A case bank of non-European 20th-century wars

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Paper 2 essays usually require wars from two different regions; without a ready non-European example, students risk pairing two European wars and losing marks.

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1927–1949 (paused 1937–45): the Kuomintang (Chiang Kai-shek) versus the Chinese Communist Party (Mao Zedong).

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Communist victory in 1949; Mao founded the People's Republic of China, while Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to Taiwan.

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Korea was divided at the 38th parallel in 1945; in 1950 communist North Korea invaded the South to try to reunify the country by force.

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Chinese intervention, after UN forces advanced near the Chinese border, pushed UN troops back and produced a stalemate near the original border.

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An armistice in July 1953 left Korea divided along almost the same line as before the war — the division still exists today.

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Fear of the domino theory — the idea that if one country fell to communism, neighbouring countries would follow.

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Guerrilla warfare — ambush and jungle tunnels — that neutralised America's advantage in bombing and firepower.

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1980–1988; Iraq invaded Iran over the Shatt al-Arab waterway dispute and fear that Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution would spread.

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Trench warfare resembling WWI, plus missile attacks on cities and Iraq's use of chemical weapons.

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Ethnic tension among Igbo, Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba peoples, 1966 coups and anti-Igbo massacres, and control of oil wealth in the southeast.

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A federal blockade of Biafra caused mass famine, killing up to two million people and inspiring new humanitarian organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières.