The Most important war in your countrys history

I would have to say the American Revolutionary War. I mean the Civil War did have a huge impact but still, A.R.W. was fought for independence from another nation. Civil War was to keep a nation together. If the South had won the Civil War there still would of been a CSA, just different name and yes several large differences. But if the British had won the A.R.W. the USA would not be here today.
 
New Zealands most important war: WW2?

NZ had our 'land wars' in the mid 1800's on till late 1800's. This was between the European colonists and the native Maori people, who are ferocious warriors. The Maori had many great successes based on strategy and sheer courage. In an unfinished fort (Pa) a couple of hundred of them held off and over 2000 of the Queens best troops who had artillery support, and eventually withdrew suffering very heavy casualties and not having depleted the Maori numbers much at all.

NZ has been in most of the modern wars, WW1, WW2, VietNam, Korea, Afghanistan (SAS), and post war Iraq (re-building). and some others some here may not have heard of, like the recent conflict in East Timor vs. Indonesia (who were shown the door).

However WW2 would have to be the most important war for NZ. In this war we gained recognition and respect from our allies, and formed alliances that are still actively enjoyed to this day. Back then people had a stronger sense of duty and loyalty, everyone wanted to go, and a huge percentage of the population did. NZ was in all the main allied theatres, and at one stage when Japan was close, so few men were left here that US troops came over to offer a homeguard as all our men were so far away.

Here again our Maori battalion showed their courage, earning the respect of their allies and the fear of the Germans. Their heroics are written about here...
http://www.nzetc.org/etexts/WH2Maor/c1.html

However time has eroded our armed forces which have slowly diminished, and the emphasis has shifted to fewer but better.

Lazza.
 
8) Adding to Bush Musketeers comments.

Australia's efforts in WW1 are very important historically and to the countries psyche. Gallipolli has had a mythical feel about it to me since I was a child. The soldiers who fought there seem like gods.

Our fighting qualities in WW1 1918 under General Monash were nothing short of sensational. It is hard to find stuff in books published outside of Aussie that give the ANZACs much credit. They are nearly always referred to as "British forces". Yes I know that we had only 5 divisions but we were nearly always in the hot sectors. Australian casualties rates were the highest amongst all the allies.

Some of the first American units were put alongside the Aussies in 1918 to gain experience.

Australia's war in New Guinea was probably more important to the country as we believed that we were going to be invaded by Nippon. The American's helped save our bacon particularly at the Battle of the Coral Sea which halted a Japanese sea invasion of Port Moresby.
 
Me, as a Spanish. agrees that the Peninsular War was the most important in my country's history, for we became the first European country to ride out Napoleonic Troops, creating and using the "guerrillas" for the first time. Though on my country's books the British always have a minor part, I'd like to pay here homage to them, for they helped us to ban out Napoleonic troops (that they took us Gibraltar a century before and that instead of Napoleon's brother the Spanish king Fernando VII came back, being a much worse monarch, is another question :twisted: :twisted: ), and I want to assure them we've never forgot the heroic leadership of Wellington, and the sad death of Moore on La Coruña.

P.S: A note for the Aussies. I have an encyclopaedia about World War II, edited in Italy on the late 70's, and I testify that, on every theater the Australians fought, they are reported and widely admired as some of the bravest and thoughest fighter of all nations. ;)
 
hmmm....there's a few important wars for Canada. World War I at Vimy Ridge showed Canada as a strong fighting force, and at the end of WWII, Canada was regocnmized as a middle power. There was also the war of 1812, where the U.S. tried to invad Canada, and Canada won.
 
Trevor said:
hmmm....there's a few important wars for Canada. World War I at Vimy Ridge showed Canada as a strong fighting force, and at the end of WWII, Canada was regocnmized as a middle power. There was also the war of 1812, where the U.S. tried to invad Canada, and Canada won.
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The Canadians were a fantastic fighting force at Ypres (3rd Battle). It was great that they stood up to the English and did not allow their divisions be spread out all over the Western Front like the Aussies prior to 1918.
 
War of 1812

The Revolutionary War may have been the war that gave birth to the United States, but the War of 1812 proved we were here to stay. Militarily, the Revolutionary War was horrible. Washington spent most of this time running from the British. His only major victory came at Yorktown with the aid of French fleet and the French Army. After the war ended, the military was reduced to a meager size.
The War of 1812 did not start well for the Americans. Although the Americans won a few single ship engagements, the entire east coast was blockaded. The first invasion into Canada failed in 1812. We invaded and burned York, but the British did the same to Washington DC. Captain Perry won a decisive battle on Lake Erie by rowing to another ship in the middle of battle, saving the day. The invasion of Canada in July 1814 proved that American regulars could stand muzzle to muzzle with British regulars. The American Regulars were dressed in cadet uniforms since the US government had no other uniforms available. The British first thought these soldiers were militia. They quickly changed their minds after seeing the soldiers perform under fire. The British were routed at Chippewa, but they were able to hold the Americans at Lundy Lane. The official outcome is a draw. This engagement may seem small, but it proved that Americans could hold their ground on even terms. The American military was here to stay.
 
This thread is really good. I've never even heard of the 1812 war. :P

OK in my country (Slovenia) it was definetly the independence war of 1991. This is when we gained our independence from Yugoslavia, wich was at that time fast becoming a Greater Serbia. Altough the war lasted for only 10 days it asssured our soverieignty.

For a 10 day war it was quite intense - Slovenia only has about 20.000 square kilometers. And there were 19 dead and 182 wuonded on our side, the JLA (Jugoslovanska ljudska armija or Yugoslavian Peoples Army) had 44 dead and 146 wounded. Furthermore there were 4693 POW from the JLA and 252 POW from the Federal Police. We captcured or destroyed 31 tanks 22 armored veichles 6 helicopters 6787 infantry weapons 87 pices of artilery and 124 AAA pices.

And this is also more or less the only national war we had besides a few peasant rebelions in the Middle Ages and fighting the Germans guerilla style during WW2.
 
I say the American Revolutionary War for my country. I picked that over the Civil War because if the south did win the Civil War there would either A) Be another war to unite the two countries again; or B) The north and the south (whatever they would be called) would most likely be very good allies so it would almost seem like it's one country anyways.
 
I think the only war that was importent to Australia was the war against Japan.
Stopping them from invading and the carnage that would have followed was vital.
 
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.
 
England Expects (RAF Cdt) said:
'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.
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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 :rambo:
 
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.
 
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