major wars of 20th century

Years 1920 1922 Battle deaths 3,300 In March 1919, Benito Mussolini founded the first Italian Combat League (Fasci Italiani di Combattimento) at the beginning of the two red years (biennio rosso). He suffered a defeat in the election of November 1919. But, by the election of 1921, Mussolini gained entrance to Parliament. Out of his Fascist party the Blackshirts (Squadristi) were formed. In August 1920, the Blackshirts were used to break the general strike which had started at the Alfa Romeo factory in Milan. In November 1920, after the assassination of Giordana (a right wing municipal counsellor in Bologna), the Blackshirts were used as a repression tool by the state[citation needed] to crush the socialist movement (which included a strong anarcho syndicalist component), especially in the Po Valley.Trade unions were dissolved while left wing mayors resigned. The fascists, included on Giovanni Giolittis National Union lists at the May 1921 elections, then won 36 seats. Mussolini then withdrew his support to Giolitti and attempted to work out a temporary truce with the socialists by signing a Pacification Pact in summer 1921. This provoked a conflict with the most fanatical part of the movement, the Squadristi and their leaders the Ras. In July 1921, Giolitti attempted without success to dissolve the squadristi. The contract with the socialists was then broken at its turn in November 1921, Mussolini adopted a nationalist program and founded the National Fascist Party, which boasted 700,000 members in July 1922. In August, an anti fascist general strike was triggered, but failed to rally the Italian Peoples Party (Partito Popolare Italiano) and was repressed by the fascists.

Years 1920 1932 Battle deaths 40,000 The attempted Italian colonization of the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica was never wholly successful. Several reorganizations of the colonial authority were made necessary, in the face of an armed Libyan opposition. From 1919 (May 17) to 1929 (January 24) the Italian government maintained the two traditional provinces, with separate colonial administrations. A system of controlled local assembies with limited local authority was set up, but it was revoked 9 March 1927. In 1929 Tripoli and Cyrenaica were united as one colonial province, then in 1934, as Italy struggled to retain colonial power, the classical name Libya was revived as the official name of the colony, which was split into four provinces, Tripoli, Misurata, Bengasi, and Derna.In 1920 (October 25) the Italian government recognized Sheikh Sidi Idris the hereditary head of the nomadic Senussi, with wide authority in Kufra and other oases, as Emir of Cyrenaica, a new title extended by the British at the close of World War I. The emir would eventually become king of the free Libyan state.

Sporadic fighting intensified after the accession to power in Italy of the dictator Benito Mussolini. Idris fled to Egypt in 1922. From 1922 to 1928, Italian forces under Gen. Badoglio slowly gained control over Libya. The Senussi leader in Cyrenaica surrendered to the Italians on January 3 1928, virtually ending the organized struggle for independence in eastern Libya, for the time. Resistance to the Italian occupation crystallized round the person of Sheik Idris, the Emir of Cyrenaica.

Years 1921 1922 Battle deaths 4,000 The Irish Civil War (June, 1922 April, 1923) was a conflict between supporters and opponents of the Anglo Irish Treaty of 6 December 1921 which had established the Irish Free State, precursor of todays Republic of Ireland.Upon the Treatys ratification (January 1922) by a narrow majority in the D

Years 1921 1922 Battle deaths 2,450 The Moplah Rebellion (also known as the Moplah Riots, Maappila Lahala in Malayalam) was a British Muslim and Hindu Muslim conflict in Kerala that occurred in 1921. During the early months of 1921, multiple events including the Khilafat movement and the Karachi resolution fueled the fires of rebellion amongst the Moplah Muslim community. A rumour spread amongst the Moplahs that the British rule had ended and the Islamic Caliphate had been re established at Delhi.

Years 1921 1923 Battle deaths 3,500 The Basmachi movement (Russian ???????????, Basmachestvo) or Basmachi Revolt was an uprising against Russian Imperial and Soviet rule by the Muslim, largely Turkic peoples of Central Asia. The movements roots lay in the 1916 violence that erupted over conscription of Muslims by the Russian Empire for service in World War I. In the months following the October 1917 Revolution, renewed violence developed into a major uprising centered in the Ferghana Valley, soon spreading across all of Soviet Turkestan. Guerrilla and conventional warfare lasted for years in various regions, and the violence was both anti Soviet and anti Russian.After major Red Army campaigns and concessions regarding economic and Islamic practices in the mid 1920s, the military fortunes and popular support of the Basmachi declined. Although resistance flared up again in response to collectivization, the Sovietization of Central Asia proceeded apace and the struggle ended.

Years 1925 1927 Battle deaths 6,000 The Syrian Revolution, Great Syrian Revolt or Great Druze Revolt (1925 1927) was the largest and longest lasting anti colonial insurgency in the inter war Arab East. Mobilizing peasants, workers, and army veterans, rather than urban elites and nationalist intellectuals, it was the first mass movement against colonial rule in the Middle East. The revolt failed to liberate Syria from French occupation, but it provided a model of popular nationalism and resistance that remains potent in the Middle East today. Each subsequent Arab uprising against foreign rule has repeated the language and tactics of the Great Syrian Revolt.

