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

[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

[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.

[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.....

[zara]

Surely it would have to be something involving the English? Maybe the Danish Invasion or the Normans.. I think its fairly safe to say the the British empire had the bigger effect on the world than any other - the English language, systems of government, sport, religion etc.

If the Normans hadn't invaded there possibly would never have been a British Empire, and the world would look completely unrecognisable.

[Rastagir]

I would have to say the Crusades. I think it is the founding reason why the world is divided into West and East and the source of alienation and hate between the two religions (Christianity and Islam). None of the others had such a lasting effect, not even WWII.

[The Black Ghost]

-Cold war was the most recently impacting
-Cold war came of World War II and the Russian Revolution
-WWII and the Russian Revolution came because of WWI
-WWI was a clash of powers that grew from the wars of the late 1800 and even the much earlier Napoleonic Wars. (Napoleonic wars are pretty major...probably should have been on the list)
-Those wars all sprouted from the rivalry between nations that came from the 40 years War--really the first "World War for Europe" (also should have been on the list)
-This rivaly, nation-building, and such came from the fall of the Holy Roman Empire and the growth of Nations from that fall.
-The Holy Roman Empire came from the influence of the old Roman Empire.
-The Roman Empire was created by the Roman Conquests.

Therefore I vote for the Roman Invasions

-even this could be preceded though, but that far back in history it is hard to say for sure.

[Latarnik]

In 1582 in Pskov, Polish King Stefan Batory stopped invasion of Russian Tsar Ivan The Terrible, who planned to kill all the people of the Western Europe, like Tamerlan was killing in Asia.
I feel that the most influential armed conflict which decided future of Western Civilization and Christianity was Turkish Invasion of Europe which ended up with a total collapse of Ottoman Empire by Polish forces under command of Jan III Sobieski in 1683. French King and a Pope were begging Polish ruler to stop Turks. He did, when they were keeping Vienna under siege. Germany was divided into small countries, France was unable to fight, only Polish heavy cavalry (Husars — wearing wings with feathers), was able to stop the invaders.
Second time Poland saved Western world when Soviets were stopped by Polish forces, having excellent intelligence in 1920, taking over 50 thousand prisoners and stopping Red Army under Bronstein-Trotsky, which had a plan to conquer the rest of the world within a year. There was no power in the world which could have stopped them at the time, after France and Britain were bled to death during WWI.

[Vinod2070]

But none of that would have stopped Europe from carving Asia up into colonial fiefs. India as Hindu, Islamic or as it is mixed was not going to stop Europe. Nor is it in anyway automatic that Islam would have any greater success in certain parts of Asia than did Christianity. The world view is just two different.

That is true. But it ain't over yet!

Civilizations have risen and fallen over the history. It has been a pattern that a civilization rises, reaches its peak and is replaced by another one. The European/Western civilization has been on the ascendant for the last few centuries. This has been the opposite of the direction for most of the human history.

I guess we are already seeing the rise of the East and the shifting of the power balance. It has been faster than expected and is only gaining momentum. I believe that India being able to preserve her civilization will have a larger impact on the world we are going to witness in the next few decades and century. India (and in fact the non-Western world in general) has punched below her weight for far too long. It may change sooner than most of us realize.

[zraver]

Sorry for the late reply but I think it is obvious. Right now we have the Af-Pak region and much of West Asia engulfed in extremism. India is one secular democracy in the midst of all this religious fanaticism and extremism. Imagine India also being under the control of this fanaticism and the situation would be beyond recovery!

I think it would be fair to say that the whole of Asia would be in greater danger of falling to extremism at the very least.

But none of that would have stopped Europe from carving Asia up into colonial fiefs. India as Hindu, Islamic or as it is mixed was not going to stop Europe. Nor is it in anyway automatic that Islam would have any greater success in certain parts of Asia than did Christianity. The world view is just two different.

[Vinod2070]

Sorry but I think you take India's role for the world by far too important, if all of India had became islamic, it wouldn't change much for the world of today. India would be now an islamic country, so what. How would this effect other parts of the world, I don't see it?

Sorry for the late reply but I think it is obvious. Right now we have the Af-Pak region and much of West Asia engulfed in extremism. India is one secular democracy in the midst of all this religious fanaticism and extremism. Imagine India also being under the control of this fanaticism and the situation would be beyond recovery!

I think it would be fair to say that the whole of Asia would be in greater danger of falling to extremism at the very least.

[Alea-Iacta-Est]

I will shamefully admit that I haven't read the entire thread, so pardon me if I repeat something someone's already said.

Out of the options given, I would have to say that WWII, closely followed by WWI. Really, WWI's conflicts were precursors to those of WWII, and the overage of aggression by Allied Powers in the Treaty of Paris gave Hitler the material he needed to rise to power. Had WWII ended differently, it is reasonable to assume that facism and socialism would be dominating today's world.

As someone on the first page mentioned, the Greek-Persian war, in which the narrow victory of the democratic Greeks led to today's personal freedoms, might be just as important, if not more.

[Kernow]

English Civil War. Parliament wouldn't have been invented.

[GC13]

Who's the one other crazy guy who selected the Russian Civil War along with me? Come on, a pro-Allies (or, at the very least, secure) White Russia doesn't NAP with Hitler, means WW2 may very well never happen. And then we have no Cold War... Very, very different place.

But then, if you want to play that game you could say that World War One triggered a lot of the events that led up to WW2 and the beating Russia took led up to the RCW... It never ends when you look at these linked events.

I'd have to argue against the American Revolution there though, Thomas. I don't think that things would have turned out all too different than they have now, though Britain certainly would have been at an even higher ebb than it was running going into WW1. America almost certainly would have been sovereign by the time of WW1, so they only real difference may have been our troops joining the British Army, and sooner, rather than going in under Pershing's command later.

[Thomas1016]

since you did not have the American revolution as a choice I had to go with WWII. Incidentally why was it not listed as a choice?

[Marcurix]

Its allwell and good to say if this didnt happenthen things would have been diffrent ect ect, it might be true, it might not we'll never know, ill have to go with WW2 because it had the single biggest impact on the modern world.