History · Curated list
World War II, World War I, Cold War and 27 more, ranked by how much of the world has written about each one.
Most written-about first. Each description summarises the war's Wikipedia article, which its name links to.
1
Global conflict from 1939 to 1945
Also called the Second World War, a worldwide conflict fought between two coalitions: the Axis powers and the Allies. Almost every country in the world took part, many of them waging total war on a scale never seen before.
Wikidata · Photo: User:Staberinde, CC BY-SA 3.0 de
2
Global conflict from 1914 to 1918
Also called the First World War, or the Great War, a worldwide conflict in which two coalitions fought, the Central Powers and the Allies. Among the deadliest conflicts in history, it caused an estimated 15 to 22 million deaths, those in war crimes and genocides included.
Wikidata · Photo: User:Hohum, Public domain
3
1947–1991 geopolitical rivalry between US and USSR
A period of geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR), with their allies, the communist Eastern Bloc and the capitalist Western Bloc. It began after the Second World War and ended when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.
Wikidata · Photo: U.S. Army photo Photo Credit: USAMHI, Public domain
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4
Phase since 2022 of war ongoing since 2014
On 24 February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine, escalating sharply the war between the two countries that began with Russia's attack on Ukraine in 2014. No war in Europe since World War II has been bigger or cost more lives. Military casualties number in the hundreds of thousands, and Ukrainian civilian casualties in the tens of thousands.
5
1861–1865 conflict in the United States
A war fought inside the United States between the Confederacy and the Union. The Confederacy was formed in 1861 by states that broke away from the Union in order to keep slavery, which the South believed was threatened by Abraham Lincoln's election and by the growing abolitionist movement in the North.
6
Religious wars of the High Middle Ages
Military campaigns that the papacy launched against Muslim rulers between 1095 and 1291, to win back and defend the Holy Land, within a broader movement of crusading. Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in November 1095, calling Christians to arms to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims and promising them spiritual reward.
7
1955–1975 war in Southeast Asia
An armed conflict in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam between North and South Vietnam and their allies. The Soviet Union and China backed North Vietnam; the United States and other anti-communist nations backed South Vietnam.
Wikidata · Photo: Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. U.S. Marine Corps. James K. F. Dung, SFC, Photographer Ronald L.…, Public domain
8
1950–1953 conflict on the Korean Peninsula
A war on the Korean Peninsula between the two Koreas and their allies. North Korea had the backing of the Soviet Union and China; South Korea had the United Nations, under the United Nations Command (UNC), with the United States at its head.
Wikidata · Photo: All photographs are works of the United States federal government., Public domain
9
Major war in Central Europe (1618–1648)
A war fought mainly in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, and among the most devastating Europe has known. Battle, famine and disease killed an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians, and some parts of Germany recorded population falls of over 50%.
Wikidata · Photo: Daniel Manasser, Public domain
10
Medieval Anglo-French conflicts, 1337–1453
A series of conflicts in the late Middle Ages between the kingdoms of France and England, together with a civil war in France. It grew from feudal quarrels over Aquitaine, the duchy, and was set off by Edward III of England's claim to the French throne.
Wikidata · Photo: Loyset Liédet, Public domain
11
1936–1939 civil war in Spain
A war fought in Spain from 1936 to 1939 between the Nationalist rebels and the Republicans. The Republican side, loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic, brought together communists, socialists, anarchists and separatists, and had the support of the Soviet Union.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
12
Ongoing conflict since 2014
A war between Russia and Ukraine, going on since February 2014, when, after Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia took Crimea from Ukraine, occupying and then annexing it.
Wikidata · Photo: State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, CC BY 4.0
13
Ongoing armed conflict in the Middle East
An armed conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip, part of the unresolved Gaza–Israel and Israeli–Palestinian conflicts. It began on 7 October 2023 with an attack on Israel led by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which killed 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals and took 251 people hostage.
Wikidata · Photo: WAFA (Q2915969) in contract with a local company (APAimages), CC BY-SA 3.0
14
2011–2024 armed conflict in Syria
A war that grew out of the Syrian revolution of March 2011, part of the wider Arab Spring, when public anger at Bashar al-Assad's Ba'athist regime set off large protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria. The regime answered with deadly force; soldiers defected, armed opposition groups appeared, and the civilian uprising turned into a civil war.
Wikidata · Photo: Ermanarich, CC BY-SA 4.0
15
1775–1783 conflict in North America
Also called the Revolutionary War, the American War of Independence or simply the American Revolution: the armed conflict of the last eight years of the wider American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces, organised as the Continental Army under George Washington's command, defeated the British Army. It was fought in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean and North America.
Wikidata · Photo: Howard Pyle / John Trumbull / Francis Holman / William Ranney, Public domain
16
1990–1991 conflict in the Middle East
An armed conflict between Iraq and a coalition of 42 countries led by the United States, in response to Saddam Hussein's invasion of neighbouring Kuwait on 2 August 1990. The coalition acted in two phases: Operation Desert Shield, building up forces between August 1990 and January 1991, and then Operation Desert Storm, from the start of the bombing of Iraq on 17 January to Kuwait's American-led liberation on 28 February.
