World War II

Montgomery, Rommel, Zhukov

After 6 years of war across Europe, the Pacific, North Africa, and beyond, involving tens of millions of combatants, the Allies defeated Germany in May 1945 and Japan in September 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It remains the deadliest conflict in human history.

World War I

Haig, Allenby, Clemenceau, Foch, Hindenburg, Joffre, Ludendorff, Pershing

After 4 years of war across Europe, the Middle East, and beyond, involving over 65 million mobilized troops, the Allied Powers defeated the Central Powers with the Armistice of November 1918. The German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman empires collapsed, and the Treaty of Versailles reshaped Europe's borders.

Anglo-Boer War

Botha, DeWet, BadenPowell, Buller, Colville, Cronje, DeLaRey, French, Hunter, Joubert, Kitchener, Kruger, Methuen, Milner, Plumer, Roberts, Smuts, Steyn, Viljoen, White

After nearly 3 years of war involving roughly half a million British and colonial troops against the Boer republics, Britain won under the Treaty of Vereeniging in 1902. The Transvaal and Orange Free State became British colonies, later forming the Union of South Africa in 1910.

Zulu War

Cetshwayo, Chelmsford, Bromhead, Chard

After 6 months of war, including the Zulu victory at Isandlwana and the British defense of Rorke's Drift, Britain defeated the Zulu Kingdom at the Battle of Ulundi in July 1879. King Cetshwayo was captured and Zululand was broken into rival chiefdoms.

American Civil War

Grant, Lee, Beauregard, Bragg, Buell, Burnside, Chamberlain, Custer, Davis, Early, Farragut, Forrest, Hampton, Hill, Hood, Jackson, Johnston, Lincoln, Logan, Longstreet, McClellan, Meade, Pickett, Polk, Porter, Scott, Sheridan, Sherman, Stuart, Thomas

After 4 years of war across the United States involving roughly 3 million soldiers, the Union defeated the Confederacy when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox in April 1865. The war preserved the Union and ended slavery in the United States.

Napoleonic Wars

Napoleon, Wellington, Bernadotte, Bessieres, Blucher, Davout, Grouchy, Kutuzov, Lannes, Massena, Murat, Nelson, Ney, Soult, Talleyrand

After 12 years of war across Europe, North Africa, and the Atlantic involving millions of soldiers, a coalition led by Britain and Prussia defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. He was exiled to Saint Helena, and the Congress of Vienna redrew the map of Europe.

Sengoku period

Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, Ieyasu, Shingen

After roughly 150 years of civil war among rival daimyo, Tokugawa Ieyasu's victory at Sekigahara in 1600 and the fall of Osaka Castle in 1615 unified Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate, which held power for the next two and a half centuries.

Second Punic War

Hannibal, Scipio

After 17 years of war across Italy, Iberia, and North Africa, Rome defeated Carthage at the Battle of Zama in 202 BCE. Carthage lost its overseas empire and became a Roman client state.

Naval history

Nelson, Beatty, Cochrane, Collingwood, Drake, Fisher, Hardy, Hood, Jellicoe, Rodney

This lane spans centuries rather than one campaign — from Drake's Elizabethan raids to Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in 1805 to Beatty's battlecruisers at Jutland in 1916 — tracking how control of the seas shaped the outcomes of the wars above.