I think in my country's history,ıt was the indepence war which took place after ww1.Invasion forces forced the government in Istanbul to make a terrible agreement by invading Istanbul..And king made the agreement..
In the agreement,ıt said"ıf alllied forces think there is a dangerous situtaion in any place,they could invade there with no question..."Altough king signed on the agreement,turkish people couldn't accept this agreement...And greece invasing forces started to invade turkey which had no army..So,they invaded big places...They abused turkish people.
But they didn't know that a big leader was born.This great leader,Ataturk, created an army in very poor circumtances...We beat greece army..
We also beat ıtalians in the west and french armies in the east...Then turkey signed the peace agreement and a new country was born..Capital city moved to Ankara from Istanbul.....There is another war which is very important in
our country's history..I will talk about it later,beceause I really need a sleep noW!

I notice it has been a while since anyone posted to this thread, but if anyone is still interested. My opinion is that for America our Civil War was the most important with WW2 a close second (please pardon the unintended pun).

Some good arguments have been made here for the revolutionary war being the most important because it gained us our freedom from Great Britain. But I feel that independence was inevitable anyway. Due to a large non-English immigrant population and the attitudes of most American born colonists.

The Civil War changed how we see ourselves as a people. Before the war most of our population thought of themselves as citizens of their respective states first and as Americans second. People born after 1865 thought of themselves as Americans first and as citizens of the states second. Other factors contributed to this, but it started with the Civil War.

WW2 was important for the massive effort put forth to preserve freedom for our allies. But it didn't fundamentally change how we saw ourselves as a nation. For good or ill it changed how we saw our role in the world, but it didn't change who we are in the basic way the Civil War did.

Some interesting comments I have read. For my country, Britain, WW2 was the most important war I believe, as if we fell to the Nazis, Britain, and indeed the world would be a very different place today.

I feel World War 2 for the United States is a major one. Before this war the United States always tried to stay out of conflicts and was not considered one of the strongest military ACTIVE nations in the world. Also the attack on Pearl Harbor is one of the most important historical events that took place for this great nation.

During and after World War 2 gave the United States great confidence in itself that it could turn around and deliver stunning blows to whoever attacked her.

Originally Posted by England Expects (RAF Cdt)

'Tis not known widely to the outside world that at one point, Britain was in fact a republic, there was no monarchy and no realm. The civil war in 1642 saw Loyalists battle against Parliament's troops. King Charles 1st was eventually defeated after many a year of war and beheaded in 1649. Charles' son (Charles 2nd) claimed the crown of Scotland and marched his army to fight Oliver Cromwell, this expedition ended dismally for Charles and he had to flee abroad. Oliver Cromwell then became Lord Protector of England and the House of Lords and Monarchy was banned. After Cromwell's death in 1658, his son Richard took over but he was no replacement of Cromwell. Government became unstable and the Parliamentarians wanted to re-instate the monarchy, Charles 2nd entered London as monarch again in 1660. The civil war enabled much greater liberties for the English people as Charles 2nd learnt that he should rule by the consent of Parliament and not by divine right.

Bastard. I was going to write that lol

and this war was also important because the ''New Model Army'' was created by Cromwell...and the government finally realised that MP's shouldnt be controlling the army...and command was given to Sir Fairfax....one of the best generals in the history of the UK if i remember rightly

the Loyalist Malitia was no match for the paid/trained/proffesional NMA and the war was won. After the war the NMA was supposed to be disbanded but they threatened action if it was...and that was the basis of the British army...it was the first time we had an army instead of malitia.....so i think that is our most important war

In point of view of 21century, the most important war was WWII and specially year -44.

Without a doubt for Australia it was the second world war. It was the closest we've ever come to being invaded, we had the most soldiers go to war and we lost the most men, and it dragged our economy out of the depression.

I feel that the Civil War was the most important war in America.

1. Roughly 550,000 killed
2. Most destructive conflict that was fought at home.
3. The abolishment of Slavery
4. A settlement to form a unified country
5. Breach loading rifles
6. Ironclads
7. Submarines
8. "Cofee Mill" Machinegun
9. Gattling Gun

Probably the first modern war of our time.

For me I would have to say that WWII was the most important war the US ever fought for itself or for the world as whole. If we had lost the Revolutionary war we would indeed still be part of the British Commonwealth, but as time has shown all the nations under that aegis have gained independance eventually. If the South had won the Civil War slavery would've ended anyway. There was already a groundswell starting for it when the war began. It was unprofitable and self-defeating and the South knew it. Most today still think that war was fought over slavery when, in fact, it was fought over states rights. That being which was the higher power - the Federal government or the state government within its own boundaries. Slavery was an issue that brought that to a head but it was not the major cause. World War II decided whether we would live in a free world or a totalitarian one. Nothing else even comes close to the significance of that.

i have to agree with bush musketeer (but from a kiwi perspective)

GALLIPOLI shaped the NZ notion of nationhood, rather than just being a colony. that and any battle the maori battalion fought at. long live the ANZAC legends

over the past couple of years, turnouts at anzac dawn services has been growing...just 10 years ago they were thinking of stopping them.