When World War II began, Nazi Germany had an unimaginable advantage of surprise. The Nazis had prepared for the war for years while the Allied countries had no idea what was going on.

Adolf Hitler would never have begun a military campaign if it was doomed to fail and boomerang. Germany held four aces when the war began, but the costly decisions Hitler made along the way saw the German advantages metamorphose into disadvantages. The Nazis could have won the war if they had made these decisions differently.

10 Germany Invaded Britain Instead Of The Soviet Union

Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 proved to be the undoing of Hitler’s military campaign. Hitler sent 4.5 million troops to invade a country that had signed a nonaggression pact with him. This was a fatal mistake because Britain, Germany’s most bitter enemy, was close to powerlessness at that time.

Following the defeat of France, Britain made a pragmatic decision to withdraw its troops from France due to intensive land and air assaults from Germany. As British forces withdrew, they had to leave a substantial percentage of their heavy armory behind. At the moment that Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the British Army was lacking in heavy weaponry and motor transport. They also lacked the operational concept and experience to resist a German invasion.

Hitler made the costly mistake of not going for the kill.^[1] Instead, he opted to engage the Soviet Union, a decision that eased the pressure on Britain. This allowed the country to remobilize its military forces to continue fighting Germany throughout World War II.

The invasion of the Soviet Union created a huge dent in the German military machine as Hitler did not prepare for a winter war. German forces never recovered from the Soviet’s winter counteroffensive. By late 1942, the Germans were fighting defensively in the Soviet Union.

9 Germany Did Not Declare War On The United States

During World War II, one of Nazi Germany’s huge mistakes was declaring war on the United States. If Germany had exercised caution in this regard, there is a chance that the US would not have formally declared war on Germany.

Even if the US had eventually done so, it would have been much later and the Germans would have bought themselves adequate time to confront their enemy. Several historians agree that although Germany and the US were unofficially at war, the Americans may not have wanted to fully commit to the European theater of the war if Germany didn’t expressly declare war on the US.

For the same reason, Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa (which was under Axis control), might have proceeded with minimal American participation. This would have bought the Germans more time and possibly turned things around for the Nazis.^[2]

8 There Was No Holocaust

The Holocaust was the systematic and state-sponsored torture and murder of six million Jews under the Nazi regime. It was also the biggest mistake the Nazis made during the war.

The killing of innocent Jews, including women and children, portrayed Adolf Hitler as a cruel dictator with animalistic instincts. This was crucial to the success of the mobilization of a massive military effort against Germany.

Moreover, Hitler wasted a lot of human and material resources in carrying out the racist torture and murder of innocent and noncombatant Jews.^[3] If Hitler had refrained from such atrocities, it would have been much more difficult for the Allied countries to mobilize the massive military response that eventually led to the downfall of the Third Reich.

7 Germany Had Coordinated With Japan On The Invasion Of The Soviet Union

Germany made a serious mistake by invading the Soviet Union on its own when it could have coordinated with Japan and forced the Soviets to fight on two fronts. One reason why the Soviet winter counteroffensive succeeded just a few kilometers from Moscow was that the Soviets were capable of reinforcing their military with well-equipped and well-trained divisions from Siberia.

These fresh troops stopped and repelled the winter-stricken German soldiers. If Hitler had coordinated with Japan during the Soviet campaign, this would have been the most likely scenario: As German soldiers advanced from the west, Japan would have invaded the Soviet Union from the east.^[4]

Japan would have pinned down the military reinforcements that rescued the Soviets from the brink of defeat at the hands of their German invaders. Moreover, the sheer size of the Soviet Union allowed it to trade space for time. If Germany and Japan had invaded the Soviet Union simultaneously, the Soviets wouldn’t have had that luxury.

6 Hitler Didn’t Interfere With Battle Strategy

Hitler’s interference with battle strategy caused more damage than the combined efforts of the Allied forces. He bypassed his generals on the Eastern Front and assumed day-to-day operational command of the army.

Worse yet, Hitler did not consider any point of view that differed from his own. He issued orders based on his perception of reality. From his headquarters in Germany, Hitler directed the movements of individual divisions on the Eastern Front using information that was too old by the time it reached him.^[5]

For example, Hitler’s directive that German troops should stand firm in Moscow was against the counsel of his military officers on the ground. It led to the deaths of a million German soldiers.

Moreover, several historians believe that it wasn’t just the firepower of the Allied Forces that made their invasion of Normandy successful. Hitler’s refusal to listen to wise military counsel played a major role in the defeat of German forces in France.

5 Hitler Did Not Order The Bombing Of British Cities

Germany’s bombing campaign on Britain, initially restricted to military and industrial targets, was aimed at crippling Britain’s capacity to defend itself. In fact, Germany made remarkable gains in the bombardment of military installations, especially British air force bases and airfields.

When the Royal Air Force (RAF) launched a retaliatory air raid on Berlin, Hitler lost his temper and ignored the significant progress that the German air force had made against its British counterpart. In September 1940, several British airfields and air force bases had been destroyed.

The RAF was hopping on one leg when Hitler gave it a respite and ordered that German planes bombard British cities, especially London.^[6] This gave the RAF ample time to repair its airfields and bases and return to battle at full capacity.

4 Hitler Did Not Halt The Pursuit Of British Forces At Dunkirk

In May 1940, German infantry units and several tank divisions were in pursuit of 350,000 British soldiers at Dunkirk. The Panzer tank divisions were on the verge of surrounding the British forces while the Luftwaffe (German air force) conducted an unimpeded bombing raid on the enemy.

Suddenly, Hitler gave the “halt” order.^[7] Rather than let the fast-driving Panzer tanks overtake the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Hitler wanted the slow-moving infantry units to do the job.

The British military command capitalized on Hitler’s mistake and mobilized ships, yachts, fishing boats, rowboats, and lifeboats to evacuate the BEF. Eventually, only 40,000 British troops were captured by the Germans.

If Hitler had allowed the Panzer divisions to continue their pursuit, the Germans could have captured significantly more British troops. Britain may have surrendered early in the war, just like France.

3 Germany Did Not Invade Greece

Hitler believed that if he invaded the Soviet Union in May 1941, he would overrun Moscow before winter. Some historians agree that Hitler’s reasoning could have played out accurately if Germany hadn’t invaded Greece.

Following Italy’s humiliating defeat in Greece, Hitler decided to bail out the Italians. Historians believe that moving into Greece delayed the invasion of the Soviet Union by six weeks.^[8] If Hitler hadn’t entered Greece in April 1941, there is a chance that the attack on the Soviet Union would have occurred earlier and Moscow would have fallen before winter.

2 Germany Did Not Fight On Two Fronts

The fact that Germany was engaged in combat on two fronts played a crucial role in their defeat. The Nazis were fighting Britain and the US, among others, to the west while they battled the Soviet Union to the east. This proved to be a fatal decision for Germany.

