Warfare Timeline

By gaby710
  • 3000 BCE

    When humans first used bow/arrow

    The bow and arrow seems to have been invented in the later Paleolithic or early Mesolithic periods.
  • 3000 BCE

    When horses were first domesticated

    Wild horses of various kinds have spread thoughout most of the world by the time human history begins.
  • 1184 BCE

    Trojan War

    Trojan War, in Greek mythology, war between the Greeks and the people of Troy. The strife began after the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta. When Menelaus demanded her return, the Trojans refused. Menelaus then persuaded his brother Agamemnon to lead an army against Troy.
  • 904 BCE

    The Invention of the Gunpowder

    Gunpowder was invented in the 9th-century China and spread throughout most parts of Eurasia by the end of the 13th-century. Originally developed by the Taoists for the medical purposes, gunpowder was first used for warfare about 904 AD
  • 618 BCE

    The Development of the First Handcannon

    Hand cannons were rudimentary and brutish, but they were the first firearms used during combat in recorded history. Although there have been claims of gunpowder's "discovery" in Europe, the ancient Chineseare genrally credited with the original recipe. In 618 AD
  • 431 BCE

    The Peloponnesian War

    The War fought between the two leading city-states in ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta. Description: The Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) took place between the Athenian empire and Peloponnesian league lead by the Spartans. The war ended on 25 April 404 B.C. when Athens surrendered.
  • 300 BCE

    The Development of the Trebuchent

    The trebuchent (trebucket) was introduced to England in 1216 during the Siege of Dover - as were many other types of siege engine.
  • 264 BCE

    Punic Wars

    The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC. At the time, they were some of the largest wars that had ever taken place. The term Punic comes from the Latin word Punicus (or Poenicus), meaning "Carthaginian", with reference to the Carthaginians' Phoenician ancestry.
    264 BC - 146 BC
  • 1095

    Crusades

    The Crusades were organized by western European Christians after centuries of Muslim wars of expansion. Their primary objectives were to stop the expansion of Muslim states, to reclaim for Christianity the Holy Land in the Middle East, and to recapture territories that had formerly been Christian.
  • 1200

    The develpoment of the matchlock gun

    The matchlock was the first mechanical firing device. The flash in the pan penetrated a small port in the breech of the gun and ignited the main charge
  • 1300

    The invention of the longbow

    The longbow was invented by the Celts in Wales around 118 C.E. but was not really used by the English military until the 1300s.
  • 1337

    One Hundred Year War

    The Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) was a series of conflicts fought between England and France over succession to the French throne. It lasted 116 days and saw many major battles – from the battle of Crécy in 1346 to the battle of Agincourt in 1415, which was a major English victory over the French.
  • 1519

    Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire

    Spanish conquistadors, led by Hernán Cortés, overthrew the Aztec Empire. This event is called the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Cortés helped old enemies of the Aztecs defeat them in one of the most important events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. 1519-1521
  • Thirty Year War

    The Thirty Years War began as a religious civil war between the Protestants and Roman Catholics in Germany that engaged the Austrian Habsburgs and the German princes. The war soon developed into a devastating struggle for the balance of power in Europe.
  • The developement of the first submarine

    In 1620, the first successful submarine was built by Cornelius Drebbel and tested in the Thames River, where it completed a three-hour journey.
  • English Civil War

    The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists ("Cavaliers") principally over the manner of England's governance.
  • Napoleonic Wars

    The French Revolution was the main reason for the Napoleonic wars because of the impact it had on the rest of Europe. In the French revolution, the Head of state, the Monarch, lost their power, and the common people took over with the ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
  • The developement of the revolver handgun

    Samuel Colt submitted a British patent for his revolver in 1835 and an American patent (number 138) on February 25, 1836 for a Revolving gun, and model on March 5 of the year.
  • The Taiping Reballion

    Scene from the Taiping Rebellion 1850 to 1864. The Taiping Rebellion was a civil war in southern China waged against the ruling Manchu Qing dynasty.Led by Hong Xiuquan, it is estimated that at least 20 million people died, mainly civilians, in one of the deadliest military conflicts in history.
  • The invention of the ironclad warship

    The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, Gloire, was launched by the French Navy in November 1859.
  • The America Civil War

    The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states. ... The event that triggered war came at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay on April 12, 1861. Ended in 1865
  • The invention of the first machine gun

    The first Gatling guns were used in the American Civil War. These guns were rapid-firing, but they depended on the arm of the operator to crank out the bullets. In 1884, Hiram Maxim invented the first machine gun.
  • Boxer Rebellion

    In 1900, in what became known as the Boxer Rebellion (or the Boxer Uprising), a Chinese secret organization called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists led an uprising in northern China against the spread of Western and Japanese influence there.
  • World War I

    The first world war began in August 1914. It was directly triggered by the assassination of the Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand and his wife, on 28th June 1914 by Bosnian revolutionary, Gavrilo Princip. This event was, however, simply the trigger that set off declarations of war.
  • The development of the first tank

    The first offensive using tanks took place on 15 September 1916, during the Battle of the Somme.
  • Russia Civil War

    The Russian Civil War was to tear Russia apart for three years – between 1918 and 1921. The civil war occurred because after November 1917, many groups had formed that opposed Lenin's Bolsheviks. These groups included monarchists, militarists, and, for a short time, foreign nations.
  • World War II

    Among the causes of World War II were, to a greater extent, the political takeover in 1933 of Germany by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party and its aggressive foreign policy, and to a lesser extent, Italian Fascism in the 1920s, and Japanese militarism preceding an invasion of China in the 1930s.
  • The use of the first atomic bomb

    On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb from a B-29 bomber plane called the Enola Gay on Japanese city of Hiroshima. The “Little Boy” exploded with about 13 kilotons of force, leveling five square miles of the city and killing 80,000 people instantly.
  • Cold War

    The long-term causes of the Cold War are clear. Western democracies had always been hostile to the idea of a communist state.Further, The United States terminated Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union before the war was complete. Finally, the Soviet Union believed in communism.
    1947-1991
  • The development of the anti-satellite laser

    Anti-satellite missiles can be deployed against enemy satellites, disrupting crucial intelligence during war.
  • When the first hydrogen bomb was first tested

    The first series of thermonuclear tests conducted by the United States took place in November 1952 during Operation IVY. The first test took place on November 1, 1952 on the small Pacific island of Elugelab at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The explosion, nicknamed the "Mike Shot", was very successful.
  • Reandan Genocide

    The Rwandan genocide was a systematic campaign by the Hutu ethnic majority aimed at wiping out each and every member of the minority Tutsi group. The Hutu-controlled government and allied militias slaughtered between 800,000 and one million Tutsis before a Tutsi rebel group overthrew them. Over 100,000 Hutus were also killed, including both moderate Hutus killed by Hutu extremists and those killed by Tutsis in so-called "revenge killings."
  • Second Congo War

    The talks centered on two issues. One was the withdrawal of the estimated 20,000 Rwandan soldiers in the Congo. The other was the rounding up of the ex-Rwandan soldiers and the dismantling of the Hutu militia known as Interahamwe, which took part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide and continues to operate out of eastern Congo.
  • The development of the M.O.A.B. (mother of all bombs)

    In April 2017, a U.S. aircraft dropped a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb on a cave complex being used by the Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan, marking the first time the weapon had been used in combat.