1. Treaty of Mexico City
   Treaty of Ghent
2. Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles brought a formal end to World War I, "the war to end all wars." But the treaty so humiliated Germany that this nation was bound to rise again in anger … and that's exactly what happened.

1. Bay of Pigs
   Gulf of Tonkin Incident
2. Tet Offensive

Sure, the Vietnam War didn't end until 1975. But the '68 Tet Offensive surprised the American public and turned the country against the war. It marked a major swing in the fortunes of American resolve.

1. Battle of Shiloh
   surrender of the CSS Shenandoah
2. Battle of Fort Sumter

The Confederate warship CSS Shenandoah traveled all over the world during the Civil War. The ship finally traveled to England, where in November 1865 it became the last Confederate force to surrender.

1. an instant surrender
   a massive coalition ground attack
2. a military tribunal

After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, a U.S.-led coalition began bombing the daylights out of the aggressors. Just a few days after the ground offensive began, President Bush called for a ceasefire, effectively ending the war.

1. Battle of Yorktown
   Boston Tea Party
2. Boston Massacre

At the 1781 Battle of Yorktown, George Washington's men put the clamps on the redcoats. With no way to escape, the British surrendered, and America won its independence.

1. Battle of Tippecanoe
   Battle of the Bulge
2. Battle of New Orleans

The Battle of New Orleans came at the very end of the War of 1812, and it had no real impact on the outcome. Nevertheless, it was a rousing victory for outnumbered U.S. forces led by General Andrew Jackson.

1. Home By Christmas Offensive
   Chinese Spring Offensive
2. Chinese Civil War

In a back-and-forth affair, the 1951 Chinese Spring Offensive attempted to destroy United Nations forces for good. It didn't succeeed, but it did help to create a stalemate that ended in a 1953 armistice.

1. Napoleon's exile
   Battle of Waterloo
2. all of the above

At the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon and his French army suffered a surprise defeat. The battle ended with Napoleon's second (and final) exile from Europe, and left his empire deflated.

1. Haitian president's death
   fall of the Berlin Wall
2. collapse of Cuba

On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, one of the most symbolic signs that Communism in Europe was crumbling. Not long afterward, the USSR collapsed and the Cold War ended.

1. Treaty of Paris
   Treaty of Ghent
2. Treaty of New Orleans

The French and Indian War saw the French and British fighting over lands in North America. The British (with the help of colonists) finally won, and France relented with the Treaty of Paris.

1. atomic bomb attacks
   the invasion of Tokyo
2. firebombing of Dresden

In early August 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Days later, it followed with another at Nagasaki. The gigantic weapons may have helped accelerate Japan's final surrender.

1. capture of Mexico City
   the Battle of the Alamo
2. the occupation of Tijuana

In the 1840s, Mexico and the United States waged war over lands of the Southwest. When American troops invaded and occupied Mexico City in 1848, the war ended, and the U.S. seized one-third of traditional Mexican territory for itself.

1. assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
   Battle of Iwo Jima
2. 100 Days Offensive

Starting in August 1918, the Allies began the 100 Days Offensive, a massive attempt to push back the Central Powers. And starting at the Battle of Amiens, the Central Powers began to disintegrate.

1. Treaty of Paris (1898)
   U.S. surrender
2. destruction of the USS Maine

The Spanish-American War only lasted for about three months, and it ended with the 1898 Treaty of Paris. In the treaty, Spain gave up its claims to vital strongholds like the Philippines.

1. Francisco Franco declared victory.
   Germany enters the war.
2. Mussolini is killed.

After years of horrific atrocities, the Nationalists won numerous key battles. When Francisco Franco declared victory, other nations accepted his claims and the war was all but over.

1. fall of New York
   capture of Washington, D.C.
2. occupation of Richmond, Virginia

In April 1865, Union troops finally managed to enter and occupy Richmond, Virginia. With the fall of the Confederate capital, the war ended just days later.

1. American troops joined the war.
   Charles de Gaulle attacks Russia.
2. President Wilson suffers a stroke.

The U.S. was actively involved throughout WWI, but didn't commit to military action until 1918. America's fresh troops reinvogorated the Allies in their effort to defeat the Central Powers.

1. The U.S. deploys nukes.
   Argentinian special ops destroy a base.
2. The British conducted an amphibious assault.

Argentina took the Falklands Islands from the British by force in 1982 … but Britain refused to lose a strategic base near South America. It retaliated with an amphibious assault and retook the islands after two months of fighting.

1. the October Revolution
   the Red Army is founded
2. Basmachi Revolt suppressed

Muslims resented begin drafted into Russia's WWI battles, and the Basmachi movement found Central Asian people fighting against the empire. After years, of intermittent battles, the Red Army put down the Basmachi Revolt for good in 1934.

1. America nukes everyone.
   Britain attacks the Philippines.
2. USSR declares war on Japan.

In August 1945, the USSR declared war on Japan and immediately invaded Japan's territories. Almost immediately, the Empire of the Rising Sun cried "uncle."

1. Treaty of London
   Treaty of Seattle
2. Treaty of Paris

The Treaty of Paris (1783) brought the American Revolution to its official conclusion. In the ashes of the war, a new country -- the United States -- rose.

1. a Turkish invasion
   U.S. intervention
2. an alliance between Britain and Prussia

The 18th-century Seven Years' War is often called the first true world war. And the war turned largely between Britain and Prussia formed an alliance that altered the war's outcome.

1. Case Red
   Operation Torch
2. Operation Frequent Wind

As Saigon began to fall in 1975, U.S. forces started Operation Frequent Wind, a large-scale evacuation of civilians and (some) South Vietnamese from the city. Thousands upon thousands of people fled to avoid reprisals from North Vietnamese troops.

1. an Egyptian assassination attempt
   Iranian ground attacks
2. major Israeli airstrikes

In 1967, faced with Egyptian closures of major Israeli shipping routes, Israel launched major air strikes multiple Arab counties. The Six-Day War was a decisive Israeli victory, one that caused crippling destruction to the Arab militaries.

1. death of President Roosevelt
   assassination of Emperor Hirohito
2. Hitler's death

On April 20, 1945, Adolf Hitler and his new wife committed suicide in a bunker beneath Berlin. Their fates, though grim, were undoubtedly better than if the Soviet troops in the city had gotten their hands on them.

1. assassination of Abraham Lincoln
   a surrender at Appomattox Court House
2. General Lee's death

President Lincoln was assassinated before the war ended, but too late to help the Confederate cause. On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to the Union, essentially bringing the four-year war to its inevitable conclusion.

1. Hitler was born
   England was crushed
2. Battle of Castillon

The Hundred Years' War was a succession of linked wars and battles that began in 1337. It essentially ended with the Battle of Castillon, a 1453 battle that saw England losing most of its remaining territories in France.

1. Central Powers
   Eight-Nation Alliance
2. Tripartite Pact

The Boxer Rebellion saw parts of Chinese society rising up against foreign and Christian elements. An Eight-Nation Alliance (mostly from Europe) successfully put down the rebellion, but by then, tens of thousands of foreigners had already been killed.

1. execution of Charles I
   Napoleon's interference
2. exile of William the Conqueror

In the English Civil War (1642-1651), the so-called Roundheads took on the Cavaliers for the future of the country's government. The English monarch collapsed, in part after Charles I was executed.

1. three high-profile assassinations
   a nuclear bomb attack
2. The war is still ongoing.

It began shortly after the 9/11 attacks … and it is still going. The American War in Afghanistan is likely to overtake Vietnam as the U.S.'s longest (and perhaps, most futile) war in history.