If the Nazis had fought on one front at a time, the course of the war could have been different. The June 22, 1941, invasion of the Soviet Union turned a one-front battle against a war-weary Britain into a two-front engagement. The Eastern Front absorbed about three-quarters of the German army and resulted in two-thirds of German casualties.^[9]

Many historians wonder why Hitler made the fatal mistake of invading the Soviet Union when Britain had yet to surrender. If Hitler had invaded Britain and waited patiently to win the war before moving to the Eastern Front, he would have kept the war on a single front.

With Britain defeated, it would have been nearly impossible for the US to have operational bases in Europe. Even if that had become possible, it would have bought Germany enough time to figure out how to subdue the United States.

Hitler’s diversion of military resources to the Soviet Union gave the British ample time to rebuild their military might and allowed the US to gain a stronghold on the Western Front. If Hitler had been more cautious and restricted the war to one front at a time, there is little doubt that World War II would have turned in Germany’s favor.

Moreover, historians believe that if Hitler had not broken the nonaggression pact as early as he did, the Soviets, who had Stalin as their dictator, could have become an Axis power. Hitler could have turned against the Soviet Union at the most convenient time.

1 Germany Exercised More Patience Before Starting The War

A major reason why the Nazis lost the war is that they started a global military campaign before they were fully prepared for it. One shortcoming of this decision is that the German navy was poorly prepared to fight a war on the scale of World War II.

While the United States had aircraft carriers and several surface ships, German naval warfare relied mainly on U-boats. After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles prohibited Germany from amassing a large military force. The German navy and air force were not constituted until 1935.^[10]

Surprisingly, by 1939, Germany had already started war on a global scale. But Hitler only had about four years to prepare for it. If he had waited a decade longer, Germany would have had more time to develop a military force that could have won on such a large scale.

Jeffrey Morris is a prolific freelance writer with a passion for history and finance.

Movies fail when they create villains with thin or nonexistent motivations and justifications. Bad guys who are just bad for the sake of badness tend to suck the drama and tension right out of stories. But there’s a problem on the reverse side, too; sometimes villains are created a little too sympathetic and reasonable, and it makes us question whether or not the so-called heroes should have actually won. Some villains make us question the lines we draw between good and evil, right and wrong, in our modern, nuanced society. The list is dedicated to ten of those villains, characters who make us wish we could see them win.

Related: Top 10 Worst Comic Supervillains

10 The EPA from Ghostbusters

Yeah, that’s right: Ghostbusters‘ (non-spectral) villains are the freaking Environmental Protection Agency. We’re meant to dislike them just because they want to regulate the Ghostbusters and because their mouthpiece inspector, Walter Peck, is kind of a turd. Turd though he might be, he was 100% right the entire time.

Peck’s introduction is simply asking the ‘Busters to see their hazardous waste storage, something well within his purview and frankly, very necessary. His concern is that the proton packs and ghosts containment units might be dangerous and need proper safety measures in place. That’s it, that’s his big crime: concern for public safety. And it turns out he was right. As Egon says about the containment unit, “turning it off would be like dropping a bomb on the city,” and as he says about the proton packs, “Don’t cross the streams… It would be bad… Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.” Later, they purposefully cross the streams. Regulation, please!

9 Tony Perkis from Heavyweights

Heavyweights, probably the most underrated movie of all time, is a story about a bunch of overweight children sent to a camp to lose weight, get healthy, and build better habits. The villain in the movie is the camp leader and fitness guru Tony Perkis. The movie reveals his true evil when he quickly begins forcing the overweight campers to eat better and exercise. Wait, did I write that wrong?

It’s true. Perkis is vilified just for doing his job. Not only that but doing a job that could literally save these children’s lives. And yes, Perkis has a breakdown at the end of the film that paints him in an awful light, but only after these sadistic brats torture him for months. They imprison him in a shed, starve him, and insult him mercilessly, even electrocuting him when he tries to escape. His rage is justified, especially since he was kidnapped, humiliated, and tortured just—and it’s worth repeating—for helping overweight kids become healthy.

8 Ultron from Avengers: Age of Ultron

Okay, no one will make the point that Ultron was a good guy, and possibly not even a guy at all. His goal was to exterminate most or all the human race, forcing the few possible survivors to evolve fitter and stronger or just replacing them with copies of himself. Not exactly heroic, but if Ultron had won, the imminent war for the Infinity Stones would have gone very differently.

If Ultron had won, his factory systems would quickly have replaced humanity with vibranium-enclosed hyper-intelligent battlebots, forming a society around an ultra-efficient hive mind dedicated to strength and survivability. Not only that, but he would quickly collect all the Infinity Stones on Earth at the time: the Mind Stone, Time Stone, and Space Stone. When Thanos inevitably came calling, the time, space, and mind-controlling Ultron and his army of millions of war-bots would have given the Mad Titan the fight of his butt-chinned life.

7 Jurassic Park from Jurassic Park

The tangible, external villains in Jurassic Park were all dinosaurs—the velociraptors, T-Rex, and even the dilophosaurus—but the true, internal villain was hubris. It’s all Jeff Goldblum can talk about the whole movie; over-confident humans like John Hammond try to control what they shouldn’t. Except that they can. And do. Repeatedly.

Various dinosaur parks operate successfully for years throughout the franchise, bringing a whole new world of entertainment and scientific advancement. It’s Hammond’s dream—the parks are all biologists’ wet dreams—and the parks’ value to genetics is unparalleled. The dream only breaks when shady people ruin the plan. Without the human hemorrhoid that is Dennis Nedry, Hammond’s dream would have endured, and Hammond should have won. The world might actually be a better place with his technology and parks. Every scientific leap is hubristic, but I bet you’re glad we dared to battle chaos and invent the airplane, the telephone, and the science to live past 30.

6 The Replicants from Blade Runner

Blade Runner is a titan in the genres of science fiction and cyberpunk. The movie is gorgeously shot and scored, exceptionally atmospheric, and also a literal story about a slave-catcher hunting runaway slaves and executing them. I’ll repeat it: literally.

Replicants in Blade Runner are androids so advanced that they can pass for “real” humans, even to the point of being made from biological (i.e., human) material. They are as smart as humans, feel genuine emotion, and are repeatedly tested and found to be as real as anyone else. Yet they’re almost exclusively used for slave labor. If ever one of the slaves tries to escape and, you know, exercise their innate right to freedom, special slave-catchers named Blade Runners find them and put bullets in their heads. The crazy part is that we’re meant to sympathize with the slave-catchers and slave-masters, just because they’re ever-so-slightly less different than us. You can’t even say the whole plot aged poorly because I’m pretty sure slavery was a bit of a no-no by 1982.

5 Killmonger from Black Panther

Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger was ruthless, murderous, and conniving. He was also empathetic, righteous, and selfless, and he should have won.

Killmonger planned to claim the throne of Wakanda by using his royal blood and ritual combat, i.e., exactly the way you’re supposed to do it. Then he meant to end Wakanda’s longstanding isolationist policies and share their advanced technology and medicine with less fortunate people across the world, especially descendants of African slaves who have been generationally disadvantaged. That sounds less like an evil villain and more like a global hero. Ultimately, his biggest crimes were his violent tactics and selfish need for hegemony. But if the end result is a massive technological leap for the entire world (one about to be invaded by aliens) and the almost complete end to systemic disparity, as well as disease and hunger, we can forgive him.

