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

The big idea: Paper 2 almost always asks you to write about two wars from two different regions of the world. If both your examples are European, you break this rule and lose marks before you write a word of analysis.

This micro is a case bank — five ready-to-use non-European wars, each with a one-paragraph sketch of causes, practices and effects, so you always have a second region covered.

You already have European wars such as WWI, WWII or the Spanish Civil War from earlier micros in this unit. What you often lack is a confident, detailed example from Asia, the Middle East or Africa.

The five wars here are chosen because they are well documented, appear often on past papers, and each fits neatly into the frameworks you already know: causes, practices and effects.

Spot it: five wars, four regions: China, Korea, Vietnam (all East/Southeast Asia), Iran–Iraq (Middle East) and Nigeria (Africa). Picking any one of these alongside a European war satisfies the 'different regions' rule instantly.

Read the sketches in the next two sections like a menu, not a script to memorise word for word. In the exam you choose whichever two wars best answer the actual question in front of you.

Three of the five wars in this bank happened in and around China. Knowing them together helps you see how one conflict fed into the next.

Chinese Civil War (1927–1949): Causes: the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had briefly worked together, but Chiang turned on his communist allies in the 1927 Shanghai massacre, splitting China into two armed camps competing over land, ideology and who should rule a weak, war-torn country.

Practices: fighting paused while both sides resisted Japan's invasion (1937–45), but full civil war resumed after 1945. Mao's forces had already survived the gruelling Long March (1934–35) and built support through land reform and guerrilla tactics, while Chiang's Nationalists, though better armed with US aid, were weakened by corruption and inflation.

Effects: Mao declared the People's Republic of China in October 1949; Chiang fled to Taiwan. The West's fear of a communist-run China deepened Cold War tension in Asia and set the stage for the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Korean War (1950–1953): Causes: Korea had been split at the 38th parallel in 1945 when Japan's empire collapsed, leaving a communist North (Kim Il-sung, backed by the USSR and China) facing a capitalist South (Syngman Rhee, backed by the USA). In June 1950 North Korea invaded the South, hoping to reunify the country by force.

Practices: the United Nations intervened under General MacArthur, pushing North Korean forces back almost to the Chinese border. This provoked a massive Chinese intervention in October 1950, which drove UN forces back and produced a bloody stalemate near the original border.

Effects: an armistice in July 1953 left Korea divided along almost the same line as before — a division that still exists today. Millions died, and the war hardened Cold War lines in Asia.

Vietnam War (1955–1975): Causes: Vietnam, too, had been split in 1954 after defeating French colonial rule, leaving a communist North under Ho Chi Minh and an anti-communist South backed by the USA. Fearing the domino theory, the USA steadily deepened its support for the South.

Practices: the North and the southern communist Viet Cong fought a guerrilla war of ambush and jungle tunnels, while the USA relied on its huge technological edge — helicopters, bombing campaigns and chemical defoliants such as Agent Orange — that never translated into a decisive victory.

Effects: rising US casualties and TV coverage turned American opinion against the war; US troops withdrew in 1973, and North Vietnamese forces took the southern capital, Saigon, in 1975, reunifying Vietnam under communist rule.

The last two wars in the bank widen your reach beyond Asia — one a state-versus-state war in the Middle East, the other a civil war in Africa.

Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988): Causes: Iraq's leader Saddam Hussein feared that Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, would inspire Iraq's own Shia majority to rebel. Saddam also wanted control of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, so in September 1980 Iraq invaded Iran.

Practices: the war became a grinding stalemate of trenches and mass infantry charges, reminiscent of WWI, alongside missile attacks on each other's cities (the 'War of the Cities') and Iraq's repeated use of chemical weapons. Both superpowers and Gulf states quietly supplied arms to Iraq, while Iran received some covert Western supplies too.

Effects: a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1988 left borders almost unchanged despite roughly a million deaths and huge economic damage on both sides — a stark example of a war whose human cost far outweighed its territorial result.

Nigerian Civil War / Biafran War (1967–1970): Causes: independent Nigeria was deeply divided between its Igbo, Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba peoples. After army coups in 1966 and massacres of Igbo civilians in the north, the Igbo-led southeast declared independence as the Republic of Biafra in May 1967, partly to control the region's oil wealth.

Practices: the Nigerian federal government, armed mainly by Britain and the USSR, imposed a blockade that cut Biafra off from food and medicine, while France gave Biafra limited informal support. The blockade caused a horrific famine that images of starving children brought to television screens worldwide.

Effects: Biafra surrendered in January 1970 and was reabsorbed into Nigeria. Up to two million people died, mostly from starvation rather than combat — and the global horror at the famine helped inspire new humanitarian organisations, including the founding of Médecins Sans Frontières in 1971.

Use the same headings every time: For each war, plan around causes (why it started), practices (how it was fought — technology, total war, guerrilla tactics, foreign powers) and effects (political, territorial, economic, social, human).

These are the same frameworks you learned for European wars — this bank just gives you the non-European evidence to plug into them.