Introduction
Read the history of war through the lens of geopolitics and see world history at a glance!

Chapter 1 Maritime States and Continental States

Ancient and medieval war history
Maritime nations aim to secure trading ports, while continental nations aim to expand their territory.
Punic Wars 264–146 BC
Rome, a city-state aiming for the Mediterranean, subdues Carthage, a maritime power.
Battle of Gaugamela, 331 BC
Alexander the Great's eastern expedition that destroyed the Persian Empire
Qin Shi Huang's unification of China (221–210 BC)
Qin Shi Huang's centralized system and territory were maintained as the 'original form of China' until the Qing Dynasty.
Battle of Tours and Poitiers 732
The Christian Frankish kingdom defended Western Europe from the Islamic forces that invaded it.
Crusades 1096–1270
For 200 years, Christian nations have been on expeditions to Jerusalem, which was under Islamic control.
Battle of Legnica, 1241
The Mongol army, which annihilated the European allies, trampled the heart of Europe, including Hungary.

Chapter 2 Christianity and Islam

History of warfare from the Middle Ages to the modern era
Fighting in the name of God in an age when religion ruled the world.
Battle of Lepanto 1571
Christian powers regained Mediterranean hegemony from Islamic powers.
Battle of the Armada, 1588
Spain, which ruled the world for 100 years, has been brought to its knees by the island nation of Britain!
Thirty Years' War 1618–1648
The Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants also led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire.
American Revolutionary War 1775–1783
The 13 colonies that challenged Britain won independence and democracy in the United States.
Napoleonic Wars 1802–1815
Napoleon, who pursued the unification of Europe by advocating for French Revolutionary ideas

Chapter 3: Preemptive Imperialism and Late-Coming Imperialism

19th century war history
The 19th century, when Western powers embarked on colonization, was an era of imperialist war.
Opium War 1840–1842
Britain, at the forefront of imperialism, began a full-scale invasion of the Qing Dynasty.
Crimean War 1853–1856
Western powers, including Britain, block Russia's attempts to advance into the Black Sea.
Franco-Prussian War 1870–1871
Bismarck, Germany's Iron Chancellor, completed unification by invading France.
American Civil War 1861–1865
A full-scale war between the South and the North over slavery and differences in industrial structure
Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905
Continental power Russia and maritime power Japan clashed over control of Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula.

Chapter 4 World War I and World War II

History of war in the first half of the 20th century
Beginning with the clash of imperialism, ending with the end of imperialism.
World War I, Part 1, 1914–1918
The British 3C policy and the German 3B policy exploded in the powder keg of the Balkan Peninsula.
World War I, Part 2, 1914–1918
The Bolshevik Revolution led to the departure of Russia, the decline of Europe, and the rapid rise of the United States.
World War II, Part 1, 1939–1945
Democratic and fascist countries once again engaged in the struggle for colonies
World War II, Part 2, 1939–1945
The expansion of communist forces after the war established the Cold War system between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Asia-Pacific War 1939–1945
Japan, which attacked Pearl Harbor, surrendered unconditionally after two atomic bombs were dropped.

Chapter 5: Cold War and Ethnic Conflict

History of war since the late 20th century
The United States and the Soviet Union, both in the East and West, intervened in ethnic and regional conflicts.
Korean War 1950–1953
June 25, North Korea's surprise attack on the South begins a proxy war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Middle East Wars 1948–1973
Long-standing religious and ethnic conflicts have turned the Middle East into a battlefield.
Vietnam War 1960–1975
Why did the superpower United States, defeated by communist North Vietnam, lose the war?
Iran-Iraq War 1980–1988
Ethnic conflict between Arab Iraqis who invaded Persian Iran
Yugoslav Wars 1991–1999
After the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the national problem in the Balkan Peninsula exploded.
9/11 War on Terror 2001
The invisible enemies of terrorism and Islam that attacked America's heartland
Iraq War 2003
The US attack on Iraq, the "axis of evil," triggered the emergence of terrorist groups such as ISIS.

A three-dimensional view of the flow of world war history through a color graphic map.

All wars, including those of the past and those currently taking place on Earth, are manifestations of this geopolitical conflict.
Clashes of civilizations, economic wars, and ethnic conflicts do not deviate from this pattern of war.
The various terrorist attacks that are currently occurring frequently on Earth are merely the result of the complex interaction of the elements of conflict listed above.

The Punic Wars between the city-state of Rome and the maritime power of Carthage were wars over hegemony in the Mediterranean Sea, and the Battle of the Armada between the island nation of Britain and the continental nation of Spain was a decisive battle that enabled Britain, which controlled the seas, to rise to the position of world power.

The Sinai Peninsula in the Middle East and the Balkan Peninsula along the Mediterranean coast are also famous as powder kegs where conflicts have continued since ancient times.
This is because it became an important stage that determined the victory or defeat of large-scale wars, such as Alexander the Great's eastern expedition, the Crusades, and the World Wars.
One reason this region has always been exposed to the flames of war depending on the interests of the great powers is that it is a transportation hub.
In other words, it is a crossroads where different civilizations meet, but at times it also turns into a battlefield where they clash with each other.