4 The White Walkers from Game of Thrones

Again, we can’t say the White Walkers are innocent. They kill loads of people throughout the show. But then again, so do the humans. And unlike the humans, the White Walkers immediately revive their slain, even granting them semi-immortality in exchange. The Walkers also don’t seem to in-fight. Ever. Unlike the petty, selfish, dishonest, underhanded humans who view life as a “game,” the White Walkers seem to live in perfect harmony with each other.

It’s worth asking, then: which society is better? And who should have won the war? Now we’re as human as you are (you assume), so we also tend to side with humanity in interspecies conflicts. But the humans of Westeros and Essos suck. They’re terrible people and murder each other in droves, sometimes for fun and sometimes for no reason at all. On the other hand, the White Walkers only kill to establish species dominance, at which point they’ll presumably just lay back in their ice-chairs, sip their blue slushies, and soak in the Winter sun.

3 Gollum from Lord of the Rings

This isn’t one of those “he was right” entries. Instead, like Ultron, a triumph for the evil Gollum would be mean a larger triumph for the greater good of the world—as well as saving tens of thousands of lives.

Gollum held the ring for almost 500 years and… nothing. No Sauron, no war. Then Bilbo steals his ring, which begins a whole chain of events that causes the entire War of the Ring. Gollum travels around Middle Earth searching for the ring, gets captured in Mordor, and reveals Bilbo’s supposed location. The Nazgul are set loose, Frodo must journey to Bree and then Rivendell, and the Fellowship is formed to destroy the ring in Mount Doom. Alternately, if Gollum had won the ring back at any of his various opportunities, it would have stayed hidden in a dark cave underneath a mountain, far north of Mordor, as hidden from Sauron and the Nazgul as it had always been. Then Sean Bean might have survived a movie or three.

2 The Director from Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods is an excellent spoof of the horror genre. It stars a group of teens who vacation at an isolated cabin and are soon beset by all sorts of ghouls, ghosties, creepies, and crawlies. We eventually learn that a global, inter-government agency known as the Facility is pulling the strings, purposefully torturing and killing the teens as part of a ritual sacrifice to appease a pantheon of cruel ancient gods. In other words, the villains are saving the world.

The movie ends with two of the teens disrupting the Facility’s operations and nullifying the ritual, which should be a good thing. That means, after all, that our heroes survive and defeat their persecutors. Except that the Facility wasn’t kidding around; without regular human sacrifices, an ancient god quickly emerges and destroys the entire world. It’s pretty hard to argue against killing five teens to save eight billion people and all their future descendants.

1 Everyone but the X-Men From X-Men

The X-Men are the coolest superheroes on the planet. They’re a badass team of sexy superheroes in leather with all sorts of fun powers, jets, and motorcycles. They’re also a bunch of unregulated, uncounted, unknown nuclear bombs walking the planet and blending in with a mortal human society. Every single X-Men villain was correct: they’re too powerful to be left alone.

Senator Kelley, who we’re meant to hate, continually brings up valid points against mutant existence. If you can walk through walls, what’s to stop you from robbing a bank? If you can control minds, what’s to stop you from forcing someone to launch a nuclear missile? Charles Xavier can murder people with a thought, Magneto can rip the metal out from your blood and bones, and Cyclops shoots lasers out of his eyes—constantly. The worst part is that they, and most mutants, awakened to their powers at puberty. Imagine a twelve-year-old with the power to freeze your blood, control lightning, or rewrite reality (all real X-Men powers). The world would constantly be on fire, both literally and metaphorically, until we deal with the mutant problem.

Alternate history is a way of reimagining true events, and one of the most commonly considered subjects is the American Civil War. That conflict was likely the most important American war in regards to the development of the modern world, and seeing as that war was fought around the legality and expansion of slavery, a lot of thought has gone into how slavery would continue or abate if the South won the war.

See Also: 10 Monuments More Controversial Than The Confederate Statues

This list touches on ten different ways the United States of America (USA) and the Confederate States of America (CSA) would have evolved were the Civil War to end following the Battle of Gettysburg. Much of this is supposition made from identifying the major events in culture, economics, and politics evolving from the late 19th-century through the 20th, and into the 21st.

Some of these ideas are based on the author’s own analysis of the American Civil War, as well as other historians who have studied the concept of alternate history where the conflict is concerned. If you have any thoughts about these items, please share them in the comments section to discuss how you think the world would be different had the Union lost the Civil War.

10 The Battle Of Gettysburg Would Have Been A Different Kind Of Turning Point

The Battle of Gettysburg was a major turning point in the war,^[1] but in real history, it was beneficial to the North, not the South. The Army of the Confederacy, under the command of General Robert E. Lee, hoped that an incursion into the North would stop the Union’s push into the South. Ideally, the battle would have thwarted the Union advance towards Richmond and other southern territories. It didn’t work, and the CSA was defeated in one of the bloodiest battles^[2] in American history.

In our alternate history view, the CSA won, and because they devastated the North so badly in the battle, all northern aggression directed at the CSA came to an end. Shortly thereafter, a peace treaty was signed, ending the American Civil War in July of 1863. In this scenario, the turning point ended the conflict and allowed the CSA to fall back to their own territory, choosing not to take parts of Pennsylvania for their nation. The Union Army would likewise consolidate their positions along the established borders, and each military would head to the West with the intent of furthering their political borders towards the Pacific Ocean.

9 Two Separate Countries Or 48 Individual Nations

Immediately following the cessation of hostilities, the border would be declared a demilitarized zone, and it would be guarded. This would reduce the number of slaves moving north, and sympathizers from the Union would have trouble relocating to the South. The biggest change would be the quick and direct westward expansion to claim new territory. California, Oregon, and Washington would likely remain/join the Union, as would the northern states along the Canadian border. The CSA would get all of the states that seceded, as well as the western states, including Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona. Texas would either become its own independent nation, or it would remain with the CSA.

Because the economies of both countries would be in shambles, it’s possible that each State would ultimately secede from its respective Union or Confederacy. If this happened, the United States would no longer exist, the Constitution would be moot, and each State would become an independent country. In a way, they are like that today, but are joined under a Federal Government—take that governing body away, and each Governor becomes a President with their own military, government, and economy. If that happened, the national borders of the States would likely change over time as new conflicts arose.^[3]

8The Conflict Would Have Continued For Decades

Another possible outcome resulting from a victorious CSA at the Battle of Gettysburg would be a continuation of the war on different fronts. As the nation continued to settle new states to the West, conflicts over the desired territory would certainly arise. Contests over specific borders, resources like rivers and ore deposits, and lands for ranging cattle would certainly spark border conflicts, which could break out into outright warfare. The next war between the states wouldn’t be a Civil War, it would be a protracted between two established nations, and it would be just as bloody, if not bloodier, than the original.

