Non-European wars case bank

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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