From Finlands wars our most important one is by no doubt the winter war 1939-1940. It showed the world what people can do when they really belive in something. The military was in bad shape and people even went in civilian clothes to the front to fight, our artillery had as much grenades as the Russians shot away in a single day during world war 2.

Still against all odds Soviet casualties were 7 times greater than Finlands and though we lost the war we kept our independence.

Originally Posted by danthepirate

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.

Yeah, but India had a lot to do with that.

I would definately for Australia it would be WWII.
In WWI we did forge the ANZAC Legend (With the kiwi's of course) but Until 1942, Australia was fighting Wars away from home.
After The Fall of Singapore the Japanese moved so close to Australia, that Darwin and Broome were being Bombed, Midget submarines were seen off the coast everywhere from Carines to Sydney, Newcastle was attacked, Two subs were sunk in Sydney Harbour. And thats just on the mainland.
My Pop was a Machine Gunner in New Guinea, and until the day he died had nightmares about what happened, and how close we came to being invaded.
WWII made Australians think carefully about how much we can depend on England. It bought about our Strong Alliance with the US, made us create a regular army, navy and airforce, forced us to consider how we should look after ourselves. It changed our way of thinking dramatically.

Originally Posted by chewie_nz

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.

Technically I would say the Maori land wars as we ended up with a treaty that was kind of radical for its time followed pretty closely by WW1 or more specifically Galipoli which gave us a national identity.

I would say the most importand war for Germany was the war against France sometime in the 1870s that led to the creation of the German Empire. That war united all the little german states into a empire.

I think it was WW2 for America. That was the war we fought and won a war on 2 huge fronts, albeit far from single handedly. But the difference was that the victory in WW2 launched America on the superpower path that has shaped the entire current world culture.

When you think of world culture the world 'Americanization' isn't far behind, all of this power had its genesis in WW2.

For Ukraine, of Modern wars, of course World War II. For ancient wars, I'll say the Knjaz Svyatoslav Igorevich victory over the Hazar Kaganat, in the 10th century. It liberated Ukraine (or as it was called then, Rus) from the Judeo-Hazar opression.

This is probably a popular choice but I'm going to have to say WW2 for the UK(England). WW2 was the dawn of a new type of warfare, never before had a war beeen fought at such a range and with such hatred that bombing cities and completely destroying countries was important to victory. Had we not had WW2 I feel the world would nto be the same as it is now. And in my opinion losing helped the Japanese and the Germans. Had japan not be bombed to pieces by the Americans would they still have the cities they have now? The Germans had to completely rebuild most of their cities, and it has helped them grow economically in recent years. I think for the UK it also restored a bit of pride, and with inspirational figures like Churchill that we will never forget it is yet another part of our brilliant history.

The war that had the most impact on Germany AFAIK was WW2. Before that the Napoleonic and 30-year wars. For Italy it would be the various wars of national unification.

It can be little things that you never give a second thought that can have such a large impact on world. Now following along this line of thought have any of you given a thought to effects on the world that Henry V111 flandering had. As Rome would not allow him a divorce he left the Catholic Church and set up his own Church. So along came an English Priest William Tyndale and wrote the Bible in English this so up set the Catholic Church they sentenced him to death and when he caught in Holland the sentance was carried out he was burnt at the stake. The Catholic church at this time would not allow any but the priests read the bible as they were thought the only ones capable of interpreting the meaning of it. The King James Bible is 80% of Tyndale's work, also the Catholic church would try and control science and if you came up with a theory they did not like, that could be your lot. So knock on effect of all this was a lot more people that started to think for them self. Now with out Henrie's action King Phillip would not have sent an Armada up the Channel and Drake would never had fought that Battle. It stop the Pope from dictating just who would sit on what throne, as the Pope did not think Queen Elizabeth was suitable he had given England to the daughter of the King of Spain. This did not just end there it went on for Years and brought about the civil war in England between King Charles and Cromwell and all the changes that brought, but at the end of this there was a lot more tolerant attitude to religious beliefs, yes I know that Catholics were banned from taken the throne of England but after what happened that was understandable. With out Henry would there have been the Quakers that went forth and settled America and would you have all the splinter groups of the Christian Church for better or worse.
Would we have seen the industrial revolution take place in England which led to this more modern world, for with out all these changes due to Henrie's flandering we could be a much more secular society rather like the Muslims.