in Nuremberg were Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Wilhelm Keitel, Albert Speer, and Joachim von Ribbentrop.

The Fourth Crusade lasted from 1202 to 1204. The crusaders entered into an agreement with Byzantine prince Alexios Angelos. The crusaders made a deal to help reinstate his father as emperor of Constantinope, and the Byzantines would offer them payment and military support.

The crusaders were successful in holding up their side of the bargain, but in 1204 the emperor was deposed and the crusaders did not receive their end of the bargain. Following this, the crusaders decided to conquer the city outright.

Sweden intervened in order to protect the interests of the Protestant regions of Germany. When the major powers of Europe became involved in the war and Sweden was able to fight them off it served as a signal that Sweden as one of the major powers of the time.

The War of the Roses was a civil war fought for control of the English crown between the Houses of York and Lancaster. The war lasted for thirty years and resulted in Henry Tudor, of House Lancaster, defeating his rival from the House of York, Richard III, and establishing the Tudor dynasty, which would rule England for over a century and included such notable monarchs as Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

Charles I, the second Stuart King, sought to rule without the Parliament. Parliament sought to gain more influence over England, but when Charles would not share power they sought to remove him from power thus starting the war. The war lasted from 1642-1651, when it was resolved with the trial and execution of Charles I and the exile of his son Charles II, and the founding of the Protectorate under the rule of Oliver Cromwell.

The Partitions of Poland took place from 1772-95, dividing the nation of Poland between these three more powerful nations.

The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) was a continent-wide conflict that managed to ensnare every great European power of the time, initially with the Catholic Holy Roman Empire facing off against various Protestant states. A major turning point occurred in 1630, when Swedish armies led by King Gustavus Adolphus managed to turn the tide against the Imperial forces. After his death in the Battle of Lützen in 1632, the Protestant side faced serious setbacks against the Catholic armies of the Holy Roman Empire, and the end of the war with the Peace of Westphalia (1648) was largely based around settlements that were a setback from the heights of Sweden's power under Gustavus Adolphus.

The fall of Constantinople occurred in the fifteenth century (1453), when Turkish forces finally overcame the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire and captured the city of Constantinople (now known as Istanbul). The Byzantine Empire was originally the Eastern half of the Roman Empire and the fact that it survived for an additional thousand years is somewhat remarkable. The fall of Constantinople precipitated the spread of Muslim settlements in the Balkans.

The Seven Years’ War (more commonly called the French-Indian War in American parlance) was fought from 1756 until 1763 between the French and British Empires. It was fought all over the world, as at this time the colonial possessions of Britain and France were nearly everywhere. The war ended with British victory and in America resulted in the complete loss of French possessions in Canada and the North of modern-day United States. This would have significant consequences, providing the motivation and circumstance for revolution. It also gave the British control of French holdings on the Indian subcontinent.

Napoleon’s Continental System is an important example of a blockade, or militaristic embargo, during times of war. Napoleon sought to cut off all trade to the British islands and prevent any territory under his control from exchanging goods with the British. The idea was to starve the British into surrender. The system had some effect, but it failed in part because other countries in Europe depended heavily on British imports.

The Battle of Waterloo, one of the most famous battles in history, was the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte by a joint British-Prussian force under the command of Generals Arthur Wellesley and Gebhard von Blucher. The campaign began when Napoleon returned from his initial exile on the Island of Elba in 1815. After Waterloo, Napoleon would again be exiled, but this time to the much more distant island of St. Helena and under much tighter security.

After World War I, France was concerned about Germany becoming militarized again and invading France. In an attempt to preempt this, France developed a protective barrier along the German and Swiss borders. The Maginot Line was built between 1929 and 1938 with some of the best military technology of the time and seemed impenetrable. Unfortunately for the French, they decided not to build the Maginot Line at full strength by the Belgian border, as Belgium was a country that remained neutral, and France did not want to do anything that could bring conflict into Belgium. The Germans realized this and invaded France through Belgium, rendering the Maginot Line useless to stop an outside invasion. While the Line initially seemed like a deterrent to invasion, the decision not to fortify it fully was what ultimately lead to France’s downfall in World War II.

During the early years of World War II, the Allies, and in particularly Britain, started to run low on supplies, but unfortunately most of Europe was under Nazi control and could not be counted on to trade. At this same time, the United States was attempting to remain neutral in the war, as many people were in favor of isolationism. Eventually the war became bad enough that it appeared as though the United States would have to pick sides, even without fighting directly. To avoid direct conflict, the Lend-Lease Act was passed in 1941, which allowed the government to give military supplies to foreign nations that were allies of the United States. This act made it so that the debts did not have to be paid back immediately, although typically the United States was given military bases in these countries in exchange for supplies. The act also essentially severed trade ties with members of the Axis Powers, as the U.S. began to help Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and other countries.

The trials of Nazi war criminals were conducted in Nuremberg, Germany due to the fact that the Palace of Justice located there was undamaged and provided enough space needed to detain the prisoners and hold trials. The trials started with the most significant war criminals in 1945, and those trials lasted almost a year. Of the most significant tried, twenty-four people were found guilty by an international tribunal. The rest of the trials were carried out from 1946 to 1949 by the U.S. military.

The War of the Spanish Succession began in 1701 over who would rule over the Spanish Empire after the death of Charles II. The empire that the Habsburgs had built up extended all over Europe and was of great interest to many European leaders. After some attempts to achieve a practical solution, Charles II declared that Philip, Duke of Anjou, a grandson of the King of France, would become the next emperor. This would have given France a tremendous amount of power, and this worried many countries, particularly England, the Netherlands, and Austria, who worked to counteract this expansion of French power. The ensuing conflicts lasted until 1714, when a variety of treaties, collectively called the Peace of Utrecht, were reached that broke down to most of the empire being divided up among the European powers and Philip ruling Spain after agreeing not to seek the French crown.

Following the end of World War I, much of Europe lay in ruins, and most of the European governments did not have the money or the resources to rebuild. The United States realized that it needed to take a lead in rebuilding Europe, not only to help the countries, but also to lower the chances that communism would take hold in Western European countries. Some of the Eastern European countries had already succumbed to communism, and the USSR was in a position to expand its influence. The plan was named after the Secretary of State, George Marshall, and was implemented in 1948 with support from Congress and President Truman. The plan, which spent billions of dollars helping to rebuild Europe and its economy, was quite successful and is credited with helping Europe to recover. It also showed the disadvantages of communism when the USSR refused American aid to help East Germany and other countries within the Soviet Bloc.