Above: Map of Civil War in America (1861 - 1865)

The American Civil War (1861-1865) was a separatist conflict between the United States Federal government (the “Union”) and eleven Southern slave states that declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America, led by President Jefferson Davis. The Union, led by President Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party, opposed the expansion of slavery and rejected any right of secession. Fighting commenced on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a Federal military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

Above: Massive Death of soldiers during the American Civil War

Above: Map of American Revolutionary War (click map to enlarge)

When war broke out in 1775 between America and Britain it seemed that the latter would come out a sure winner. Its well organized army and navy were matchless. There were veterans from the French and Indian wars at the lead. But America had only a motley group of untrained inexperienced conscripts. The small American navy could hardly face up to the royal British fleet consisting of nearly thousand or more ships.

Above: Picture of George Washington, first President of America

In America the idea took roots that she had the divine right to expand her borders from sea to sea - it was called ‘manifest destiny’. This notion caused suffering to Mexico and Native Americans.

Tension began to grow after Texas became a part of USA following the Texas War of Independence. Frontier disputes began to snowball into armed conflicts.

Above: Map showing borders of the involved countries before and after the War of the Pacific 1879-1884

Chile, Bolivia and Peru were involved in this war. It resulted in Chile’s annexation of rich disputed regions on the Pacific coast. The main cause was a tussle between Chile and Bolivia over a part of the Atacama Desert, containing sodium nitrate that lay between 23rd and26th parallels on the Pacific Coast of South America. Chile’s military superiority and discipline brought it success while failure was the lot of Bolivia and Peru.