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The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) was a long and bitter struggle between England and France over who had the rightful claim to the French throne. It wasn't one continuous war, but a series of battles, truces, and political twists spread over more than a century.

It began when Edward III of England claimed the French crown, challenging the rule of Philip VI of France. The war saw legendary moments like the Battle of Agincourt, where English longbowmen devastated French knights, and the rise of Joan of Arc, a peasant girl who inspired a French revival.

The conflict was fueled by dynastic ambition, feudal loyalties, and economic interests, especially control over rich territories like Aquitaine and trade routes. In the end, France emerged victorious, reclaiming nearly all its territory, while England lost its continental holdings and turned inward.

The Wars of the Roses (1455-1487) were a series of bloody civil conflicts in England between two rival branches of the Plantagenet family: the Lancastrians, symbolised by the red rose, and the Yorkists, represented by the white rose. The struggle was rooted in disputes over succession and deep political instability made worse by England's losses in the Hundred Years' War.

The first clashes erupted under the fragile rule of King Henry VI, whose bouts of mental illness and inability to govern effectively allowed Richard, Duke of York, to challenge for power. After Richard died in 1460, his son Edward seized the throne as Edward IV, leading to decades of shifting victories, broken alliances, and periodic returns of the Lancastrians.

The conflict culminated in 1485 when Henry Tudor, a Lancastrian claimant, defeated the Yorkist King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Two years later, he crushed a final Yorkist rebellion at Stoke Field, ending the wars. By marrying Elizabeth of York, Henry VII fused the rival claims, founding the Tudor dynasty and marking the end of England's dynastic chaos.

The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) was one of the most devastating conflicts in European history, centered largely in the Holy Roman Empire. It began as a religious dispute between Protestant and Catholic states, but soon expanded into a wider contest for political dominance involving powers like Spain, France, Sweden, and Austria.

The war unfolded in several phases, with alliances shifting frequently and combat often accompanied by famine, disease, and large-scale civilian suffering. Entire swathes of Central Europe were depopulated, with some regions losing a third or more of their inhabitants.

What started with a rebellion in Bohemia grew into a continent-wide struggle. It ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which reshaped Europe's political map, curtailed the influence of the Habsburg dynasty, strengthened France, and established the principle of state sovereignty-marking a turning point away from religion as the dominant force in European diplomacy.

The English Civil War (1642-1651) was fought between supporters of King Charles I, who believed in ruling with near-absolute authority, and Parliament, which sought greater control over taxation, religion, and governance. Religious tensions-especially between the King's Anglican stance and the Puritan influence in Parliament-added fuel to the conflict.

The struggle unfolded in three phases, with the Parliamentarians, increasingly led by Oliver Cromwell, defeating the Royalists. Charles I was captured, tried, and executed in 1649, and the monarchy was abolished. England entered the Interregnum, a republican period dominated by Cromwell as Lord Protector. In 1660, the monarchy was restored under Charles II, but the war had permanently shifted the balance of power toward Parliament, laying the foundations for Britain's later constitutional system.

The American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) was fought between Great Britain and its thirteen North American colonies, which sought independence after years of growing tension over taxation and lack of representation in Parliament. Protests like the Boston Tea Party in 1773 and clashes at Lexington and Concord in 1775 turned unrest into open war.

The colonies organised the Continental Army under George Washington and formally declared independence in 1776. Key battles included Bunker Hill, the turning-point victory at Saratoga in 1777, which secured French military support, and the decisive American and French triumph at Yorktown in 1781. Spain and the Netherlands also joined the broader war against Britain, straining its resources.

The conflict ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which recognised the United States as independent. The revolution not only transformed the new nation's political system but also inspired democratic and independence movements worldwide.

The Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) were a series of large-scale conflicts pitting Napoleon Bonaparte's French Empire against shifting alliances of European powers, chiefly Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Born from the upheavals of the French Revolution, these wars saw Napoleon win remarkable victories that redrew borders and spread revolutionary reforms across much of Europe.

His fortunes turned after the disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia, triggering a chain of defeats. The final blow came at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, after which Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena. The postwar settlement at the Congress of Vienna reshaped Europe's political order and ushered in the Concert of Europe, a framework that maintained a fragile but lasting peace for much of the 19th century.