This book uses three-dimensional graphic maps and rich color illustrations to explain 28 important wars that changed the world in an easy-to-read and engaging way.
The battle situation at the time, including the historical background of the outbreak of the war, historical figures, and war tactics and strategies, was vividly recreated on a graphic map.
Just by looking at these graphic maps, you can get a quick overview of the history of war and the complexities of world history.

A look into the present and future of international affairs through 28 wars interpreted through geopolitics!

By examining the 28 wars featured in this book through the lens of geopolitics, we can grasp important points in world history.
Understanding the causes and consequences of past wars can help us understand not only the current international situation, but also the future course of the world.

Chapter 1 Maritime States and Continental States

The background of the wars that occurred from ancient times to the Middle Ages was mostly geopolitical.
The Punic Wars, which lasted for 100 years from the 2nd to 3rd centuries BC, were a war between Rome, a continental nation that expanded from the inland, and Carthage, a maritime nation that controlled the maritime trade routes of the Mediterranean.
The medieval Crusades were based on the religious conflict between Christianity and Islam, but in reality they were a conflict between maritime powers striving to control the Mediterranean Sea.
If we look at the war that broke out over control of a specific region from a geopolitical perspective, we can discover the true nature of the war.

Chapter 2 Christianity and Islam

Most of the wars that occurred from the Middle Ages to the modern era were caused by differences in religious values.
The struggle between Christianity and Islam, two monotheistic religions rooted in Judaism, was arguably the most important theme that dominated European history at the time.
For centuries until the Middle Ages, the Islamic powers that dominated the Mediterranean were the powers that dominated the trade routes connecting Europe and East Asia.
The Battle of Lepanto was the moment when Christian forces took control of the Mediterranean Sea from Islamic forces.
The Christian forces crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, and their navigational skills advanced, defeating the Ottoman Empire.
At a time when Christian powers were subduing Islamic powers, the Reformation took place, and a fierce whirlwind of religious wars between Catholics and Protestants swept across the European continent.
The Thirty Years' War, which took place in 17th-century Germany, was the largest and last religious war between Catholics and Protestants.

Chapter 3: Preemptive Imperialism and Late-Coming Imperialism

The 19th century is called the age of imperialist wars.
Great powers such as Britain, France, and Germany successively invaded Asia, Africa, and Oceania to establish overseas colonies.
As the Industrial Revolution succeeded, they were able to accumulate enormous wealth through the exploitation of resources and market development through the acquisition of colonial territories.
Western powers that had been baptized in Protestantism, including Calvinism, believed that it was justifiable to acquire wealth through colonial invasion.
The Opium Wars waged by Britain against the Qing Dynasty were a typical example of such imperialist wars.
The Crimean War, which broke out in the mid-19th century, developed into a conflict between national communities in the Balkan Peninsula: Russian-centered Pan-Slavism and German-centered Pan-Germanism.
The Crimean War was both an imperialist war and an ethnic conflict.

Chapter 4 World War I and World War II

World War I was a conflict of interest between Britain, a maritime nation that was quick to pursue imperialism, and Germany, a continental nation that was late in unification and thus fell behind in the imperialist competition.
In a geopolitical sense, it was a colonial struggle between advanced imperialism and late imperialism.
As each country formed alliances with other countries in the struggle for colonies, it developed into a global war.
The victorious nations, including Britain and France, demanded excessive reparations from the defeated nation, Germany, which sparked World War II.
After the outbreak of World War II, Germany and Japan were defeated again, and their totalitarian regimes were dismantled. At the same time, a strong wave of national self-determination and democracy swept across the world.
World War II brought an end to the post-war settlement of World War I and also brought an end to the era of imperialism that had invaded underdeveloped countries for centuries.

Chapter 5: The Cold War and Ethnic Conflict

The world after World War II was divided into two opposing axes.
It was a Cold War structure in which the United States and the Soviet Union were in conflict, and ethnic conflicts occurred in each region.
During the Cold War, proxy wars occurred intermittently instead of direct conflict between the great powers.
The Korean War and the Vietnam War are representative wars of the Cold War era.
Even the Middle East war, which is considered a religious and ethnic conflict, cannot overlook the aspect of being a proxy war between democracy and communism.
In Asia and Africa, the process of escaping from the colonial rule of the great powers has led to numerous ethnic and regional conflicts between former sovereign states and neighboring countries.
The Iran-Iraq War and the civil war among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia that broke out in the late 20th century were geopolitical conflicts in which land, ethnicity, and religion served as the background for ethnic conflicts.
And since the end of the Cold War, a structure of ideological confrontation between East and West, these ethnic and regional conflicts have further complicated the international situation.