Granted, if the two countries managed to avoid an outright conflict over new states, there would still be the occasional border skirmish or disagreement over land. One of the biggest problems for the Union would be the loss of the Mississippi River, which is one of the primary avenues for shipping into the central United States. Losing that valuable shipping avenue would push the United States to gain more ground as fast as possible, and this would ultimately lead to a faster and more widespread slaughter of the indigenous populations in the American West.

7 No Democrats In The USA & No Republicans In The CSA

The United States is a two-party system, even though there are dozens of other “independent” parties active in modern politics. The same would likely be true in both the CSA and the USA following a southern victory, but one thing that would be different would be the makeup of those parties. During the Civil War, the Democratic party was overtly racist while the Republicans of the 19th-century were seeking freedom and equality for slaves and (later) women. Some believe there was an ideological shift that occurred throughout the 20th-century with the parties switching positions,^[4] but, regardless, in a world where the South won, the Democrats would remain the dominant party in the CSA while the Republicans would either be the dominant party in the North, or it would disappear following the war.

Remember, Lincoln was a Republican, and they opposed slavery while supporting a smaller government and limited spending, but the Democrats were all about values related to their established way of life, which included slavery. As the parties continued to develop in their respective nations into the 20th and 21st-centuries, they would adapt and change, but both would likely remain the dominant parties where they were established. Smaller, less powerful parties would rise to challenge the establishment, but it’s unlikely they would take hold with any degree of influence for decades into the 20th-century.

6 No War With Spain And No Spanish Independence

The Spanish American War kicked off in 1898 following the sinking of the USS Main, which the nation blamed on Spain.^[5] It was later discovered that the ship sank when its powder store exploded, but in 1898, it was all about Spain, and the two nations went to war. The front for this conflict extended in and around the waters of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam, but without a combined United States, it’s unlikely the conflict would have ever taken place.

Without that war, Cuba would have remained part of Spain, as would the other territories, and the US wouldn’t have expanded its influence into the Pacific, which became an issue in World War II. Additionally, the men who fought during that war went on to become integral in the first World War, and seeing as neither conflict would likely happen, nor would it include America, the politics of the USA would have evolved differently across the 20th-century, especially where men like Theodore Roosevelt were concerned.

5 The USA Would Not Have Entered WWI

World War I broke out in Europe following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand,^[6] and things went to hell quickly. The United States stayed out of the conflict initially but entered into in 1917, shortly before the war ended. The USA helped bring the conflict to an end, but if the Confederacy won the Civil War, it’s unlikely either the USA or CSA would have been in a position to render aid in any significant manner.

Because of this, the war would have likely continued for several years, which would have had its own alternate history of Europe stemming from the elongated conflict. Would Germany have signed a treaty that stripped them of nearly everything, sending the nation into economic turmoil, and planting the seeds of WWII? Maybe not, and maybe there would never have been a WWII or a rise of Fascism in Europe if the USA didn’t enter the Great War. There’s no way to know for sure, but it’s highly likely the USA and CSA would have entered the conflict.

4 Lincoln Wouldn’t Have Been Assassinated, And Grant Would Be #18

John Wilkes Booth didn’t like how the war ended, and he took it out on the man he considered to be responsible: Abraham Lincoln.^[7] If the South won the war, there wouldn’t have been any reason for him to assassinate the US President. Additionally, Lincoln would never have been reelected for a second term in office. Think about it; what’s he campaigning on if he lost the war and half of the United States’ states? His political career would have been over, and new blood would have risen to take his spot.

Another ‘victim’ of the war’s loss would have been Union General Ulysses S. Grant. He would never have risen to prominence following the Battle of Gettysburg, and wouldn’t have had a leg to stand in a campaign to become the 18th President of the United States. Because of these changes, the political makeup of the USA could have gone in any direction. The Republican Party might have been seen as a failed political ideology, and it could have dissolved, or it could have rebranded and returned strong. There’s really no way to know how the parties would have changed, but two things are certain: no reelection for Lincoln and no election for Grant.

3 International Trade Would Explode For The CSA

One of the biggest hindrances to the CSA during the war was a naval blockade^[8] that prohibited trade to and from the CSA. Once that blockade was lifted following a cessation of hostilities, trade with the Confederacy would explode. Not only would the USA need to establish trade with its southern neighbor, but the CSA would also begin trading with Europe en masse. Cotton and tobacco were huge exports from the South in the 19th-century, and with trade opening up, the economy of the South would grow exponentially.

There would be a rise in American competition across the borders with nations across both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans as each country vied for more trade partners overseas. The North would continue to expand its manufacturing and industrial sectors, while the South’s agriculture would propel it into a viable and sustainable economy well into the 20th-century.

Neither nation would become as large a trade partner as the USA is today, but their combined economies would still render both nations prosperous.

2The Geopolitical World Would Look Very Different Today

The 20th-century was shaped in many ways by the United States of America. Once the USA jumped into Europe in WWI, and then again in WWII with expansions into Asia, the US became a driving force in the growth of world economies, which continue well into the 21st-century. A world without the combined USA is a world that would look vastly different from today. If the October Revolution^[9] still happened, the Soviet Union would rise to become a dominating force on the world stage, and it would likely take the place the USA holds today.

This may result in an eastern expansion into Europe, and the second World War could have been fought between the Soviet Union and everybody else. If they won, Communism would be the dominant political ideology across the planet today. The CSA and the USA would be no match for the expanding Soviet Union, and the two nations might finally find a way to come back together should their mutual defense require it.

Interesting Fact: the flag shown here is the third official flag of the Confederate States (the “blood-stained banner”). The top corner is the battle flag (the most commonly seen these days when talking about the CSA but only ever a battle flag). The first official flag was called the “stars and bars” and was made up of three red and white stripes with a circle of white stars on a blue background in the top corner. The second official flag (the “stainless banner”) was identical to the one pictured but lacked the red stripe on the edge. The stripe was added to the third flag so that it didn’t appear to be a white flag denoting surrender when hanging limp against a flagpole.

1 Slavery Would Have Continued For Some Time

Slavery was the main cause of the American Civil War. The southern states feared a lack of expansion into new states and territories, which became of paramount concern following the Election of 1860, and that led to cessation, which led to the war. The only issue of “State’s Rights” that came about was a state’s right to continue using slave labor. As such, a victorious CSA would have meant that the American enslavement of Africans and African Americans would continue well into the 20th-century. Despite this, Atlantic Slave Trade would have ended, or been reduced to piracy/privateers, as most other nations no longer supported it. Slavery in the CSA would be limited to reproduction within the nation, and “supplies” from Africa would end by the turn of the century.^[10]

As the CSA expanded westward, each new State would become a slave state. Congruously, the Union states settled westward would be free states, but slavery wouldn’t continue to today, at least, not in the same capacity. The Industrial Revolution meant that a specialized and better-trained workforce was necessary to improve agricultural and industrial production. If the South continued to rely on slave labor, which was purposefully uneducated and illiterate, they would fall behind the USA and other more developed nations. It’s likely slavery would decline through the 20th-century, but it wouldn’t die out completely.