The Crimean War (1853-1856) pitted the Russian Empire against a coalition of the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France, and later Sardinia. It began as a quarrel over Christian holy sites in the Ottoman-controlled Holy Land, with France supporting Catholic claims and Russia defending Orthodox interests. Beneath this dispute lay a larger struggle over Russian expansion and the fate of the weakening Ottoman Empire - the so-called 'Eastern Question'.

Although fighting broke out in several regions, the conflict's heart was the Crimean Peninsula, especially the year-long siege of the Russian naval base at Sevastopol. The war became infamous for outdated tactics, appalling battlefield conditions, and staggering casualties, but also for pioneering war reporting and photography. Florence Nightingale's work during the conflict spurred lasting reforms in military medicine.

The Treaty of Paris (1856) ended the war, neutralising the Black Sea and reaffirming the Ottomans' territorial integrity while clipping Russia's influence. In the long run, the war settled little, but it forced European powers to modernise their armies and subtly shifted the balance of power in the region.

The American Civil War broke out in 1861, driven above all by the conflict over slavery, especially its expansion into new territories, alongside disputes about states' rights and the balance of power between state and federal governments. Many Southern leaders believed the growing anti-slavery movement in the North threatened their economic system, which depended heavily on enslaved labour. After Abraham Lincoln, who opposed the spread of slavery, was elected president in 1860, South Carolina seceded, followed by ten other Southern states, forming the Confederate States of America.

The war began when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861. Over the next four years, fierce battles such as Antietam, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg shaped the conflict's course. Under generals like Ulysses S. Grant, the Union gradually gained the advantage. In 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, reframing the war as a fight to end slavery as well as to preserve the Union. This shift also made it harder for Britain or France to support the Confederacy.

The war ended in April 1865 when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House. It remains the deadliest conflict in U.S. history, with modern estimates placing the death toll at around 750,000. The Union was preserved, and slavery was formally abolished by the 13th Amendment. Yet the post-war Reconstruction era exposed deep divisions, as the nation struggled with integrating millions of newly freed African Americans into its political, economic, and social fabric. The Civil War left a lasting mark on U.S. politics, race relations, and the very idea of American nationhood.

The Franco-Prussian War (July 19, 1870 - May 10, 1871) was a short but decisive conflict between France and a coalition of German states led by Prussia. Tensions had been building over Prussia's growing power, and a crisis over the candidacy of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen for the Spanish throne brought matters to a head. Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck inflamed French outrage by editing the Ems Dispatch, making French diplomatic demands appear insulting. France declared war, allowing Bismarck to unite the southern German states with the North German Confederation against a common foe.

France entered the war overconfident but badly prepared, while the Prussian-led forces were well-organised, technologically advanced, and coordinated. Early battles went badly for France, culminating in the Battle of Sedan (September 1-2, 1870), where Emperor Napoleon III was captured and the Second French Empire collapsed. The newly declared Third Republic tried to continue the fight, but Paris was besieged from September 1870 until its surrender in January 1871.

With German victory assured, leaders gathered in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles on January 18, 1871, to proclaim the German Empire-a calculated humiliation for France. The war formally ended with the Treaty of Frankfurt (May 10, 1871), in which France ceded Alsace and part of Lorraine to Germany and agreed to pay a massive indemnity. The defeat left a deep scar on French national pride and fueled tensions that would contribute to the outbreak of World War I.

World War I, often called the Great War, broke out in 1914 and lasted until 1918. Its spark was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, but the real fuel came from years of military buildup, rival empires, tangled alliances, and nationalist rivalries in Europe. Once Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, the alliance system pulled in nearly all the continent's great powers. Two coalitions emerged: the Allies, led by France, Britain, and Russia (later joined by the United States), and the Central Powers, headed by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.

The conflict raged on several fronts. On the Western Front, across France and Belgium, trench warfare locked armies in a deadly stalemate, while machine guns, poison gas, tanks, and aircraft made the fighting especially brutal. The Eastern Front saw massive clashes between the Central Powers and Russia, and battles also erupted in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia.

By 1917, the Russian Revolution forced Russia out of the war, and U.S. entry provided the Allies with a decisive boost. Exhaustion, shortages, and political upheaval weakened the Central Powers, leading Germany to seek an armistice on November 11, 1918. The peace settlement, most famously the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, imposed heavy penalties on Germany and redrew borders in Europe and the Middle East. The war's enormous death toll and social upheaval left deep scars, sowing the seeds for an even more destructive conflict-World War II.