I'd say the battle of kokoda, and generally the pacific campaign in WW2 was the most important due to the fact that Australia was directly under threat, being bombed etc, but WW1 and Gallipoli is what shaped the ANZAC legend.

The Australians were the first soldiers to stop the Japanese assault through the pacific. To actually cease the advance and turn them back. And take into account that these were not battle hardened soldiers, these were poorly trained, under-equiped national militia (becuase PNG was part of australia back then), who had barely been taught to use the weapons. They were issued Bren guns without knowing how to strip and clean them, they just had to make do since all our main fighting force were in Europe and Africa at the time. It wasn't until the 2/27th Regiment got sent back from Africa that we had experienced troops in PNG.

To put it into perspective, the first battle of Kokoda was 15 Australians holding off a force of over 1000 Japanese, upon the second assault the japanese found the australians were gone. The Australians returned with a meagre 77 soldiers and drove the Japanese out of Kokoda.... only to start one of the bloodiest and hard fought stages of the second world war.

As a person born in Moscow, USSR, I consider myself a Russian even though i have spent the last ten years of my life in America. Throughout the long history of my nation many wars have occurred. I thought of writing about the Napoleonic invasion of 1812 and his defeat starting on the fields of Borodino, or I could of gone with the Great Patriotic War (known as WWII here), The glorious turn around at Stalingrad, the 900 day siege of St.Petersburg (called Leningrad at the time), the fact that not a single Nazi invader stepped foot into my city of Moscow, the heroism displayed by my country men at the Brest Stronghold ( http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php...=fwareng&row=4 for those who haven't heard of it). While in all actuality the most important war of Russia was the repelling of the Mongol Hordes in 1380. The Mongols rode through Russia capturing city-state by city-state. When one city fell, the others would do anything due to the lack of cohesiveness and individual princes. To defeat the Hordes, Russia became unified and became a powerhouse in military might and in the amount of land which stretched from sea to sea.

Ok, I'm gonna risk a flame war, but what the hay. Many Americans are saying the Revolutionary War, with which I have to disagree.. First of all, had the British won, I highly doubt that the U.S. would still be controlled by Britain. After all, Britain allowed all of the major countires in its empire de facto independence in the 1950s and total independence soon after. If you want to make a comparison, Canada, which was part of the British Empire was basically independent after WW I and completely independent in 1967. Because of this I would have to believe that the most important war for the US was WW 2. The consequences of losing that war would have been colossal for both the US and for the rest of the Allies.

Dean.

that woulda been good to know
just wait 200 more years and we could have been completely independant without a war
i dont think thats worth it dean...

I think that all wars (not including Lappland war, maybe) which Finland has taken part are so important that not one of them should be picked. If civil war would have been won by red side we would almost certainly have been annexed by Soviets in matter of time. In winter war it was their certain goal to annex entire Finland but our forces slowed them down and forced Stalin to negotiate. Same with continuation war, Stalin wanted to crush Finland defenses by massive summer offensive while Western Allies landed in Normandy. Once again, with support of Germany, our forces managed to stop them even we lost Viipuri (second-largest town of Finland before we lost it).

Small country has usually much more to lose than great one. And small one has more often to accept unlikely terms than great one. And I have to say that maybe Hitler saved Finland in a way, even I know that some of you can't believe it. History is quite ironical, I suppose.

Originally Posted by serbianpower

first thing, no woman died in that conflict. second thing is: to have a war u must have two sides in conflict. in slovenia in 1991. u had only one side-slovenia. jna was not in war. it was just tragedy and result of human stupidity. same result would be achived if politicians were just reasnoble. do you know anything about this "war" at all?

Your saying no women and children died in the break up of Yugoslavia? If that was the case, Canadians would have fought and died to keep ther peace there.

Definitly the mos timportant was in Canadian history was the First World War; for most Canadian hisotrians, it was there, and perituclarly at Vimmy Ridge, that Canada became it's own nation, rather then just a mini Britain.

Originally Posted by r031Button

Your saying no women and children died in the break up of Yugoslavia? If that was the case, Canadians would have fought and died to keep ther peace there.

Definitly the mos timportant was in Canadian history was the First World War; for most Canadian hisotrians, it was there, and perituclarly at Vimmy Ridge, that Canada became it's own nation, rather then just a mini Britain.

no woman and children died in slovenia. that is all I am saying. read carefuly.

The most importants war for Spain, in my opinion, were:

- The reconqueor of Spain from the muslims( from 711-1492), 800 years fight! If we have not done this epopee, the spaniards would have been praying in Meca´s direction right now, and probably all southern Europe.

- War against the Otomans( middle of XVI century) We stooped the advanced of muslims again in the Mediterranean sea.

- The war against the USA(1898) We lost Cuba and the Philipines. It had a big psycological effect.

- The Civil war( 1936-39) We stopped the advance of comunism. We had to choose btw right or left dictatorship.

War of Unification in Germany

for us americans, the revoulutionary war was our independence. A small country broke off form one of the most powerful world powers of the age. It was amazing.