You’ve heard about the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the War on Terror.
All of these are among the most famous wars that the United States of America has ever fought in, but they are also far from the only ones.
In fact, the United States has fought in no less than one hundred wars and armed conflicts of varying sizes throughout its nearly 250 year history, and it’s time to shed light on some of these lesser-known engagements so that they are not entirely forgotten.
Here are fifteen of the most overlooked and forgotten wars and conflicts that America fought:
1 – Quasi War (1798-1800)
The Quasi War was a naval conflict fought between the United States and France not long after America secured its independence. The French had supplied much of the weapons, materials, and resources that America needed to defeat the British in the Revolutionary War, and in exchange, the newly formed American government was paying the war loans they owed to the French government back. But when the French Revolution broke out, the U.S. government claimed that this voided the deal and decided they would stop paying the loans back.
The French retaliated by seizing American trading vessels and then began to attack any merchant ships sailing in American waters. This resulted in a breakdown of diplomatic treaties between the two countries and naval warfare ensued. The French initially had the advantage by capturing over 300 American trading ships and their crews, but the American government reassembled the U.S. Navy and launched a military campaign against the French, most of which occurred in the Caribbean. The war ended with the Convention of 1800, in which America and France re-established trade with one another and would eventually lead to the Louisiana Purchase. Nearly 100 American sailors were killed in total.
2 – Barbary Wars (1801 to 1805; 1815)
In the early 1800s, pirates from the Barbary states in Northern Africa were demanding compensation from American merchant vessels in exchange for being allowed to trade in the Mediterranean. Any American ships that refused were attacked and the crew members would be captured and held for ransom. In response, President Thomas Jefferson sent U.S. Naval forces to the Mediterranean to protect the merchant ships against the pirates. The fleet proceed to attack several Barbary-controlled cities and outposts along the North African coastlines, which eventually forced the Barbary pirates to allow American forces to continue to trade in the region.
Years later in 1815, the Barbary pirates resumed their attacks against American trading vessels; they were encouraged by Great Britain, which was engaged in another war with America in the War of 1812. President James Madison yet again ordered U.S. Naval ships to attack Barbary-controlled cities and outposts; this time, the Barbary states conceded after only three days and American trading operations resumed yet again.
3 – Battle of Barataria Bay (1814)
The Battle of Barataria Bay occurred in Louisiana in 1815 as the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain was raging. Pirate forces were supplying a smuggler named Jean Lafitte with contraband; Lafitte would also direct raids on merchant or civilian trading ships that passed through the region as well. The United States was concerned that Lafitte and his men would aid the British in taking the vital port of New Orleans, so a naval force consisting of the USS Carolina and six more gunboats engaged ten different pirate vessels led by Lafitte in the bay.
The pirates were forced to retreat and the American forces proceeded into the bay, where they seized the pirates’ contraband and destroyed many of their buildings and storehouses. As a result, Lafitte was forced to cut a deal with the Americans instead of the British; he supplied the Americans with many men and weapons, which helped General and future President Andrew Jackson secure victory for the United States at the Battle of New Orleans the following year.
4 – Battle of Quallah Battoo (1832)
The island of Sumatra was highly valued by many nations for being an excellent source of pepper. In 1831, an American merchant ship, Friendship, arrived on the island to secure a shipment of pepper to transport back to the United States. Upon the ship’s arrival, local natives from a rivaling kingdom (Kuala Batu) attacked the ship. Three crew members were killed and the cargo was plundered. The men already ashore managed to get back to and retake the ship, and they then sailed all the way back to Massachusetts.
When President Andrew Jackson learned what had happened, he promptly ordered the crew of the USS Potomac to exact revenge on Kuala Batu…and exact revenge they did. In the ensuing battle, nearly six hundred Sumatran warriors and villagers were killed and their villages were burned to the ground in retaliation. Only two Americans were killed in the engagement. The other Sumatran kingdoms then quickly offered more favorable trading terms to the Americans.
5 – Aroostook War (1838 to 1839)
The Aroostook ‘War’ was less of a war than it was a confrontation, but it was arguably the closest that America and Britain came to war again following the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and it’s a very overlooked event in American history as a whole. Long story short, the confrontation was between the official boundary lines between the state of Maine and the British colony of New Brunswick in Canada.
