Major European Wars Timeline

France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and Italian states contested control of the Italian Peninsula. The wars introduced large-scale use of gunpowder artillery and professional armies, and the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis ultimately established Spanish predominance in Italy.

Image source: Italian Wars

The Dutch Revolt began as an uprising of the Netherlands against Spanish Habsburg rule and developed into a long war for independence. The Dutch Republic gained de facto recognition in 1609 and formal independence in the Peace of Münster in 1648.

Image source: Eighty Years' War

England and Spain fought over religion, trade, privateering, and English support for Dutch rebels. Spain's attempted invasion by the Spanish Armada in 1588 failed, while later English expeditions also struggled, and the Treaty of London ended the conflict without a decisive victor.

Image source: Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)

Beginning as a religious and constitutional conflict in the Holy Roman Empire, the Thirty Years' War expanded into a European struggle involving Denmark, Sweden, France, Spain, and the Habsburgs. Its battles and famine devastated central Europe, while the Peace of Westphalia strengthened state sovereignty and reshaped the European diplomatic order.

Image source: Thirty Years' War

Parliamentarians and Royalists fought over the powers of the monarchy, Parliament, and the church. Parliament's New Model Army defeated Charles I, who was executed in 1649, leading to a republican Commonwealth before the monarchy was restored in 1660.

Image source: English Civil War

The Ottoman Empire fought a coalition including the Habsburg monarchy, Poland-Lithuania, Venice, and Russia. The failed Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 was followed by sustained Christian counteroffensives, and the Treaty of Karlowitz transferred major territories from the Ottomans to their opponents.

Russia, Denmark-Norway, and Saxony-Poland challenged Sweden's dominance around the Baltic Sea. Peter the Great's victory at Poltava in 1709 marked the turning point, and the Treaty of Nystad confirmed Russia as the leading power in northern Europe.

Image source: Great Northern War

European powers fought over whether the Bourbon Philip of Anjou could inherit the Spanish monarchy without creating a Franco-Spanish superstate. The Treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt recognized Philip as king of Spain while granting territories and commercial advantages to Austria and Britain.

Image source: War of the Spanish Succession

The Seven Years' War was a global conflict in which Britain and Prussia fought France, Austria, Russia, Sweden, and their allies. In Europe, Frederick the Great preserved Prussia's status as a major power, while Britain emerged from the wider war with expanded imperial influence.

Image source: Seven Years' War

Revolutionary France fought shifting coalitions of European monarchies seeking to contain the revolution and restore the old order. French armies conquered or dominated much of continental Europe, while military mobilization and political nationalism transformed the nature of warfare.

Image source: French Revolutionary Wars

Napoleon Bonaparte's France fought successive coalitions of European powers in a series of conflicts extending across the continent and beyond. French victories created a vast imperial system, but the invasion of Russia, the Peninsular War, and the defeat at Waterloo led to Napoleon's final exile and the restoration of a European balance of power.

Image source: Napoleonic Wars

Greek revolutionaries rose against Ottoman rule and established an independent state after years of fighting. Britain, France, and Russia intervened against the Ottoman-Egyptian forces, particularly at Navarino, and the Treaty of Constantinople recognized Greek independence.

Image source: Greek War of Independence

Russia fought the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France, and Sardinia-Piedmont over influence in the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean. The siege of Sevastopol ended in Russian defeat, exposed military and administrative weaknesses, and temporarily checked Russian expansion toward the Ottoman Empire.

Image source: Crimean War

Prussia and its German allies fought Austria and its supporters for leadership of the German states. Prussia's rapid victory at Königgrätz excluded Austria from German unification and enabled the creation of the North German Confederation.

Image source: Austro-Prussian War

Prussia and its German allies defeated the Second French Empire after diplomatic tensions escalated into war. The conflict led to the proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles, the fall of Napoleon III, and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine by France.

Image source: Franco-Prussian War

Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro attacked the Ottoman Empire and rapidly captured most of its remaining European territory. The Treaty of London ended Ottoman control over nearly all of the Balkans but left unresolved disputes among the victorious states.

Image source: First Balkan War

Bulgaria attacked its former allies Serbia and Greece over the division of conquered Ottoman lands. Romania and the Ottoman Empire joined the conflict against Bulgaria, which was defeated and forced to surrender territory in the Treaty of Bucharest.

Image source: Second Balkan War

A crisis following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand developed into a global war between the Central Powers and the Allies. Trench warfare, industrialized weapons, blockade, revolution, and mass mobilization caused unprecedented casualties and brought down the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian empires.

Image source: World War I

Bolshevik forces fought monarchists, republicans, national movements, and foreign interventionists after the Russian Revolution. The Red Army secured most of the former empire, while the conflict's violence, famine, and political repression enabled the formation of the Soviet Union.

Image source: Russian Civil War

A military uprising against Spain's Republican government developed into a major ideological and international conflict. General Francisco Franco's Nationalists, aided by Germany and Italy, defeated the Republic despite Soviet assistance and international volunteers, establishing a dictatorship that lasted for decades.

Image source: Spanish Civil War

Nazi Germany and its allies fought Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, and other Allied powers in the largest and most destructive war in European history. The conflict included the invasion and occupation of much of Europe, the Holocaust, the Eastern Front, strategic bombing, resistance movements, and the defeat of Germany in May 1945.

Image source: European theatre of World War II

The Greek government and its Western-backed forces fought the communist Democratic Army of Greece after the Second World War. The government's victory, aided by American military support and the weakening of communist assistance, made Greece one of the earliest major Cold War battlegrounds.

Image source: Greek Civil War

The breakup of Yugoslavia produced a series of interconnected wars involving Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia. Ethnic nationalism, territorial claims, ethnic cleansing, sieges, and international intervention reshaped the Balkans and created several independent states.

Image source: Yugoslav Wars

Russia fought separatist forces in Chechnya in two major wars. Russian forces reasserted control after the destruction of Grozny and subsequent counterinsurgency campaigns, while the conflict caused extensive civilian suffering and left a lasting security and political legacy in the North Caucasus.