Big Think

Jason Mancer on January 17, 2008, 5:12 PM

AD world war 2


BC persian wars

Ryne Cee on January 17, 2008, 7:40 PM

The most important war in human history eh… probably Homo neanderthalensis vs Homo sapien.

Jason Mancer on January 17, 2008, 7:42 PM

what?

Ian Hoch on January 17, 2008, 8:28 PM

Greco-Persian Wars. If the Greeks hadnt won then the world wouldnt be as we know. Democracy wouldnt have been able to speread and who knows? We all might be speaking Persian right now.

Patrick O'Bryan on January 17, 2008, 8:59 PM

I would say it was the Punic wars. The evolution of the modern world is based on the organizations that developed since the fall of Rome. If the Roman Republic had never conquered anything outside of Italy, the world would be quite different.

Jyle Dupuis on January 17, 2008, 10:52 PM

The barbarian invasions and the fall of Rome. The civilized world was destroyed, taking hundreds of years to recover.

Cory Lesperance on January 18, 2008, 12:10 AM

The American Revolutionary War. What would the world be like with the Queen of england running the USA?

Robert James Crawford on January 18, 2008, 6:14 AM

The Greek-Persian wars were the most important. Had Athens (and Greece) been conquered, it may have prevented or hindered the inventions of modern drama, the science of history, the Western philosophical tradition, and the notion of democracy.

Derek George on January 18, 2008, 8:29 AM

the conflict of man vs. nature that is going on right now

Mac Green on January 18, 2008, 1:21 PM

There was once a war that is quickly being forgotten. It was a terrible conflict that saw the needless waste of life and limb on a scale that hasn’t been seen before or since.

I am talking of course about the Great War.

Sure, we have all learned about it in some degree but what do most people really know about it? Not much.

60,000 casualties on the first day of the battle of the Somme. Some 300,000 casualties at the battle of Verdun. The list goes on.

Around 20 million people died in that conflict, and just as many horribly wounded. Numbers we can even fathom today.

And for what? A lesson, never again.

It was supposed to be the war to end all wars…how soon we forget.

Sam Benson on January 18, 2008, 6:58 PM

If we are counting revolutions in this, then I would have to say the French Revolution. This revolution showed the world what can happen to tyrants and all major powers took notice. This revolution inspired other uprisings all across the globe. This meant that the leaders of countries knew that they had limits and the citizens knew their options. This war changed civilization politically (not as much territorially) more than any other in history.

Randall Menser on January 19, 2008, 12:48 AM

The revolutionary war, which has paved the way for modern democracy.

Sam Benson on January 19, 2008, 1:17 AM

Which revolutionary war? There were a bunch.

Greg Koabel on January 19, 2008, 12:28 PM

I agree with wisefool, although perhaps for different reasons

I would argue the Great War was the most important in human history. But in addition to the senselessness of the conflict and the astounding casualties (which I agree, are a huge part of the war) I believe its consequences are what make it so crucial.

The crumbling of the Eastern European Empires created ethnic tensions which are still being resolved today.
The war fueled the rise of the first truly Communist state.
The breakup of the Ottoman Empire also meant the division of the Arab lands, which God knows still influence events to this day.
The strain on Imperial forces created the seeds of independence movements all across the globe, even figures such as Ho Chi Minh came all the way to Paris in 1919 to try to have a voice in the post-war settlement.

Another, less universally important consequuence (though important to me as a Canadian) was the development of several Commonwealth nations as nations unto themselves, Canada, Australia and New Zealand all came of age in 1914-18.

I think we are still living today in a world that could be very much described as “Post-Great-War”.

a a on January 19, 2008, 7:52 PM

Greco-Persian. For the same reasons as Ian Hoch and robcrawford. The world would be completely different had the Greeks not unified and conquered the Persians. And look how fast they did it.

Casper Sea on January 19, 2008, 9:02 PM

Without a doubt World War One sadly as it was a catalyst along with the change in society where the average joe was starting to realise he was not a slave to his employer or government.Out of WW1 sprung the seeds of WW2 ,Out of WW1 sprung the ideas of a young Bavarian corporal who at the defeat and destruction of his warring country grew into a Nazi leader who almost brought the planet to its knees..While everyone was fighting in Europe the revolution over the Tsar in Russia came to be and that infamous georgian bastard Joseph Stalin came to power and purged 20 million of his own countrymen due to his paranoia.These are just a few and show the massive impact this war WW1 had on the whole planet,Thecrash of ’29 and so on.The shift in World power started here.

Andrew Zanier on January 22, 2008, 2:14 AM

I would say the Arab-Byzantine War of 674-679. I know this is really obscure but had the Arab force besieging Constantinople captured it then the Byzantine Empire would have collapsed. If this had happened, the Arabs would have faced little opposition in Europe and today we all would likely be followers of the Muslim faith and speak a form of Arabic. Christianity would have been destroyed.

Joe Greenwell on February 4, 2008, 8:04 PM

I would say the most important war in human history is the ongoing war “we,” as a global unit, have been battling since Eve tasted the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, the war between the right and what our egos define as right.
Think, most wars are started over religion; my religion is better than yours; my country is stronger than yours; My nation deserves this land more than your nation. EGO.

Jen Something on February 4, 2008, 11:03 PM

What a strange question Dirk Diggler. You are a fan of war?

The war we are in is the same one fought in the early days. The battle for truth.

The deception in war is well known by many the real battle is not side A or Side B but the fraud commited by the funders of the war. The middle selling rockets to both sides has always been the enemy.

imo

Jen Something on February 4, 2008, 11:03 PM

What a strange question Dirk Diggler. You are a fan of war?

The war we are in is the same one fought in the early days. The battle for truth.

The deception in war is well known by many the real battle is not side A or Side B but the fraud commited by the funders of the war. The middle selling rockets to both sides has always been the enemy.

imo

Ron Erickson on March 7, 2008, 11:32 PM

I would chose the defeat of Hannibal and the Carthaginians by the Romans is the most important. The history of Western Civilization would have taken a dramatic turn with a contrary result.

James Moore on March 9, 2008, 2:57 PM

The Cold War, particularly the Cuban Missile Crisis was the most influential war for human history because we were dealing with total nuclear war. Assuming severe nuclear war would have resulted had we not diverted the crisis, the world would still currently be in a Nuclear Winter and although some would still be surviving, civilization would likely have to begin anew.

Benjamin Artman on March 13, 2008, 9:15 PM

Make love not war… nah I’m playing but WW2 seemed to haev a effect on people

John Doe on March 14, 2008, 4:35 AM

There are some great…and not so great answers here. I appreciate the ethical responses-the war for truth- but thats obviously not what the questioner had in mind, so please put those responses elsewhere.
I feel that one must reach back in premodern times to make a choice, as the borders of most of the influential civilizations’ borders were generally defined then.
The Arab-Byzantine war is an interesting choice, as are the Greco-Persian wars. But here’s mine: the wars of Mongolian expansion. They created an empire with trade routes allowing goods, ideas, and disease to travel between Europe, the Middle East and the Orient. These wars devestated much of Asia, killing tens of millions (a huge number in premodern times) and changing forever many ethnic geogrpahies. Mongol armies also humbled the traditional powerhouses of the Old World: China, Persia, and the Arab Empire(s).

Edward C on March 18, 2008, 8:09 PM

What is the most important war in human history?

The ones we lost ;-)

Jedediah Laub-Klein on March 24, 2008, 8:10 PM

I’m just going to assume that we are talking about the most important war on the impact of the species at this time. I would choose World War One. It was a technological crossroads. The first with airplanes and chemical weapons and the last with calvary charges. It also brought us the Treaty of Versailles which has created all of the modern problems that we face in the world today. I choose that one sitting here in the twenty-first century.

Adam Balderrama on March 28, 2008, 10:57 AM

The most important war in human history was World War II. It was where the Atomic Bomb was introduced to the world and it subsequently led to the United States emerging as THE world’s super power.

Alexander Scholz on April 4, 2008, 11:58 AM

I think the most important war is the one who is being fought nowadays. I’m not talking about this construction of “war against terror”, I’m talking about this real global war between the one who are maximazing their profit on cost of the one who are not able to compete with, the one who are most of the time invisible. It’s not a war between countries per se and the front goes not only between different countries. The front is the demarcation line between the one who are included the cycle of gaining and invest and the one who are excluded. This line is within every country as well.

Alexander Scholz on April 4, 2008, 1:55 PM

Perhaps someone demurs that I got off the topic but history may not be something in the past as an enclosed matter. We are living in history and moreover this kind of exploitation which I’ve tried to describe is lasting since hundred of years, I merely point to colonialism. The war is not a declared one but it is one.

Brittany D on April 18, 2008, 2:48 PM

WW2

Patrick Regan on May 6, 2008, 7:28 PM

The 30 Years War is the war that created our modern conception of war. Before this, wars were fought for and in the name of God. The 30 Years War was the first that created true atrocities.

James Imnotgonnatellyou on May 7, 2008, 8:37 PM

Okay, effect on civilization: that’s asking what conflict we think would (had its outcome been different) have made the present the most different from what it is now. This being the case, I hope you will agree with me that the farther back into history we look, the more branching would have had time to take place since the conflict (not to mention the modified outcome of the conflict itself; there would have to be an event changed within that conflict to modify its outcome as well, so that which raises the question “What conflict, with it’s outcome changed by the modification of some event interior to the conflict, would least modify history since?” But, I digress.), and therefore would cause the greatest discrepancy between that history and our own. By this logic, the conflict that would most change the present would also be the oldest.

In short, I vote for whatever the oldest conflict in human history was. :)

Shi Hyung Park on October 27, 2008, 12:11 AM

Although there are many wars in history that made a huge difference in our society today, I have to say that the most important war in history will have to be WW2
First off, the holocaust. People finally realized the harsh truth of war and tried to make peace
Second off, the science. Hitler, although he had a problem with his philosophy, made a big difference to our technology today.
Finally the economy disaster. I think (correct me if I’m wrong) that this period U.S had the Great Depression upon them. What’s more? The Dust Bowl was active in the Central U.S. Some how U.S has recovered.
(F.Y.I right now U.S economy is declining so yeah…)