Conflict that has made the largest impact on the world we know today.

[Monash]

I'd vote for WW1.... it lead to the establishment of a Communist Regime in Russia, put Hitler on the Road to National Socalism in an embittered and bankrupt Germany and blead the British Empire dry financially and materially setting it on a course of decline. It also set back European economic and social development by a generation. While the old Monarchies such as the Hapsbergs finally ended there was no orderly transition to democracy and as a consequence the Balkans were set on a path that lead to the 1990's. Meanwhile the Turkish Empire also collapsed and changed the map of the middle east (plus it gave Hitler the Armenian Genocide as a template for dealing with "troublesome" minorities. All packed into one bloody, futile and civilisation changing little box.....

[Aussiegunner]

If somebody hasn't already nominated it I'd say the American Revolution has to be up there, the birth of the only ever hyperpower is a fairly important event.

[Swift Sword]

There are some compelling arguments for the various choices in this Poll but I am going with the First World War crowd on this one.

Taken in a long view, there is a compelling argument that WW1 is the the biggest game changer in the last 500 years if not the better part of the last 1,000.

The simultaneous collapse of the Westphalian order and the Congress of Vienna at a time of the hangover left by the Industrial Revolution all happening in the shadow of the French Revolution crushed an order established for centuries and set the stage for all that has followed in the last nine decades.

World War One was an event of such magnitude as to be truly epochal.

Regards,

William