Wars and Periods of Conflict

Civil War

The US Civil War was a turning point in history, and in the history of warfare. Sometimes considered the first modern war, the Civil War saw the end of the muzzleloaded musket and the beginning of the machine gun, widespread use of revolvers, and a wide variety of early experimental breechloading and repeating carbines. At the same time, it was still principally fought with muzzleloading percussion rifled-muskets and muzzleloading cannons.

Cold War

With the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, it was clear to both the United States and the Soviet Union that their ideologies were incompatible, and further conflict seemingly inevitable. But, with the sheer destructive power developed during the World Wars, direct conflict would lead to mutually assured destruction. Instead, from 1945 to 1990 most of the world divided up into opposing Blocs, engaging only in limited proxy wars in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. This period saw the refinedment of the assault rifles, machine guns, rockets, and other weapons of the world wars into forms still widespread today.

Colonial Wars

In the 18th and 19th centuries, European powers built empires around the world, coming into conflict with each other, as well as the existing kingdoms in the newly explored regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. New and refined weapons systems were adopted for colonial campaigns all over the world, with British expeditions in India, Afghanistan, and Africa showcasing some of the first (and horrific) uses of new miitary technologies.

Drug Wars

The 1980's and 1990's saw the end of the Cold War, but a significant rise in organized crime related to drug trafficking. This contributed to the rise of narco states in Colombia and Mexico, and the use of drug profits to fuel revolutionary and terrorist networks. At the same time, competition among street gangs for drug territory colored popular culture in the United States, creating iconic street weapons. Civilian-legal variants of assault rifles and submachine guns proliferated in the public perception and on the streets, with the TEC-9, Uzi, and MAC-10 becoming emblematic of the era.

Global War on Terror

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States and its NATO allies embarked on a series of campaigns to break up terrorist networks and overthrow the regimes that enabled them. These campaigns saw the implementation of advanced military technologies improving communication and optics, as well as new materials and experimental designs. A new generation of rifles, machine guns, and artillery saw use in the small-scale conflicts that were essentially policing actions throughout the developing world.

Napoleonic Wars

A capstone on conventional (old fashioned) warfare and a political prelude to the World Wars of the 20th century, the Napoleonic Wars embroiled Europe from 1803 to 1815. Fought with smoothbore, flintlock muskets, bronze cannons, swords, and polearms, the armies of the day fought much like 100 years earlier, although proto-industrialization made the forms of the arms more refined. Some new weapons did see use, though, including shrapnel shells for artillery and rockets.

Unification Wars

The mid-19th century was marked by waves of European nationalism, where culturaly and linguistically linked regions united into nations, leading to the creation of Germany and Italy as we know them today. Of course, the old rulers of those regions weren't so interested in losing power, leading to early trial runs of industrial warfare; a preview of the later World Wars. The German wars of unification saw the first widespread use of breechloading infantry rifles, rifled breechloading artillery, and early machine guns, along with innovations in communication and troop transport.

World Wars

The most destructive and epoch-defining conflicts in human history, the World Wars encompasses both World War I (1914-1918), the interwar period of new imperial ambitions, Communist revolutions, and trial runs of new technologies (like the Chaco War of 1932-1935), and World War II (1939-1945). During this time period weapons and tactics evolved rapidly, with early forms of most modern weapon systems appearing by the end.