Military history of the United States

[6] Ongoing political tensions between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies reached a crisis in 1774 when the British placed the province of Massachusetts under martial law after the Patriots protested taxes they regarded as a violation of their constitutional rights as Englishmen.

A shift in focus to the southern American states in 1779 resulted in a string of victories for the British, but General Nathanael Greene engaged in guerrilla warfare and prevented them from making strategic headway.

General George Washington (1732–1799) proved an excellent organizer and administrator, who worked successfully with the Continental Congress and the state governors, selecting and mentoring his senior officers, supporting and training his troops, and maintaining an idealistic Republican Army.

Jeffersonian leaders preferred a small army and navy, fearing that a large military establishment would involve the United States in excessive foreign wars, and potentially allow a domestic tyrant to seize power.

[11] In the Treaty of Paris after the Revolution, the British had ceded the lands between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River to the United States, without consulting the Shawnee, Cherokee, Choctaw and other smaller tribes who lived there.

This provoked a war in the Northwest Territory in which the U.S. forces performed poorly; the Battle of the Wabash in 1791 was the most severe defeat ever suffered by the United States at the hands of American Indians.

President Washington dispatched a newly trained army to the region led by General Anthony Wayne, which decisively defeated the Indian confederacy at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.

[13] After France and Britain signed the Peace of Amiens leading to a lull in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, President Thomas Jefferson scaled back military spending.

As the fighting between the two capitals stalled, the North found more success in campaigns elsewhere, using rivers, railroads, and the seas to help move and supply their larger forces, putting a stranglehold on the South—the Anaconda Plan.

[50] For example, in May 1912, during the Negro Rebellion by Afro-Cuban rebels, President William H. Taft sent 1,292 men to Cuba to protect the American-owned sugarcane plantations and their associated properties, as well as copper mines, railroads, and trains.

In 1918, the Cacos, angered by the Marine-enforced practice of corvée (forced labor), followed the leadership of Charlemagne Peralte and Benoit Batraville into rebellion again, against the 1,500-man 1st Marine Brigade and the 2,700-man Haitian Gendarmerie.

[70] The overall neglect for military involvement eventually resulted in appeasement in the early stages of World War II, at the distress of Roosevelt (who wanted to continue cash-and-carry for the European theater and the Pacific).

After being rebuffed by Congress for attempting to reinstate cash-and-carry for the European theater, Roosevelt eventually won the favor of restoring the arms trade with belligerent nations after Germany's invasion of Poland, which is said by many to have fixed the United States economy.

Japanese forces soon seized American, British and Dutch possessions across the Pacific and Southeast Asia, with Hawaii and Australia serving as the main staging points for the eventual liberation of these territories.

[71] The loss of eight battleships and 2,403 Americans[72] at Pearl Harbor forced the U.S. to rely on its remaining aircraft carriers, which won a major victory over Japan at Midway just six months into the war, and on its growing submarine fleet.

While the final European Axis Powers were defeated within a year of Operation Overlord, the fighting in Central Europe was especially bloody for the United States, with more U.S. military deaths occurring in Germany than in any other country during the war.

[73] In the Pacific, the U.S. experienced much success in naval campaigns during 1944, but bloody battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945 led the U.S. to look for a way to end the war with minimal loss of American lives.

Peace negotiations dragged on for two years until President Dwight D. Eisenhower threatened China with nuclear weapons; an armistice was quickly reached with the two Koreas remaining divided at the 38th parallel.

[77] In the 1958 Lebanon crisis that threatened civil war, Operation Blue Bat deployed several hundred Marines to bolster the pro-Western Lebanese government from 15 July to 25 October 1958.

On 28 April 1965, 400 Marines were landed in Santo Domingo to evacuate the American Embassy and foreign nationals after dissident Dominican armed forces attempted to overthrow the ruling civilian junta.

Major American military involvement began in 1964, after Congress provided President Lyndon B. Johnson with blanket approval for presidential use of force in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

[84] The most controversial Army commander was William Westmoreland whose strategy involved systematic defeat of all enemy forces in the field, despite heavy American casualties that alienated public opinion back home.

[85] The U.S. framed the war as part of its policy of containment of Communism in Southeast Asia, but American forces were frustrated by an inability to engage the enemy in decisive battles, corruption and supposed incompetence in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and ever-increasing protests at home.