So-called “house slaves” would still be around for a long time, and unless there was significant international pressure for the CSA to abandon those practices, they would remain. Poorer farms and plantations that couldn’t afford modern equipment would try to keep pace with slave labor, but eventually, those would also die out in favor of automation and skilled labor. By the 21st-century, slavery would be limited to rich households and small enclaves of the CSA, with many segregated into small communities where they would be relied upon for small levels of production.

The video clip above is from the satirical mockumentary “C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America”.

In 1913, French agricultural engineer Max Ringelmann studied people playing tug of war. His studies resulted in the observation of the Ringelmann Effect. It posits that the more individuals or groups are involved in an action, the less effort exerted by any individual unit. After all, there’s less blame that will be put on any specific unit in the event of failure, and less credit in success. Not to mention more infighting, confusion, chokepoints, bottlenecks, and so on. As we’ll see, Ringelmann’s Effect can definitely be a valid principle. 

For the purposes of this list, the largest unit covered will be a “brigade.” In the army, a brigade is a collection of regiments (usually around four). A regiment is a group of battalions (often two) and a battalion is a group of companies, and companies are generally around 100 troops. As we’ll also see, sometimes a company is a much larger group of soldiers than what is needed to change the course of a battle, and with it, often history.   

10. The 303rd Squadron

Despite the fact the nation of Poland surrendered less than a month after Germany invaded on September 1, 1939, that was by no means the end of Polish military involvement in the Second World War. In August 1940, the 303rd Squadron was formed out of refugee pilots from the 1st Police Air Force Regiment that gathered in Blackpool, England. Trained on outmoded planes back in Poland, they took to their Hawker Hurricanes with such vigor that they shot to the top of the Royal Air Force ranking for the Battle of Britain and stayed there for essentially the duration of the war, shooting down three times the number of enemy planes for an average RAF squadron while suffering one third the casualties. On September 7, 1940 alone they shot down 14 Luftwaffe planes without suffering a single casualty. 

Plenty of experts both then and in recent years have given the 303rd Squadron credit for being the key to victory. Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding said that if it weren’t for their contribution in the Battle of Britain, “I hesitate to say the outcome would be the same.” Carl Cruff of the New England Air Museum said of the 303rd “…they were able to turn the tide of history.” Despite their amazing performance, for decades their contribution was downplayed, largely due to Poland’s presence behind the Iron Curtain increasing tensions with the British government for being unable to keep the promise of returning the Poles to their liberated homeland.     

9. Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry 

By Western standards at least, it’s not ideal for a group of soldiers to have the word “princess” in their regiment’s name, and this was particularly the case in the 1950s. The teasing very likely came to an end after the events of April 24-25, 1951. That was when the 2nd Battalion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry was deployed to Hill 677 to defend the withdrawal of the South Korean army across the Kapyong River Valley, about 10 miles from the 38th Parallel, in response to a massive Chinese offensive. 

To show just what the 700 Canadians were up against, on April 23, the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment clashed with the Chinese and were forced to withdraw after suffering heavy losses. The next day 5,000 Chinese troops began waves of assaults on the Canadians, including under cover of night. Desperate measures were needed to hold the line, such as one wounded private needing to launch one-man counterattacks three times. At another point Lt. Michael Levy resorted to requesting Canadian artillery bombard his own position to halt an attack. Towards the end of the battle the Canadians were completely cut off, saved only by air-dropped supplies. Ultimately, their sacrifice and bravery would buy the United Nations forces time to regroup and stymie the larger Chinese offensive.      

8. 1st Tank Brigade

Let’s talk about, by far, the most recent events on this list. It’s time to turn our attention to Chernihiv, a city in Ukraine roughly 60 miles north of Kiev. When the Russian Invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, this brigade of roughly 150 tanks and 1,200 troops was the only force that stood between the city of 230,000 people and the Russian 41st Combined Arms Group, which included more than 10 battalions. As early as February 25, the 1st Brigade had brought the 41st to a standstill. 

By March 6, the greatly outnumbered brigade was being predicted to surrender as its supply lines were in danger of encirclement. Instead, it not only held out, but suffered much lower casualties than expected and managed the feat of shooting down Russian aircraft. By March 23, having suffered 10,000 casualties, the 41st had fallen back to change strategy, handing the Ukrainians a surprise victory. 

7. The Cavalry Reserve at Poitiers

Now that relatively current events are out of the way, this next entry is going to the other end of the timeline and taking us to the Middle Ages. As far as major battles of the Hundred Years War (1340-1457) go, the 1356 CE Battle of Poitiers is often overshadowed by the Battle of Crécy a decade earlier, and the Battle of Agincourt half a century later. After the end of the 10-year ceasefire in the wake of the milestone victory at Crécy, an English force of 12,000 under the command of Prince Edward “The Black” raided into central France. They were caught by an army of 40,000 French under the command of King John II, and despite an attempted retreat on Prince Edward’s part, on September 19 the battle began. 

While the longbowmen once again had a devastating effect on the French – just as they had at Crécy – this time it was by no means such a lopsided fight. Attacking in three main waves, they threatened to break the English army. Edward sent a force of 160 cavalrymen around the French army, which spread a panic among the French that they were being surrounded. This sneak attack resulted in a rout so bad that King John II was captured, his ransom not paid until 1360.  

6. Zvika Force    

In 1973, Syria invaded Israel near the Golan Heights. One man who was determined to stop them was 21-year-old Zvika Greengold. He had finished hitchhiking to Nafekh Base and was sent to collect wounded from two damaged Centurion tanks. Instead, Goldman and company repaired the tanks and intercepted a Syrian column in Russian T-55s. After knocking six enemy tanks out of commission, Zvika Force switched to the other tank to continue the fight, bluffing masses of Syrian tanks and their own Israeli superiors, and convincing them that there simply had to be more than one tank out there taking on dozens of enemies. 

Eventually Zvika Force joined a group of a dozen other tanks. While fighting more than 100 additional tanks, Zvika Force repeatedly had to defend Nafekh by itself. In the end, it was 30 hours before Zvika and company left their Centurion tank, having bought more than enough time to reinforce the base and stop the invasion. The story was later heavily criticized for being propaganda. To be sure, there was some exaggeration of his exploits. For example, some reports swelled the number of kills Zvika Force inflicted to 60 tanks, which Greengold himself said was nonsense. Still, the heroism of this skeleton tank crew was not to be denied. 

5. Beale’s Rifle Company 

The popular image of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans is basically redcoat soldiers marching to be shot en masse by Americans while inflicting negligible casualties in response, and two weeks after the war was over to boot. But that famously misguided charge was the end result of several engagements that began in December 1814, and earlier in the battle things had been going much more favorably for the British. In the first clash, the British captured five American gunships at Lake Borgne and took the initiative. 

Then on the night of December 23, 1814, the British infantry encountered Beale’s Rifle Company at the Villere Plantation. Although the battle ended in a stalemate and the casualties were about even, British morale was badly shaken and further attacks were delayed, giving plenty of time to reinforce the defenses for when the British launched their famous doomed attack on January 8 the next year. Unusually for a group that so greatly distinguished themselves in a rough fight, Beale’s Rifle Company was composed of merchants and lawyers. Twenty years after the battle, the members were provided land grants.  

4. Rosecrans at Rich Mountain

On July 11, 1861, early in the American Civil War, a Northern army under General George McClellan stood opposite a Southern army under General Robert Garnett at Rich Mountain, Virginia. The Southerners were defending two Appalachian mountain passes and the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, which would be instrumental if the Confederacy wanted to end the break away of northwestern Virginia counties. McClellan sent a brigade of troops under General William Rosencrans to flank the Confederates. Rosecrans did so, then launched an attack as ordered.

As reported by veteran John Beatty in his 1879 memoir The Citizen Soldier, McClellan and his troops could easily hear the battle going on in the enemy’s rear, and the troops were waiting for McClellan to order the attack be pressed home. But McClellan decided to forgo any such attack because he believed Rosencrans was beyond saving. In fact, Rosencrans’s brigade had defeated the southerners and captured half of their army. 

3. 8th Hussar Cavalry

On January 22, 1795, Holland was at war with France as the French Revolutionary Wars were raging. A fleet of fourteen Dutch ships froze in the waters near Hexel Island, roughly 50 miles north of Amsterdam. Well-armed, the vessels were ready for an attack by ships from unfrozen waters or by artillery bombardment.

So, General Jean-Charles Pichergu turned to a more unusual weapon for battling gunboats, and ordered a cavalry charge on the ships. The 8th Hussar Cavalry caught the ships so completely off guard that they surrendered faster than the French had dared hope in one of the more unusual events in military history. 

2. Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon

When the Wehrmacht launched its final Blitzkrieg on December 18, 1944 to begin the Battle of the Bulge, the I&R Platoon of the 394th Infantry Regiment near Lanzerath, Belgium were just 18 men, a group led by a 20-year-old Lieutenant Lyle Bouck. After spotting the approach of the 1st SS Panzer Division, the platoon’s communications with high command were cut by a two hour artillery bombardment, and a group of more than 250 organized paratroopers attacked. Unfortunately for the attackers, the platoon had already received their orders to hold at all costs. 

Over the course of the next day, the platoon inflicted 200 enemy casualties and stalled the advance for most of a day until 50 paratroopers successfully organized a flanking attack at dusk. Amazingly they only suffered one wounded casualty when Bouck was shot in the leg and one death. The Battle of Lanzerath would provide such an invaluable delay that it knocked practically the entire northern German attack off schedule by 18 hours, allowing massively better preparation for defenses and organizing counterattacks. It wouldn’t be until 1981 that the remarkable stand was recognized and the platoon became the most heavily decorated of the US military.     

1. The Lost Battalion

Speaking of battles between Americans and Germans that came down to a huge degree to the actions of one small group, on October 2, 1918, 700 soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 308th Infantry under Major Charles Whittlesley attacked the Germans along the Charlevaux Ravine in the Argonne Forest. While units on either of their flanks stalled, those nine companies reached their objective (by some accounts through a breakthrough, by others because the Germans lured them in through an ordered withdrawal) and then were cut off by the 2nd Landwehr Division. Over the next five days the battalion was subjected to almost relentless sniping, machine-gunning, and attacks.  

Not only did those isolated troops face countless attacks by a vastly superior force alone, the one point where they got support from the rest of the Allied army, it actually helped the German Army. On October 4, the 152nd Field Artillery Brigade began a bombardment of the area in an attempt to relieve the battalion, but due to faulty information their shells overwhelmingly landed on their fellow troops, killing 30 of them.

The Germans were well aware of this, and when the Americans sent pigeons back to command to call for an end to the bombardment, the German snipers gunned them down. The one pigeon that got through arrived with a wound from a German bullet. The end of the bombardment meant the resumption of German assaults, but even out of food and low on ammo they were able to repulse the attacks, and the attempt to destroy the battalion tied down the German troops sufficiently for the rest of the American offensive to break through. Only less than 200 came out of the battle still able-bodied, having done much to bring about the end of the First World War the month after.   

Dustin Koski wrote Return of the Living, a postapocalyptic supernatural comedy.

The British Empire was the largest empire in history in terms of landmass, as well as one of the most formidable military powers in the world at its peak. From Napoleonic France to southeast Asia to the Americas, Great Britain was known for its spectacular successes on the battlefield, often against much larger, better-armed enemies. 

Of course, you can’t win every battle you fight. Like every other powerful empire in history, the grand story of the British Empire also contains quite a few accounts of massive, catastrophic military upsets. 

10. Battle Of Isandlwana

The Battle of Isandlwana was the first engagement of the Anglo-Zulu war – a major conflict in the south-eastern part of South Africa involving the Zulu kingdom and Great Britain. Fought on January 22, 1879, it would be one of the bloodiest defeats suffered by British forces at the hands of a native army, despite their considerable superiority in military technology. 

Armed with rockets and state-of-the-art breech loading rifles – compared to old school melee weapons like pikes and spears on the Zulu side – the British forces were caught off guard by the sheer number of the Zulu army. Lord Chelmsford, who led the attack, vastly underestimated their will to fight, too, and by the end of the day, a big chunk of the British force was decimated. 

It was the first battle of the Anglo-Zulu war, and while the Zulus were eventually defeated after a six-month campaign, the battle at Isandlwana is still counted as a major British defeat in colonial-era Africa. It was a part of the larger British efforts to form a South African confederation in the region, directly challenging the autonomy of multiple, ethnically-diverse African states like Zululand. 

9. First Anglo-Boer War

The First Anglo-Boer War – also known as the First Transvaal War of Independence, or the Transvaal rebellion – could be seen as an extension of the global British-Dutch rivalry at the time, though the Boers weren’t actually Dutch citizens. While they did predominantly come from a Dutch lineage and spoke Dutch as their first language, Boers included descendants of settlers from all over Western Europe. 

British incursions into Boer territory started long before the war, though it was the annexation of Transvaal in 1877 – one of the territories governed by the Boers – that really triggered it. The war – or more accurately the rebellion – began in December 1880, pitting the British empire against an equivalently armed and well trained enemy. 

As you can guess from the general theme of this list, it didn’t go too well for the British. The Boers turned out to be much better at fighting in that terrain, as they regularly used firearms for hunting. They had much better weapons and tactics, too, and the British forces were regularly faced with mobile, mounted groups of riflemen. 

The war ended with the decisive battle of Majuba Hill in February 1881, when the Boers successfully stormed the British position of Majuba Hill manned by over 400 soldiers. More than 22,000 British soldiers lost their lives throughout this campaign, with over 6,000 casualties on the Boer side. 

8. Siege Of Kut

The Battle of Kut was fought during the Mesopotamian campaign of the First World War. About 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, Kut was then a strategically crucial town due to its proximity to oil – a resource that would change warfare forever. 

On December 7, 1915, the Ottoman army laid siege to the town, garrisoned by a British force of about 10,000 soldiers. While it was later strengthened by a relief contingent of about 30,000 soldiers, the siege would still end in a disaster for the Brits.

In an almost five-month-long siege, Ottoman forces – despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered – killed more than 30,000 British soldiers, making it one of the deadliest military engagements in British history. More than 13,000 soldiers were taken prisoner by the end of it, including six generals and 476 officers. 

