History’s Greatest Hobby
Wars that Never End
As far as history’s longest lasting wars, the U.S. war in Afghanistan was over in a heartbeat compared with the Iberian Religious War, fought for 781 years, from 711 to 1492.
The Iberian Religious War was the longest continual war in history, fought between the Catholic Spanish Empire and the Moors living in what is today Morocco and Algeria. The conflict, known as the “Reconquista,” was triggered as the Moors crossed the Meditterranean Sea and claimed territory in Europe, causing discomfort in Spain with encroachment by non-Christians. Though not part of the Crusades, the war was supported by the Catholic Church and in 1492, the Spanish recaptured Grenada, ending the Reconquista.
If that doesn’t make you feel relatively better, consider the second longest military conflict, the Persian-Roman Wars, which continued unabated from 92 B.C. to 629 A.D. and that would be a grand total of 721 years. It was fought between the Roman Republic and the Parthians and the Sassanids in Persia, in what is modern day Iran.
And coming in third in the most interminable, longest running conflicts was the Arauco War from 1536 to 1825. For 289 years the Araucanian Indians of Chile battled the Spanish Empire. Spain declared peace with Chile and its inhabitants, including the Mapuche, in 1825 and Chile became independent.
Other conflictst in which both sides trudged on for many, maddening and bloody years included the Peloponnesian War, 27 years, 431–404 B.C., fought betwen the Greek city states; the Aceh War, 31 years, 1873–1904, between The Netherlands and Aceh in Indonesia. And there are many others.
Technically speaking, the war in Afghanistan was nowhere near the longest conflict involving the U.S. as that would be the Korean War, which started in 1950 and while active war ended in 1953, there has never been a peace treaty and the countries are still technically at war.
The good news about wars is that only five of 28 conflicts involving the U.S. have lasted for more than 10 years, topped by the war in Afghanistan which concluded two weeks ago after 19, nine months, just longer than the Vietnam War which ended after 19 years, four months. Just three other military conflicts involving the U.S. since the American Revolution lasted more than 10 years and if that doesn’t lift your spirits, I just don’t know what will. Those three that went on for more than a decade include:
* The Philippine-American War and Moro Rebellion, which continued for a combined, 14 years, from 1899–1913. The Philippine-American War lasted from Feb. 4, 1899 to July 2, 1902. The conflict began when the First Philippine Republic objected to the terms of the Treaty of Paris under which the United States took possession of the Philippines from Spain, ending the Spanish–American War. Filipino nationalists saw the war as part of their continuing struggle for freedom that began in 1896 with the Philippine Revolution against Spain.
The Moro Rebellion dragged on from 1899–1913 between the Moro people and the U.S. military during the Philippine–American War. Moro is a term for Muslims who lived in Southern Philippines and fought for 400 years to resist foreign rule.
* The war in North-West Pakistan, is ongoing, having begun in 2004 but the U.S. involvement has been limited to around 400 CIA drone strikes. The war also is known as the insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, involving Pakistan and various Islamist militant groups. It’s difficult to determine U.S. participation but one indicator was in 2010, when Pakistan bought 1,000 laser-guided bomb kits and 18 F-16 fighter jets from the U.S.
* The Northwest Indian War, also known as the Ohio War and Little Turtle’s War, went on for a decade, from 1785–1795. The U.S. along with Native Chckasaw and Choctaw Indians fought the Northwestern Confederacy, a group of other Native American tribes, with support from the British, for control of the Northwest Territory. The fighting started when a Huron-led confederacy resisted the encroachment of the white settlers and the theft of Indian lands north and west of the Ohio River.
The wars of the U.S. have mostly been rather brief affairs, and I won’ t bother with explanations from the more recent fighting:
* Iraq War, 2003–2011, eight years, nine months.
* Revolutionary War, 1775–1783, eight years, five months.
* War on ISIS, 2014 — present, seven years, three months.
* Second Seminole War, 1835–1842, six years, seven months, is also called the Florida War, fought between various groups of Native Americans collectively known as Seminoles and the U.S. There was no peace treaty and around 4,000 Seminoles were forcibly transported to Indian Territory and the unresolved conflict led to Third Seminole War in 1855.
* First Barbary War, 1801–1805, four years, one month, also known as the Tripolitan War and the Barbary Coast War, was fought by the U.S. and Sweden against the four North African states known collectively as the “Barbary States.” The U.S. became involved because Barbary States had seized American merchant ships and demanded ransom.
* Civil War, 1861–1865, four years.
* World War II, 1941–1945, three years, eight months.
* Korean War, 1950–1953, three years, one month.
* War of 1812, 1812–1814, two years, six months.
* Red Cloud’s War, 1866–1868, one year, nine months, was also known as the Bozeman War or the Powder River War. An alliance of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho peoples fought the U.S. in the Wyoming and Montana territories over control of the western Powder River Country in present north-central Wyoming.
* Mexican–American War, 1846–1848, one year, nine months.
* World War I, 1917–1918, one year, seven months.
* Russian Civil War, 1918–1920, one year, seven months, involved the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia, a formation of the U.S. army involved in the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution. President Woodrow Wilson claimed he sent troops to Siberia to rescue the 40,000 men of the Czechoslovak Legion, who were being held up by Bolshevik forces and to protect the large quantities of military supplies and railroad rolling stock that the United States had sent to the Russian Far East in support of the Russian Empire’s war efforts on the Eastern Front of World War I.
* Great Sioux War of 1876, lasted from 1876–1877, one year, three months. Also known as the Black Hills War, it was a series of battles and negotiations between an alliance of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the United States. The war began with U.S. efforts to obtain ownership of the Black Hills, where gold had been discovered. Among the many battles and skirmishes of the war was the Battle of the Little Bighorn, often known as Custer’s Last Stand. It ended with the Agreement of 1877 which annexed Sioux land and permanently established Indian reservations.
* Libyan Civil War (2011) continued from 2011–2011, seven months, as the U.S. dropped bombs to destroy Muammar Gadaffi’s military and to aid the rebels.
* Persian Gulf War, 1990–1991, seven months.
* Whiskey Rebellion or Whiskey Insurrection continued from 1794–1794, for five months, as American citizens staged violent protests to the so-called whiskey tax, the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government
* Spanish–American War, 1898–1898, 114 days.
* Kosovo War, 1999, 79 days, was fought in Kosovo by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia including Serbia and Montenegro against the Kosovo Albanian rebels. The conflict ended after U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air strikes which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.
* Invasion of Panama lasted just 42 days, from 1989–1990 and was fought to depose Panamanian leader, general and dictator Manuel Noriega. Noriega, who for a long time worked with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was wanted by the United States for racketeering and drug trafficking.
* Cuban Missile Crisis, Oct. 16, 1962 to Oct. 28, 1962, 12 days.
* Invasion of Grenada, lasted just four days, from Oct. 25, 1983 to Oct. 29, 1983. The U.S. and a coalition of six Caribbean nations invaded the island nation after the People’s Revolutionary Government arrested and executed the previous leader and second Prime Minister of Grenada Maurice Bishop and established a Revolutionary Military Council.
* Bay of Pigs Invasion, only three days, from April 17, 1961 to April 20, 1961.
And just like a pig finding the truffles, I can always ferret out some good news in the worst of times and another fact that is sure to make you feel better involves the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, the pandemic is bad, what with 4,703,348 deaths as of Sept. 9, according to Worldometers.info. That’s a mere sneeze if you look at the year 1347 when the bubonic plague created agonizing deaths of around However, most guesses put the total number of victims at 200 million people or 60 percent of all Europeans. That should make you feel better and it’s a story for another day.