American and British workers were each working on disputed sides of the territory, and when some of these workers on both sides were arrested, armed forces were called up and were ready to do battle with each other. Thankfully, the entire incident was resolved via the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842, which finalized the official boundary lines.
6 – Mexican-American War (1846 to 1849)
The Mexican-American war is one of the most overlooked and yet crucial wars that America ever fought. The origins of the war started in 1836 when Texas won its independence from Mexico. Even though Texas was effectively its own country at that point, Texans preferred annexation by the United States, which was seeking to expand westward to acquire territories to reach the Pacific Ocean. The United States offered to buy disputed territory in Texas (along with territory that would one day become the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming) but Mexico refused.
War broke out after American and Mexican forces engaged each other at the Rio Grande river. The United States then blockaded the Pacific side of Mexico and launched an invasion deep into the country, which culminated with the American army seizing control of Mexico City. In the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico ceded the aforementioned territories in exchange for receiving payment from the U.S. for the physical damage of the war. Nearly 15,000 American soldiers died in the war, but more from disease rather than battle.
7 – Apache Wars (1849 to 1924)
The Apache Wars were perhaps the longest series of conflicts that America ever fought in. After the Mexican-American War, the United States gained much of the territory that served as the homeland of the Apache tribes. The Apache had long been in conflict with the Mexicans over land and resources and the two sides raided each others settlements often. Things didn’t change when Americans moved in, and the U.S. Army was forced to establish several forts and dedicate thousands of soldiers to the southwestern United States in an effort to fight the Apache.
Over the next several decades the Apache raided American settlers and fought back against the U.S. military using guerrilla tactics, but eventually, the American forces proved too overwhelming. The end of the Apache Wars was generally considered with the final surrender of Geronimo in 1886, but isolated battles and raids continued for several decades after. The very last Apache raid took place in 1924 when a war party raided settlers in Arizona.
8 – Cortina Wars ( 1859 to 1861)
Also known as the Cortina Troubles, the Cortina War broke out right at the dawn of the Civil War. In 1859, rancher and bandit Juan Cortina was raiding towns along both sides of the Mexican and Texan borders. After one of his employees was beaten by the Marshal of the Texan town of Brownsville, Cortina arrived with a posse of 80 men, shot the Marshal, and took control over the town. In response, the United States Army deployed forces against him, culminating in the Battle of Rio Grande City in which over a thousand men in total were engaged between both sides. Cortina was decisively defeated and he was forced to retreat back to Mexico.
But that wasn’t the end of Cortina. Two years later, Texas seceded from the Union to join the Confederacy. The Union Army reluctantly agreed to form an alliance with Cortina as he offered to harass Confederate operations along the Mexican-Texan border in exchange for keeping any plunder he managed to secure from the raids. However, Cortina was decisively defeated by the Confederate forces and he retreated back into Mexico yet again.
9 – Formosa Expedition (1867)
In 1867, a U.S. shipped called the Rover ran aground on a reef along the island of Formosa, which is today known as Taiwan. The crew managed to make it to shore, only to be massacred by a force of Paiwanese natives (the indigenous people of the island). American naval forces in the area decided to retaliate by launching the USS Ashuelot with a force of nearly 200 sailors and marines.
The Americans landed on the island and tried to advance into the jungle, but progress was continued to slow and the Paiwanese harassed them at every turn using guerrilla tactics. Only one American was killed, but unable to make enough progress to locate the Paiwanese to defeat them, the Americans were eventually forced to withdraw.
10 – Spanish-American War (1898)
The Spanish-American War was fought primarily over Cuba and control over the Caribbean region. Throughout the 1800s, the long-standing Spanish Empire was in a state of decline as several of its American territories declared their independence. When Cuba declared its independence as well, the move was backed by America who saw an opportunity to expel Spanish influence from the Caribbean region. War broke out when Spain severed diplomatic ties with America and the American Navy blockaded Cuba.
American forces landed in Cuba and began a campaign against the Spanish. Even though the Spanish fought well, American naval power ultimately proved overwhelming and Spain’s Cuban garrison was forced to surrender. The outcome was significant because it effectively marked the end of the Spanish Empire and forced them to cede territories like the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the United States, which helped America to gain a larger influence on the world stage before the World Wars broke out decades later. Nearly 2,500 American soldiers died in the war, most from disease.