7. Battle Of Tug Argan

The East African campaign of WW2 is a largely forgotten phase of the war, and perhaps rightly so, too. Mostly controlled by the British, the region had little strategic value for either side, though it still saw some of the heaviest fighting of the war outside the main European and Pacific theaters. 

The Battle of Tug Argan was an early fight during the campaign, fought between Italian and British forces on August 11, 1940. It was a lightly defended position, as they didn’t expect Italian forces to venture so far into British-controlled territory for an outpost that could at best be described as ‘occasionally hospitable’. It was, however, great for morale among Italian troops, which could come in handy elsewhere. 

Despite their heavy fortifications, the British forces were overrun within less than five days, though at a high cost for Italy. Despite their numeric advantage, the Italian force lost over 2,000 soldiers that day. British casualties numbered around 250, as they successfully managed to retreat from the position before it was stormed. 

6. Battle Of Gazala

The Gazala line refers to a heavily fortified Allied position that had developed west of Tobruk – a port city in Libya – during the North African campaign of WW2. Its primary purpose was to hold the city, which had been put under siege by German and Italian forces during the earlier phases of the campaign. By May 1942, the line was manned and defended almost entirely by the British Eighth Army; a formation especially trained for combat and reconnaissance in the desert, even if that would do little to stop the Axis war machine. Well, at first, anyway.  

On May 26, the 50-mile-long line came under heavy attack from Italian and German forces led by Erwin Rommel, also known as the Desert Fox for his achievements in this theater. By even conservative estimates, the British formation – made up of soldiers from its colonies and the Free French Republic – numbered close to 175,000, outnumbering Rommel’s force by more than 2:1. 

While the defenders proved to be stubbornly resistant, the Eighth Army was eventually unable to maintain its supply lines, unlike Rommel, who was regularly supplied by the Italian command centers in Libya and across the Mediterranean. Tobruk fell on June 21, and the remaining Allied forces were surrounded and forced to retreat across the Egyptian border. Over 50,000 soldiers lost their lives throughout this battle, and about 35,000 were taken captive, compared to a loss of about 3,300 soldiers for Germany and Italy.

5. The Medway Raid

The Dutch raid on the Medway dockyards in 1667 came at the worst time possible. Just on the heels of the Great Fire of London and a devastating outbreak of the bubonic plague that killed upto 100,000 people, the country was also engaged in an increasingly intense war with the Dutch. The raid, however, would prove to be its most intense and devastating phase. 

Unlike the latter years of the empire, this was a time when other maritime empires – like the Dutch and Portuguese – posed a considerable challenge to the Royal Navy. The raid started on June 12, when Dutch ships passed the defensive chain on British shores and proceeded to lay waste to the entire docks. Many fortifications, smaller boats and canon batteries were destroyed, in exchange for minimal losses for the Dutch. The destruction was so massive that it looked like the sea was on fire, and by the end of it, the Dutch had captured four ships, including HMS Royal Charles. It was easily the largest British defeat on home soil, and it would take years before the Royal Navy was restored to its full capacity. 

4. Battle Of Carillon

The Battle of Carillon was a part of the larger French and Indian War, which was in turn a part of the larger Seven Years’ War between Britain and France. Fought at Fort Carillon – a well defended French position between Lake George and Lake Chaplain in New York – it would see some of the heaviest fighting of the war.

The battle began on July 6, 1758. Despite the overwhelming numerical superiority of the British contingent, it would hardly take a couple of days for the French – allied with various native groups in the region – to drive them away. By even the most conservative estimates, the fort was stormed by at least 15,000 British soldiers, compared to about 3,600 French defenders. 

While the British troops were well-trained and battle-ready, the attack was made without the use of artillery, resulting in heavy losses and a quick defeat. By the end of it, more than 2,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded in the attempt, compared to just over 300 casualties on the French side. 

3. First Anglo-Afghan War

British forces from India invaded Afghanistan in March 1839, marking the beginning of the first Anglo-Afghan War. It was a part of a larger cold war brewing between Russia and Britain for much of the 19th century. If Afghanistan was invaded by Russia, they feared that it could be then used to launch an invasion of British-held India – by then one of the most lucrative colonial enterprises in the world. 

The invasion force was made up of 20,000 soldiers, along with a caravan of about 38,000 civilians hoping to resettle the country after it was smoothly taken over, like it usually went for the Brits. That’s what happened, too, at least during the first phase. The British war machine was able to topple the existing emir – Dost Mohammad – with relative ease by August 1839, replacing him with the puppet, pro-British ruler, Shuja Shah. 

While it was an easy place to conquer, Afghanistan would prove to be an impossible territory to hold. For more than two years, British forces in Kabul fought a violent insurgency on all sides, including murders of a few high profile British officers inside Kabul. With a vastly outnumbered force – as most of the initial members of the caravan had already moved back home to India – the British force began a retreat in January 1842 with a total of about 16,000 people. It would turn into a massacre, as the whole column was harrassed and attacked by Afghan fighters until they reached Jalalabad. By ‘they’, we mean ‘him’, as only one British officer was able to survive this ordeal, as the entire column was decimated on the way.

2. Gallipoli Campaign

The Gallipoli campaign during WW1 aimed to strike at the heart of the Ottoman empire – Istanbul. The allied force was massive – over 480,000 troops took part in the campaign, though most of them would never make it back. A bulk of it was British troops, along with smaller contingents from Australia, New Zealand, Russia and other allied countries. 

The overall objective was to achieve complete allied superiority over the Gallipoli peninsula, which could then be used as a base for direct attacks on Istanbul. Despite heavy losses of the Royal Navy under the command of Winston Churchill – then the First Lord of Admiralty in the British Navy – the allies managed to capture a few positions on the beach in February, 1915, which would soon be turned into a network of trench lines similar to those in Europe. 

For about a year, the allies tried to maintain their positions, though they were no match for the entrenched and well-equipped Ottoman force. Moreover, they were able to reinforce their positions much faster than the allies, who were also suffering from deadly outbreaks of diseases like dysentery.

The allied force capitulated in January 1916, though only after suffering heavy losses. Both sides suffered over 250,000 casualties, though some estimates put that number even higher. 

1. Battle Of Singapore

When WW2 broke out in the east, Singapore was easily one of the most heavily-defended British strongholds in the region. They had spent much of the inter-war period strengthening its defenses, especially in the navy department, as it was vulnerable to attacks from the rapidly-militarizing Japanese empire. When the Japanese did attack, however, all that would do little to stop it.

The assault began on February 8, 1942, when Japanese forces – numbering over 23,000 – landed on the island and established a beachhead. While the British outnumbered them by over 3:1, the Japanese had almost complete air superiority over the region, thanks to their earlier territorial gains in Malaysia. The infantry divisions were no match for the elite Japanese units, either, and by February 15, the entire British-led force was forced to surrender. Over 90,000 allied combatants were taken prisoner that day, many of whom would later succumb to the horrors of a Japanese POW camp.

