For hundreds of years, too many people have died in too many wars. We could only mention a few. But it's important for us to remember them all.

Why, that I cannot tell, said he, but 'twas a famous victory.   – Robert Southey, 'After Blenheim'

We've listed the battles, sieges and campaigns. Could you name the war, or the theatre?

1. Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Bataan.
   World War II, Pacific Theatre. World War II killed over 60 million people, 2.5% of the human population.
2. Operation Torch, Operation Overlord, Operation Market Garden.
   World War II, European Theatre. 'Torch' was the Allied invasion of North Africa, 'Overlord' was the code name for the Normandy Invasion, and 'Market Garden' was the unsuccessful operation at Arnheim.
3. Ypres, Verdun, Somme.
   World War I. The 'war to end war'. Not.
4. Hexham, Tewkesbury, Bosworth Field.
   The Wars of the Roses. 1455-1487, between the Houses of Lancaster and York.
5. Antietam, Shiloh, Vicksburg.
   The US Civil War. Cost? By the latest estimates, at least 750,000 killed.
6. Roundaway Down, Marston Moor, Naseby.
   The English Civil War. Cavaliers versus Roundheads. What came of it? The King was beheaded, and England was a republic for a while. Deaths are estimated at 190,000 in England (not including Scotland and Ireland), out of a population of five million.
7. Ladysmith, Mafeking, Kimberley.
   The Second Boer War. 1899-1902. Not a 'popular' war. 300,000 horses died. About 75,000 humans.
8. Balaclava, Sebastopol, Oltenitza.
   Crimean War. Give yourself extra credit if you have any idea what that war was about. (Then please tell us.) Besides the fact that this war saw pioneer nursing efforts by Florence Nightingale and inspired a famous poem by Tennyson, it gave us the 'jumper Generals', Raglan and Cardigan.
9. Siege of Jerusalem, Siege of Acre, Battle of Arsuf.
   The Third Crusade. You didn't think mass killing was a recent invention, did you?
10. La Guaira, Porto Bello, Cartagena de Indias.
    The War of Jenkins' Ear. You laugh. Robert Jenkins exhibited that ear before Parliament. Anyway, the conflict lasted from 1739 to 1748, although after 1742 it got caught up in a much bigger war, the War of the Austrian Succession. (Not to be confused with the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Polish Succession, the War of the Bavarian Succession, etc, etc.)

If you know all this, it doesn't mean you like war. It probably just means you were paying attention in history class. We hope you got the point: wars kill a lot of people, and should probably be avoided in favour of more useful activities, such as collecting factoids on the internet or jumping out of balloons at the edge of space. Governments should follow the motto: Sponsor exploration, not conflict.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

05.11.12 Front Page

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