11 – 2nd Samoan Civil War (1898 to 1899)
In the late 1800s, the United States and several European nations were dependent on the coal from numerous Pacific Islands (including Samoa) to provide power to the ships in their fleets. In 1898, Samoa descended into civil war, with one faction supported by America and Great Britain, and the other supported by Germany (called the Mataafans). This left it unclear as to who would control the islands and the valuable coal reserves with it.
After repulsing a Mataafan attack on their stronghold at Apia, an expeditionary force of American, British, and Samoan troops marched toward Vailele to engage the Mataafans again. Despite making initial good progress, the expeditionary force was defeated and forced to retreat to Apia, where they defeated another Mataafan attack. The war having reached a stalemate, the two sides turned to diplomacy with America, Britain, and Germany splitting control of Samoa between them. America retains its Samoan territories as ‘American Samoa’ to this day.
12 – Philippine-American War (1899 to 1902)
The Philippine-American War was a direct consequence of the Spanish-American War. In 1896, revolutionary organizations in the Philippines initiated a struggle for independence from Spain. The Spanish were forced to withdraw from and cede the Philippines to the United States as a result of the outcome of the Spanish-American War, at which point the United States began the process of annexing the country. The First Philippine Republic then declared war on the United States.
Unable to compete with American forces and material on the battlefield, the Philippine Republic instead fought with less conventional guerilla-style tactics. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, mostly from disease and famine. By the war’s conclusion, the United States was victorious in battle but agreed to gradually cede control of the country to the Philippines, which was initiated with the creation of the Philippine General Assembly in 1902.
The United States eventually granted the Philippines full independence with the Treaty of Manila in 1946. The guerrilla-style jungle warfare in this war foreshadowed what would happen to the United States in Vietnam. Over 4,200 American soldiers were killed in the war.
13 – Moro Rebellion (1899 to 1913)
The Moro (Spanish for ‘moor’) are a Muslim-majority ethnic group who inhabit the southern Philippines. But the time the United States gained possession of the Philippines following their victory in the Spanish-American War, the Moro had a more than four century history of resisting foreign rule, fighting against the Spanish, Japanese, and even the Filipinos who also lived on the islands. They made no exception to the Americans.
The Moro were known for being very aggressive warriors who would often charge the American soldiers outright while high on narcotics. The .38-caliber revolvers the American soldiers were then issued proved inadequate at stopping them, forcing the Americans to break out the older .45-caliber revolvers they had in stock instead. The war finally ended when Governor John Pershing ordered all the Moro people to be disarmed and the last armed resistance was suppressed. More than 600 American troops were killed during the rebellion.
14 – Boxer Rebellion (1900)
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Insurrection, was a 1900 event in which anti-foreign forces in China under the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists (colloquially known as the “Boxers,” due to the fact that many of the men who comprised these forces practiced Chinese boxing) launched a revolution to drive foreigners out of China. This was because the Boxers blamed foreigners for many of the economic misfortunes and natural disasters that had befallen the Chinese and feared further foreign influence in the country.
Thousands of foreigners who lived in Beijing were forced to flee into the fortified Foreign Legation Compound, were they were besieged by Boxer forces for nearly three months. A rescue force comprised of troops from eight countries was dispatched to rescue the foreigners, of which 2,500 American soldiers took part. The Eight Nation Alliance, as the makeshift army was called, defeated Boxer forces outside of Beijing before proceeding into the city to relieve the foreigners. The rescue operation was successful, but over a hundred American soldiers were killed in the battle.
15 – Banana Wars in Nicaragua (1912 to 1933)
The Banana Wars referred to a series of armed conflicts that the United States fought in Central America and the Caribbean following the conclusion of the Spanish-American War. In 1912, thousands of Americans were living in Nicaragua when war broke out between several of the nation’s factions who fought each for control of the government.
Thousands of U.S. troops were deployed to Nicaragua over the next few years to protect American citizens and business interests, as well as to help stabilize the country. The American forces defeated the Nicaraguan rebels and managed to maintain peace for several years, until civil war returned again to the country in 1927. More American troops were deployed to stabilize the country once again and to set up new presidential elections. U.S. forces finally withdrew under the order of President Hoover in 1933. Nearly 150 American soldiers were killed in total.