French efforts to expand its overseas empire go as far back as the 16th century, though it wasn’t until 1605 that a settled outpost was established in what is now Nova Scotia, Canada. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, it would grow to be one of the largest and wealthiest empires in history, with colonies spread across the Americas, Africa, Middle East, Indian subcontinent, and southeast Asia at its peak. Much of that was made possible by military conquest, as the French army was also a potent and formidable military force, often equipped with state-of-the-art technology and made up of conscripts from around the world.

Of course, the French imperial army also went through its fair share of military defeats, much like every other empire in history. Despite its technological superiority and vast numbers, the French empire faced many worthy enemies throughout its existence. That includes two large wars of independence in Indochina – now Vietnam – and Algeria, and the largest slave rebellion ever in Haiti, among other lesser-known conflicts fought around the world.

10. Korea

The French invasion of Korea in 1866 was triggered by the persecution of Christians ongoing across the country at that time. In February, seven French Catholic missionaries were executed on the orders of the imperial regent of Korea, drawing a disproportionate response from the French forces stationed in the Far East.

Fighting was largely limited to Ganghwa island – a strategic location on the Han river en route to Seoul. For six weeks beginning in October, the French forces occupying the island made multiple attempts to advance towards the heavily-fortified capital, though to little success. The Korean army was better-equipped and numerically-superior, with the added ‘home ground’ advantage. The invasion resulted in a humiliating defeat for the French, which massively reduced its influence in the region for years to come. 

9. Austria

The Battle of Neerwinden was fought on March 18, 1793 between France and an Austrian army led by the Habsburg Prince Frederick Josias. While not a major battle on its own, it was an important engagement in the larger French Revolutionary wars – a series of conflicts between post-revolution France and a coalition of European monarchies. 

It was the first French defeat in the otherwise-successful invasion of the Austrian Netherlands, setting the stage for further setbacks against the Habsburgs during the following year. Despite the revolutionary morale and numerical superiority of the French troops, they were no match for the trained, experienced army wielded by Austria. By the end of it, the French army was forced to retreat with losses of over 4,000 soldiers, compared to about 2,000 lives lost on the Austrian side. 

8. China

The 1859 Battle of Taku Forts in China happened in the backdrop of the Opium Wars – a decades-long war that pitted the British and French empire against imperial China. It was a large-scale conflict occasionally involving other European powers, fought primarily over trading rights in China. While the western nations ultimately won the war, the battle at Taku Forts was a huge setback for both Britain and France, forcing them to retreat and return with a much larger force. 

On June 25, allied forces began bombarding the forts – a strategic location on the way to the capital city of Peking, now Beijing. A contingent of soldiers was also sent to overrun the garrison, though the combined attack was soon halted and repulsed by the heavily-fortified defensive positions of the Chinese. Out of 1,100 invading soldiers, 434 were killed or wounded that day, with four of their gunboats sunk.  

7. Mexico

Cinco de Mayo is often confused with Mexico’s independence day, though it’s actually the date of a major Mexican victory against French forces back in 1862. Known as the Battle of Puebla, it was one of the many small and large-scale battles fought during the Second French Intervention in Mexico – an invasion launched by Napoleon III to replace the nascent Mexican republic with a conservative French puppet state. 

At the time, Puebla was the second largest Mexican city, located at a strategic location on the way to the capital. The French – emboldened by earlier victories in the campaign and the overwhelming technological and military superiority of their forces – attacked the city on May 5. While the defending army was made up of volunteers and poorly-trained militias armed with basic weapons like machetes, they were able to hold off the French advance, eventually forcing them to retreat. 

The victory at Puebla galvanized Mexican resistance against colonialism. While France did take Puebla and Mexico City in 1863, they could never hold the territory due to irregular warfare waged by Mexican rebels across the countryside. After nearly six years of fighting, French forces completely withdrew from Mexico in March, 1867. 

6. Japan

When France was successfully invaded and occupied by Germany during the early phases of the Second World War, many of its overseas properties were still controlled by imperial French troops. Sensing an opportunity, Japan signed a pact with the collaborationist Vichy government to station more than 6,000 troops in French Indochina – a colonial-era name for the countries of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. 

Without warning, a full-scale Japanese invasion was launched on September 22, 1940, as infantry columns breached the border at three places. For close to five days, colonial French troops and Foreign Legionaires fought the Imperial Japanese Army for control of major strategic points, though they were eventually defeated by the superior Japanese airpower and armor.

5. Prussia

The Franco-Prussian War began in July 1870, when the French emperor Napoleon III ordered his troops to mount a full-scale invasion of Prussia – then a loose confederation of German states under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck. While the immediate cause was a dispute regarding the Spanish throne, the war was fought in the backdrop of a larger rivalry between Prussia and France – at that point two of the most powerful states in Europe. 

The war ended in disaster for France. Despite being evenly matched in terms of numbers, Prussia was able to deploy a large number of troops to the battlefield within a few days’ time. French soldiers, on the other hand, were usually unequipped or late to the front, resulting in catastrophic losses for one of the most technologically-advanced military forces of the time.

The war ended with the Siege of Paris and eventual French defeat in 1971, and it would have lasting consequences for Europe in the years to come. In France, it ended Napoleon’s reign and established the French Third Republic. In Germany, it reinforced popular faith in German militarism and united the previously-separate Prussian states into a singular German empire. 

4. Vietnam

The First Indochina war between France and communist rebels in Vietnam – then Indochina – began almost as soon as the end of WW2. As Japan signed the surrender terms on September 2, 1945, an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam was declared by the Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh on the same day, setting the stage for a years-long conflict that would significantly erode the strength of the French colonial empire.

While fighting was limited to small-scale, low-intensity skirmishes in the early years, all that changed in 1949 after the successful revolution in China. The Viet Minh deployed increasingly aggressive guerrilla tactics across North Vietnam and parts of South Vietnam, prompting the United States and other western powers to get involved. 

The war came to an end with the siege of Dien Bien Phu – a mountain outpost near the Laotian border occupied by France. While heavily fortified and regularly supplied from air, the garrison couldn’t withstand the overwhelming assault by Viet Minh forces. The garrison was overrun within two months beginning in March, 1954, bringing a decisive and bloody end to the French colonial empire in Asia. 

3. Algeria

The Algerian War of Independence against colonial French rule was one of the largest conflicts of the 20th century. Beginning in 1954 and lasting until 1962, more than 1.5 million Algerians may have died throughout the war, though the real numbers could be far higher. Much of the violence could be attributed to French retaliation against revolutionary activities by the Algerians, particularly those allied with the National Liberation Front (FLN), including summary executions, rape, and torture against the native civilian population.

The most intense phase of the war was the Battle of Algiers in 1956-57, where Algerian rebels deployed increasingly-brutal combat techniques to break the French will to fight. While retaliation was often swift and disproportionate, the ferocity of the fighting quickly turned the French citizenry against the war. France did make some breakthroughs from 1958 and 1959, though growing anti-war pressure at home and abroad forced Charles de Gaulle to sign a peace agreement in 1962, ending more than 132 years of French rule in Algeria. 

2. Russia