Lesser-Known U.S. Wars

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Can you name the lesser-known wars the United States has been involved in?

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Date(s) of U.S. InvolvementWarDescription of Conflict
1798-1800The young United States and France wage a naval war against each other (primarily in the Caribbean) because of French privateer attacks on American shipping.
1801-1805 and 1815Attacks on U.S. shipping by North African privateers result in American naval expeditions to the Mediterranean Sea.
1813-1814In the midst of the War of 1812, an American naval expedition tries to establish a U.S. colony in what is now French Polynesia.
1832 and 1838-1839The United States launches a couple of punitive expeditions against Southeast Asia to punish locals for their attacks on the American pepper trade.
1855-1857American soldiers-of-fortune seize control of a national government in Latin America.
1835-1836A part of northeastern Mexico gains its independence with some help from American volunteers.
1854-1860A miniature civil war breaks out in an American territory over whether it should enter the Union as a free state or a slave state.
1856; 1859American military personnel find themselves in combat situations a couple times during this war with China on one side and Great Britain and France on the other.
1871The United States' attempt to open up a Far Eastern country to American trade results in some fighting between the two nations.
1899-1902The U.S. puts down a war of independence in one of the colonies it received after the Spanish-American War.
1899The United States and Great Britain perform a regime change in a South Pacific island-nation to combat German influence in the area.
1900-1901The Great Powers (including the U.S.) send troops to China to crush an uprising by anti-Christian/anti-Western militants.
1902-1913Filipino Muslims in the southern part of the archipelago revolt against American rule.
1910; 1912American military interventions ensure that a U.S.-friendly government comes to power and stays in power in a certain Latin American country.
1913-1919The U.S. gets involved several times in an internecine conflict south of the border.
Date(s) of U.S. InvolvementWarDescription of Conflict
1915-1934A highly-unstable Latin American country becomes a de facto U.S. colony when the American military arrives to end a period of anarchy.
1916-1924The overthrow of President Juan Isidro Jimenes Pereyra in a coup results in American troops occupying another Latin American nation and making it a de facto colony.
1918-1920A bloody civil war between the Reds (communists) and Whites (anti-communists) draws many of the Allies of World War I (including the U.S.) into the carnage for a period of time.
1926-1933The American military is drawn into a lengthy counterinsurgency campaign in Latin America when a band of rebels led by Augusto César Sandino refuse to accept a U.S. occupation of their country.
1937-1938While the American government had a strict policy of neutrality, numerous Americans fought in this war on the side of the secular, socialist Republicans against the fascist Nationalists.
1958American troops are sent to the Middle East and, meeting almost-no resistance, put down a Muslim revolt against a Christian government.
1965The U.S. and several Latin American nations send troops to a Caribbean nation to quell a left-leaning rebellion.
1980-1992American military advisors aid a Latin American military dictatorship suppress a communist insurrection.
1982-1984An international expedition (including American troops) becomes increasingly drawn into combat against Syrian and local Muslim forces in this Middle Eastern war.
1983U.S. and Caribbean soldiers topple a communist regime in the region and remove Cuban troops from the invaded country.
1989-1990Latin American strongman Manuel Noriega is removed from power by an American invasion of his country.
1992-1994; 2007-ongoingA wildly-destructive African civil war draws in U.S. military forces, first to protect food convoys and later to occasionally bomb Islamic fundamentalists in the country.
1994-1995A NATO coalition (including Americans) bombs genocidal Serb forces to help bring a European civil war to an end.
1999The Yugoslavian government's ethnic cleansing campaign in the southern part of their country is ended by a NATO bombing campaign (which included Americans).
2011The U.S. particpates in a NATO-led bombing campaign that removes dictator Muammar Gaddafi from power.

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