Most Fought-Over Place in History?

[dwaxe]

The Middle East.

It was fought over starting from the first Mesopotamian battles circa 3000 BCE and continuing until now, the most recent major campaign being Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Whatever, Mango, I'll just say Iraq. That is the most in the middle east...

 

[RE Lee]

Meggido (Armageddon), or the holy land in general. 34 battles, the closest is the Bosphorus (Constantinople or Istanbul) with 24.

 

[Mango]

The Middle East.

It was fought over starting from the first Mesopotamian battles circa 3000 BCE and continuing until now, the most recent major campaign being Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The Middle-East? That's like saying Europe.

 

[challenger]

Parts of the Balkans certainly have to go to this hall of shame of human history. From what I gather, the region has hardly seen a decade of peace after the collapse of Roman predominance there.
Also, the region between the Iranian plateau and the Central Asian steppes has seen a ridiculous amount of fighting since the dawn of history. Horse Nomads from Central Asia (Iranian, Hun, Turko-Mongol and much more) just kept coming, against local resistance, until the advent of gunpowder could keep them away permanently.

But then, what do we know about Central America or Sub-Equatorial Africa?

 

[Hornblower]

Well there is a waterhole in Olduvai Gorge.....

 

[germanicus12]

I think the Iraq area has seen the most conflict in the history of war. Especially modern history, more than Isreal has seen so far.

As for most fought over piece of sea.... I would say the Mediternean, it is a matter of trading rights back in Ancient times, whoever controls the sea controls trade. The Romans definetly grew rich once they conquered the Mediternean.

 

[Shaihulud]

If we can count China as a whole i would bet that its seen more wars and battles. Big place, hundreds of different tribes, long history, it didn't get so big because everyone decides to join together you know. There isn't a time when there isn't some war taking place somewhere and there always hostile barbarians up North, Hsing Nu, Khitan, Mongols etc hostile barbarians down south too, but they were pretty much tidied up quickly. Each fall in dynasty precipitaes another long war and so on.

 

[holy king]

well, the question is what a "place" is...
saying china is like saying the middle east and both is almost like saying europe...

 

[Louis XXIV]

The thing about Mesopotamia though is that there were stretches of hundreds of years where it was just kicked back and forth between two empires like a soccer ball.

Seleucids/Parthians, Rome/Parthians, Byzantium/Sassanids, Sassanids/Arabs, Mongols/Arabs, Ottomans/Safavids, etc.

It saw a lot of obscure campaigns and nameless wars.

Yep. Let's throw in Assyrian campaigns to control the Middle East, Babylonian campaigns, Akkadian campaigns, etc (and there were a lot of powers that fought to control it that never succeeded who I haven't mentioned). Lets not forget Alexander vs. Darius. Also, different Arab groups fought each other over the region.

After the Safavids, let's mention the British in World War I. If Kuwait counts as part of it, add the first Gulf War. Add our current war to the list. I guess the Iran-Iraq War doesn't count, since that was about control of western Iran (maybe the Zagros mountains is as close to mesopotamia as you can get). Still, that's 70 years of peace. Historically speaking, that's not very much. When Israel became a backwoods part of the Ottoman Empire, you'd have centuries of peace (hell, even when the Ottomans weren't fighting the Safavids over Mesopotamia, they'd fight the local population in an attempt to control it).

Of course, Mesopotamia is very generalized. Its an entire region, not a specific battle site.

 

[JohnRM]

Yeah, probably Jerusalem.

That is what I am going with.

 

[Provolution]

I would say Jericho, to some extent.

 

[Shibbyman]

I'm going to agree with what everyone else has said and say either the Levant (including Meggido) or Flanders and the Low Countries. Also, if your going to name an area try not to be too vague about; if you can give a location like Europe or the Middle East you can just as easily give the the Old World, the Americas or Earth.

 

[Mirc]

I'm going to agree with what everyone else has said and say either the Levant (including Meggido) or Flanders and the Low Countries.

Actually, not everyone agrees with that. I think Istanbul has seen a lot more battles than the Low Countries... the Low Countries are recent history compared to what Byzantium/Constantinopole/Tsarigrad/Istanbul has seen.

 

[Defiance]

When has Africa not been in a constant state of bloodshed..

 

[holy king]

when hasnt europe been?