Years 1926 1928 Battle deaths 126,500 The Northern Expedition was a military campaign led by Chiang Kai Shek in 1927 intended to unify China under the rule of the Kuomintang and ending the rule of local warlords. It was largely successful at these objectives. During the Northern Expedition, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China were cooperating with each other.The Northern Expedition began from a base area in Guangdong province. Chiang was able to achieve victory over the warlords in large part because both the National Revolutionary Army and the Kuomintang were far better organized than the warlord armies which they faced. In addition, Chiang had the advantage of a chain reaction effect as victory over one warlord encouraged others to defect to Chiang which strengthened his position even more.Today, the Northern Expedition is viewed positively both in Mainland China and on Taiwan because it ended a period of anarchy and started the formation of a effective Chinese central government.

Years 1926 1929 Battle deaths 10,000 The Cristero War (also known as the Cristiada) of 1926 to 1929 was an uprising and counter revolution against the Mexican government of the time, set off by religious persecution of Catholics, specifially the strict enforcement of the anti clerical provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 and the expansion of further anti clerical laws. Regarding this period, recent President Vicente Fox stated, After 1917, Mexico was led by anti Catholic Freemasons who tried to evoke the anticlerical spirit of popular indigenous President Benito Ju

Years 1928 1929 Battle deaths 15,000 The political and judicial reforms Amanuallah proposed were equally radical for the time and included the creation of Afghanistans first constitution (in 1923), the guarantee of civil rights (first by decree and later constitutionally), national registration and identity cards for the citizenry, the establishment of a legislative assembly, a court system to enforce new secular penal, civil, and commercial codes, prohibition of blood money, and abolition of subsidies and privileges for tribal chiefs and the royal family.Although sharia (Islamic law) was to be the residual source of law, it regained prominence after the Khost rebellion of 1923 24. Religious leaders, who had gained influence under Habibullah Khan, were unhappy with Amanullahs extensive religious reforms.

Conventional wisdom holds that the tribal revolt that overthrew Amanullah grew out of opposition to his reform program, although those people most affected by his reforms were urban dwellers not universally opposed to his policies, rather than the tribes. Nevertheless, the king had managed to alienate religious leaders and army members.The unraveling began, however, when Shinwari Pashtun tribesmen revolted in Jalalabad in November 1928. When tribal forces advanced on the capital, many of the kings troops deserted. Amanullah faced another threat as well in addition to the Pashtun tribes, forces led by a Tajik tribesman were moving toward Kabul from the north. In January 1929, Amanullah abdicated the throne to his oldest brother, Inayatullah, who ruled for only three days before escaping into exile in India. Amanullahs efforts to recover power by leading a small, ill equipped force toward Kabul failed. The deposed king crossed the border into India and went into exile in Italy.

Years 1929 1930 Battle deaths 75,000 In early 1927 the KMT CPC rivalry led to a split in the revolutionary ranks. The CPC and the left wing of the KMT had decided to move the seat of the Nationalist government from Guangzhou to Wuhan. But Chiang, whose Northern Expedition was proving successful, set his forces out to destroy the Shanghai CPC apparatus. Chiang Kai shek, with the aid of the Shanghai underworld, arguing that communist activities were socially and economically disruptive, turned on Communists and unionists in Shanghai, arresting and executing hundreds on April 12, 1927. The purge widened the rift between Chiang and Wang Ching weis Wuhan government (a contest won by Chiang Kai shek) and destroyed the urban base of the CPC. Chiang, expelled from the KMT for his actions, formed a rival government in Nanjing. There now were three capitals in China the internationally recognized warlord regime in Beijing; the Communist and left wing Kuomintang regime at Wuhan; and the right wing civilian military regime at Nanjing, which would remain the Nationalist capital for the next decade.The Comintern cause appeared bankrupt. A new policy was instituted calling on the CPC to foment armed insurrections in both urban and rural areas in preparation for an expected rising tide of revolution. Unsuccessful attempts were made by Communists to take cities such as Nanchang, Changsha, Shantou, and Guangzhou, and an armed rural insurrection, known as the Autumn Harvest Uprising, was staged by peasants in Hunan Province. The insurrection was led by Mao Zedong.But in mid 1927 the CPC was at a low ebb. The Communists had been expelled from Wuhan by their left wing KMT allies, who in turn were toppled by a military regime.

The KMT resumed the campaign against warlords and captured Beijing in June 1928, after which most of eastern China was under Chiangs control, and the Nanjing government received prompt international recognition as the sole legitimate government of China. The Nationalist government announced that in conformity with Sun Yat sens formula for the three stages of revolution military unification, political tutelage, and constitutional democracy China had reached the end of the first phase and would embark on the second, which would be under KMT direction.