War & military technology

Topics represented

British Empire (68) · War & military technology (55) · Resistance & colonized agency (47) · War & conquest (40) · Colonization & sovereignty (30) · Law & imperial government (24) · Decolonization & independence (20) · Slavery & coerced labor (18) · Companies, trade & extraction (14) · Doctrina (14) · Logística (13) · Indigenous peoples & dispossession (13)

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1. 1879

   A British ultimatum precipitates the Anglo-Zulu War

   High Commissioner Bartle Frere delivered King Cetshwayo an ultimatum designed to be unacceptable, and British forces invaded Zululand. The Zulu victory at Isandlwana exposed imperial limits, but British reinforcements defeated the kingdom and fragmented its authority

2. 1882

   Britain occupies Egypt after the ʿUrabi revolt

   Naval intervention and the British victory at Tel el-Kebir defeated Ahmed ʿUrabi’s movement, which demanded limits on foreign control and khedival rule. Egypt remained formally Ottoman but was governed under British occupation, securing debt interests, cotton, and Suez

3. c. 1884–c. 1914

   Maxim gun: colonial campaigns and military powers

   The recoil-operated Maxim, patented in 1884, was used in British colonial campaigns in India, Matabeleland, and Sudan and became an emblem of colonial power; weapons of this type also entered the arsenals of powers preparing for interstate wars. It does not by itself explain conquest or defeat: transport, ammunition, crews, intelligence, alliances, resistance, and colonial violence structured outcomes and the experiences of affected populations.

4. 1885–1886

   The Third Anglo-Burmese War ends in annexation

   Following a commercial dispute and ultimatum, British troops occupied Mandalay, deposed King Thibaw, and annexed Upper Burma to India. The rapid seizure of the capital gave way to years of rural resistance and counterinsurgency

5. 1885

   Métis and Indigenous allies resist in the North-West

   Ignored petitions over land title and political survival led to a Métis provisional government at Batoche and conflict across the plains. The railway enabled Canada to deploy troops; Louis Riel was executed for treason and Cree leaders imprisoned, deepening national divisions and dispossession

6. 1893–1897

   Ndebele and Shona resist company rule

   The BSAC defeated the Ndebele kingdom in 1893 and expanded land seizure, taxation, and coerced labour. In 1896–1897 Ndebele and Shona communities rose in the Chimurenga/Umvukela; Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi were executed, while memories of resistance shaped later nationalism

7. 1896–1899

   Reconquest culminates at Omdurman and an unequal condominium

   The Mahdist state had expelled Egyptian-British rule from much of Sudan. Kitchener’s army—largely Egyptian and Sudanese and equipped with machine guns—defeated it at Omdurman; the 1899 Anglo-Egyptian condominium left effective control in British hands

8. 1897

   British forces capture and loot Benin City

   After a British expedition was killed while advancing despite warnings, a punitive force captured Benin City, deposed Oba Ovonramwen, and removed thousands of court objects. Their sale helped finance the operation and dispersed the so-called “Benin Bronzes” through museums and collections worldwide

9. c. 1897–c. 1978

   Jomo Kenyatta

   Kenyatta articulated Kikuyu demands over land and representation, participated in Pan-African networks and was imprisoned during the Kenya Emergency after a trial whose fairness has been widely questioned. Released in 1961, he led the negotiated transition, became prime minister at independence in 1963 and president from 1964. His government consolidated national sovereignty but also concentrated power and maintained unequal land distribution

10. 1899–1902

    The South African War combines guerrilla warfare and concentration camps

    Britain fought the Boer republics in a war over regional power and a mining-centered order. Against guerrillas it used scorched earth and confined Boer and African civilians in segregated camp systems; tens of thousands died, but African records are incomplete and totals require caution

11. 1900

    Yaa Asantewaa leads the War of the Golden Stool

    Governor Frederick Hodgson’s demand to sit on the Golden Stool, symbol of the Asante nation, provoked an uprising led by Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa. Asante forces besieged Kumasi; after defeat leaders were exiled, but the stool was never surrendered

12. 1906

    Bambatha resists Natal’s poll tax

    Chief Bambatha kaMancinza and Zulu communities rose against a poll tax that pressed African men into the colonial labour market. Natal forces crushed the rebellion and beheaded Bambatha; death totals are approximate and colonial records incomplete

13. 1906–1914

    HMS Dreadnought and a new naval standard

    HMS *Dreadnought*, launched in 1906, combined a uniform battery of heavy guns with turbine propulsion, redefining battleship design and making many existing vessels obsolete. Its impact shaped government decisions on shipbuilding, spending, and naval rivalry; it did not by itself turn rivalry into war or have the same meaning for every navy and society.

14. 1914–1918

    War mobilizes soldiers and workers across the empire

    Millions of soldiers, sailors, carriers, and workers from India, Africa, the Caribbean, and the dominions served across multiple fronts, often under racialized command and pay structures. Gallipoli, East Africa, the Western Front, and the Middle East generated divergent national memories and new political demands

15. c. 1914–c. 1918

    Trench systems and industrial firepower

    On the Western Front of the First World War, networks of trenches, wire, machine guns, and increasingly effective artillery turned improvised positions into deep defences and raised the cost of attacks. This entry describes an important configuration, not the experience of every front: warfare remained mobile in other theatres, and tactics, logistics, weather, and army capacity changed during the conflict.