17
2003–2011 conflict in Iraq
Also called the Second Gulf War, a long armed conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. It began with an invasion by a coalition led by the United States, which overthrew Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist government.
Wikidata · Photo: Futuretrillionaire, CC BY-SA 3.0
18
1967 war between Israel and Arab states
Also called the 1967 Arab–Israeli war, a war within the Arab–Israeli conflict between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, chiefly Jordan, Syria and Egypt. Israel captured and occupied the Golan Heights from Syria, the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, and the West Bank from Jordan.
Wikidata · Photo: David Rubinger, Public domain
19
Multi-party war in the former Russian Empire (1917–1922)
A civil war among many parties in the former Russian Empire, lasting from 1917 to 1922, set off when the October Revolution overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and many factions fought to decide Russia's political future. It led to the formation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and, later, the Soviet Union over most of the territory.
Wikidata · Photo: User:Yanachka, Public domain
20
1803–1815 series of wars led by Napoleon
A worldwide series of conflicts (1803–15) fought by shifting coalitions of European states against the French First Republic (1803–04) under the First Consul and then the First French Empire (1804–1815) under Napoleon, Emperor of the French. They grew out of political forces released by the French Revolution (1789–1799) and the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), and brought a period of French domination of continental Europe.
Wikidata · Photo: Jacques-Louis David, Public domain
21
1979–1989 armed conflict in South Asia
A war in Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989, which began the 47-year-long Afghan conflict. The Soviet Union and the Communist-led Afghan army fought the rebel Afghan mujahideen.
22
Tenth conflict of the Russo-Turkish wars (1853–1856)
A war fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an alliance of Sardinia, the United Kingdom, France and the Ottoman Empire. Its geopolitical causes included the Eastern question, Russia's expansion in the earlier Russo-Turkish wars, and the wish of Britain and France to preserve the Ottoman Empire to keep the balance of power in the Concert of Europe.
Wikidata · Photo: British Army official photographer, Public domain
23
Series of wars in England, 1642–1651
Also called the Great Rebellion, a series of civil wars and political manoeuvres between Parliamentarians and Royalists in England, then a kingdom, from 1642 to 1651. It belonged to the broader Wars of the Three Kingdoms, from 1639 to 1653, and comprised the First and the Second English Civil War.
Wikidata · Photo: William Shakespeare Burton, Public domain
24
Global war among European powers (1756–1763)
A global war from 1756 to 1763, fought by many great powers, mostly in Europe, with important side campaigns in the Indian subcontinent and North America. The main belligerents were Great Britain and Prussia against Austria and France, with other countries joining the two sides: Russia, Sweden, Spain and Portugal, and Saxony and many smaller states of the Holy Roman Empire.
25
War from 1870 to 1871
Occasionally called the Franco-German War, and in France sometimes the War of 1870, a conflict in which France faced the North German Confederation under Prussian leadership. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 January 1871, it was caused mainly by France's determination to restore its dominance in continental Europe, which Prussia's decisive defeat of Austria in 1866 seemed to put in doubt.
26
1980–1988 armed conflict in West Asia
Called by Iran the First Imposed War, the Eight-Year War or the Sacred Defense, a war that began when Iraq invaded Iran in September 1980. After eight years of fighting, both sides accepted a ceasefire negotiated by the United Nations, which took effect in August 1988.
Wikidata · Photo: Uploader was gIre_3piCH2005 at fa.wikipedia, Public domain
1982 undeclared Argentina–United Kingdom war
A war of ten weeks in the South Atlantic in 1982 between the United Kingdom and Argentina over who owned the Falkland Islands and their dependencies, the South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia. It began on 2 April 1982, when Argentina invaded the Falklands, and South Georgia a day later.
28
1904–1905 conflict in East Asia
A war between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire over their rival imperial ambitions in the Korean Empire and Manchuria. Its main land battles took place on the Liaodong Peninsula and near Mukden in Southern Manchuria, and its sea battles in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea.
Wikidata · Photo: Original uploader and author was Dustandshadow at en.wikipedia, Public domain
29
1939–1940 war between the Soviet Union and Finland
A war between Finland and the Soviet Union. It began when the Soviets invaded Finland on 30 November 1939, three months into World War II, and was ended three and a half months afterwards by the Moscow Peace Treaty of 13 March 1940.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author., Public domain
30
1973 war between Israel and Arab states
Also called the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, the fourth Arab–Israeli War, the October War or the Ramadan War: a war in which Arab states, with Syria and Egypt at their head, fought Israel. Most of the fighting took place on the Golan Heights and in the Sinai Peninsula, territories Israel had occupied in 1967.
Wikidata · Photo: Bamahane photographer, CC BY-SA 3.0
Every Wikidata item that is a war, or a kind of war, and that has its own English Wikipedia article, ranked by the number of Wikimedia sites with a page about it — Wikipedia's language editions, mostly, and sister projects such as Wikiquote. That counts how many communities independently thought it worth describing, and nobody can buy a place on it. The top 30 are shown.
Wikidata files these under this list's query, but they are not what the list is about:
Fetched from Wikidata on 2026-09-25. Each description is this site's summary of the entry's Wikipedia article, which its name links to: the wording is ours, the facts are Wikipedia's, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. To correct an entry, correct it there; the next refresh carries the change.
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