Wars by Era
4 major conflicts, 61 battles, and an estimated 10,171,000 dead.
Spanish-led expeditions and large Indigenous coalitions captured Tenochtitlan in 1521 and Atahualpa at Cajamarca in 1532, but conquest and resistance continued for decades. Steel weapons, horses, firearms, internal political divisions, Indigenous allies, and epidemic disease all shaped outcomes; small Spanish contingents did not conquer either empire unaided.
15 battles · 8,061,000 dead
During Japan’s long age of provincial warfare, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu successively consolidated power. Firearms contributed to Nobunaga’s victories, though the familiar story of perfectly staged rotating volleys at Nagashino is debated. Hideyoshi unified most of Japan and invaded Korea; Ieyasu prevailed at Sekigahara and destroyed the Toyotomi regime at Osaka, establishing a shogunate that lasted until 1867.
15 battles · 250,000 dead
Resistance to Habsburg rule in the Low Countries became a prolonged revolt and international war. Rebel forces suffered major early defeats but also won field actions, used fortified towns and controlled inundation, and benefited from Spanish fiscal and logistical strain. Military drill and siege engineering were substantially developed and disseminated during the conflict. The 1648 settlement recognized the Dutch Republic’s independence.
16 battles · 600,000 dead
Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea in 1592 with an initial army recorded at roughly 158,700, seeking a route toward Ming China. Japanese forces rapidly captured Seoul and Pyongyang, while Korean naval operations, local resistance, Ming intervention, supply problems, and disease checked the advance. A second invasion began in 1597; Japanese forces withdrew after Hideyoshi’s death in 1598, leaving Korea devastated.
15 battles · 1,260,000 dead