16. 1915

    John Chilembwe rises against forced labour and war

    Pastor and educator John Chilembwe led a brief uprising in Nyasaland against plantation abuse, racism, and African recruitment for war. He was killed and his followers suppressed, but his Christian critique of colonial rule became a touchstone of Malawian nationalism

17. 1915

    Ypres and large-scale chemical warfare

    On 22 April 1915, chlorine was deployed in a large-scale attack near Ypres/Ieper. During the war, different belligerents used toxic agents, helping prompt later efforts at control and prohibition. The milestone does not make Ypres the origin of every chemical weapon or present gas as a sole cause of military outcomes; its effects also depended on wind, protection, training, medical care, and command decisions.

18. 1916

    The Easter Rising accelerates Ireland’s break

    Republicans occupied buildings in Dublin and proclaimed a republic during wartime. The rising was defeated within a week, but the executions of Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and other leaders and mass arrests transformed opinion and opened the path to the War of Independence

19. c. 1916–c. 1918

    First tank use and combined-arms learning

    British tanks entered combat on 15 September 1916 at Flers-Courcelette. Their mechanical and coordination limits showed that a new vehicle alone did not solve positional warfare; armies learned unevenly to integrate it with infantry, artillery, communications, maintenance, and supply. This record does not credit one country with the complete invention of later armoured warfare.

20. 1919

    The Treaty of Rawalpindi confirms Afghan autonomy

    Amanullah Khan launched the Third Anglo-Afghan War, and the Rawalpindi agreement ended the conflict. Afghanistan gained effective control of foreign relations; the inherited Durand Line continued to divide Pashtun communities and remains contested

21. 1919

    British troops fire at Jallianwala Bagh

    Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer ordered troops to fire without warning into a trapped crowd at Amritsar. The official toll was 379 dead; Indian estimates were higher, so the total remains disputed. The massacre and martial law radicalized opposition; Rabindranath Tagore renounced his British knighthood

22. 1920–1922

    Partition precedes the Irish Free State

    The Government of Ireland Act created two jurisdictions; after war and negotiation, the Anglo-Irish Treaty established a 26-county dominion. Northern Ireland opted to remain in the United Kingdom, while the oath, boundary, and partition divided nationalism and contributed to civil war

23. 1920–1922

    Mandates turn occupation into international trusteeship

    San Remo assigned Britain mandates over Iraq and Palestine, with Transjordan administered within the Palestine framework under the League of Nations system. In Iraq, a broad tribal, clerical, and urban revolt against occupation and taxation was suppressed; its cost encouraged monarchy and indirect rule under Faisal

24. c. 1920–c. 1939

    Soviet operational art and the deep offensive

    In the 1920s and 1930s, Soviet writers formulated the theory of the deep offensive: conceiving operations that struck through the full depth of a defence through echelons, mobility, and coordination of arms. It was a doctrinal development within Soviet institutions and debates, not a formula applied continuously or a guarantee of success; purges, preparation, resources, and opponents’ adaptation shaped its later use.

25. 1922

    Britain declares a limited Egyptian independence

    Following the 1919 nationalist revolution politically led by Saad Zaghloul’s Wafd, Britain ended the protectorate and recognized Egypt as a sovereign state. It reserved defence, communications, minorities, and Sudan, retaining troops and decisive influence

26. 1932

    Iraq enters the League of Nations

    The formal end of the mandate and Iraq’s admission to the League made Faisal I’s kingdom an independent state. A treaty retained British bases, military transit, and influence, while oil and minority protections remained sites of power and conflict

27. 1936–1939

    The Arab Revolt challenges mandate, immigration, and dispossession

    A Palestinian general strike developed into insurgency against British rule and fears of displacement through Zionist immigration and land purchase. Britain used detention, demolition, collective punishment, and auxiliary forces; repression severely weakened Palestinian political capacity before 1948

28. 1939–1945

    The empire enters war and accelerates its own crisis

    Britain declared war on behalf of colonies—including India without consulting elected leaders—while dominions decided separately. Millions served in armed forces and war economies; Japanese invasion, the Atlantic battle, African and Asian campaigns, and wartime promises of freedom intensified anti-colonial demands

29. c. 1939–c. 1941

    “Blitzkrieg”: operational practice and historiographical debate

    German campaigns of 1939–1941 later associated with “blitzkrieg” combined concentration, surprise, mobile units, communications, air support, and operational exploitation in particular circumstances. Research cautions that no single coherent German doctrinal concept under that name existed before 1939; it also does not by itself explain outcomes, which depended on planning, logistics, political decisions, resistance, intelligence, and the actions of opposing forces.

30. c. 1941–c. 1942

    Japanese carrier strike force and Pacific naval warfare

    In 1941, Japan concentrated six aircraft carriers in a strike force for the operation against Pearl Harbor, combining embarked aircraft, escorts, submarines, replenishment, and operational secrecy. The case made visible the capacity to concentrate naval aviation at distance, but not an inherent technological superiority or decisive formula: intelligence, industry, training, losses, repair, and Allied responses rapidly transformed the Pacific war.