“The feud might have fizzled out in short order had the island not been awash in traded rifles, booze and quarrelsome Europeans — instead it raged for years.” WITH ONLY eight square miles…
Declarations of War — Why Do So Many Countries Fight Without Them?
“The overwhelming majority of armed conflicts fought in the past 300 years have been undeclared.” IN ITS NEARLY 250 years of existence, the United States has only fought in five formally declared wars….
Key West — The Confederate City that Seceded from the Civil War
“Unlike the firebrand secessionists in other Confederate metropolises the citizens of the remote tropical island largely stayed out of the destructive four-year conflict.” KEY WEST, Florida may be the southern-most point in…
Signs From Above – Omens in Ancient Warfare
“Greek, Hittite, Mongol, Norman and even Anglo Saxon military leaders pondered all manner of omens, signs or portents when deciding how and when to make war. Here are some examples.” IT WAS…
Black Tories and Patriots — The African American Regiments of the Revolution
“Regiments of both enslaved and free Africans fought on both sides of the War of Independence.” NEARLY 200,000 blacks fought in the U.S. Army’s so-called “colored” regiments during the American Civil War. Among the…
The Tlingit War — Inside Imperial Russia’s Forgotten Conflict With Alaska’s Indigenous Peoples
“Troops from the Russian America Company and the Imperial Russian Navy, along with their Aleutian tribal allies, fought an intermittent campaign against several hundred warriors from the Tlingit Nation.” FEW MIGHT imagine…
Modern Day Pilots To Refly Secret Wartime Mission
Last week, we shared the story of the joint Anglo-Soviet invasion and occupation of Iran in 1941. The operation, which was planned just weeks after the Nazi invasion of Russia, was intended…
Disputed Islands — The Many Battles for the Falklands
“After years of laying empty, the British military re-occupied the islands in 1840, establishing a port facility for trans-oceanic shipping. It would become a vital waypoint for the Royal Navy for the…