[86] With President Richard M. Nixon opposed to containment and more interested in achieving détente with both the Soviet Union and China, American policy shifted to "Vietnamization," – providing very large supplies of arms and letting the Vietnamese fight it out themselves.

[97] These chemicals are known to cause numerous health effects such as multiple cancers, peripheral neuropathy, and spina bifida in those exposed and their descendants[96][98] In October, 1983, a power struggle in Grenada, which had installed a communist-leaning government, led to increased tensions in the region.

[101] Code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon, comprised the joint United States Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps air-strikes against Libya on 15 April 1986.

After just 100 hours of ground combat, and with all of Kuwait and much of southern Iraq under coalition control, U.S. President George H. W. Bush ordered a cease-fire and negotiations began resulting in an agreement for cessation of hostilities.

Still, the political ramifications of removing Hussein would have broadened the scope of the conflict greatly, and many coalition nations refused to participate in such an action, believing it would create a power vacuum and destabilize the region.

[104] Following the Persian Gulf War, to protect minority populations, the U.S., Britain, and France declared and maintained no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq, which the Iraqi military frequently tested.

[105] Operation Uphold Democracy (19 September 1994 – 31 March 1995) was an intervention designed to reinstate the elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was reported to have died in office during the bombing of the presidential palace.

In 1763, the indigenous tribes of Pontiac 's Confederacy lay siege to Fort Detroit , a British fort on the American frontier .
The Siege of Yorktown was the decisive battle of the American Revolutionary War . The battle was the last major land engagement in the war, with the British Army's defeat at Yorktown prompting the British to negotiate an end to the conflict.
Washington's surprise crossing of the Delaware River in December 1776 was a major comeback after the loss of New York City; his army defeated the British in two battles and recaptured New Jersey.
The Battle of Fallen Timbers was a decisive battle in the Northwest Indian War , where American forces defeated the tribes of the Western Confederacy .
Stephen Decatur boarding the Tripolitan gunboat, 3 August 1804, the First Barbary War
"We have met the enemy and they are ours." Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry 's victory on Lake Erie in 1813 was an important battle in the War of 1812 .
American forces storming Chapultepec Castle during the Mexican–American War .
The Battle of Fort Sumter , as depicted by Currier and Ives
American forces led by George Custer suffered a major defeat against the Sioux in the Battle of Little Bighorn
Charge by the Rough Riders during the Battle of San Juan Hill
American soldiers in Manila during the Philippine–American War .
The Great White Fleet at the Straits of Magellan . The fleet set out to make friendly visits to other countries, and showcase America's naval power to the world.
William Allen Rogers ' cartoon depicting Theodore Roosevelt 's Big Stick policy . The enforcement of this policy in Latin America led to several U.S. interventions in the region, referred to as the Banana Wars .
American and Mexican soldiers guarding the border in Ambos Nogales during the Border War
American Expeditionary Force marching in France, 1918
AEF troops in the field, date unknown
The Washington Naval Conference was an arms control conference that sought to limit naval armaments amongst the world's powers.
The explosion aboard the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor
U.S. Army vehicles shortly after the Normandy landings
U.S. Marines and an M4 Sherman advancing toward an airfield on Cape Gloucester during the New Guinea campaign
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur signing the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Allies
American beachhead during the Battle of Inchon
Several hundred Marines were sent to Lebanon during the 1958 crisis to bolster the pro-Western government.
Formation of Bell UH-1 Iroquois ca. 1966
United States Embassy following the Tet Offensive
In 1983, American forces, assisted by the Caribbean Peace Force , invaded the island nation of Grenada .
In 1986, the USAF conducted air strikes against Libya , in retaliation for the West Berlin discotheque bombing .
U.S. military engagements 1990–2002
U.S. M1 Abrams main battle tanks and an M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle advancing through Kuwait
USS Wisconsin fires on Iraqi positions in Kuwait
American soldiers taking fire during the Battle of Mogadishu . The battle led to the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Somalia , and the end of American support for UNOSOM II .
U.S. Marines detonating an improvised explosive device during the Helmand province campaign
A U.S. Army soldier on patrol next to a Humvee in Karrada , Baghdad
A convoy of American MRAPs and Bradley Fighting Vehicles in eastern Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve