Most Fought-Over Place in History?

[Provolution]

For Europe, the most fought for places, top 5, would be these:

Northeastern France (Border to Belgium)
Serbia
Poland/Eastern Prussia
Thrace/Istanbul
Sicily

Remember, demographics matter, even though Denmark and Sweden had hectic wars.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

I am curious, which non-european & non-middleEastern place is the most fought-over place ?

 

[pat4]

I think northern England must be fairly high on the list, given that it was the scene of battles between Romans and Picts, Saxons and Picts, Vikings and Saxons, Lancastrians and Yorkshiremen, Parliamentarians and Royalists, etc etc... In fact you could probably say something similar for southern England too.

I don't agree with that. There havn't been any battles on British shores for a long time. Not since the union of Scotland and England at least.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

The [wiki]Battle of Culloden[/wiki] in 1746 was the last land battle on British soil.

(When I took a course on historiography in college, we covered this in some depth - about 1/3 of the course focused on it.)

 

[Plotinus]

I don't agree with that. There havn't been any battles on British shores for a long time. Not since the union of Scotland and England at least.

Culloden? Prestonpans?

In any case, battles on British soil were practically incessant for much of the period before then; bear in mind that England had three civil wars over the past millennium (counting the Wars of the Roses and the Jacobite wars as civil wars) not to mention various usurpations and rebellions - and that's just since the Conquest. It's been pointed out that even the Levant has enjoyed centuries-long periods of peace in the past, but it still counts as one of the most fought-over places in the world.

Besides, there's always the Battle of Britain, which was fought above Britain. Not in the north, though, of course.

[EDIT] Crosspost with Eran there.

 

[sydhe]

I am curious, which non-european & non-middleEastern place is the most fought-over place ?

Kabul must be right up there. It's on several major trade routes and the Khyber Pass leads you there from India. Actually, the Khyber Pass itself gets fought over a lot.

There were three major battles of Panipat, which is about 50 miles NW of Delhi. About 35 miles NW of that is Taraori, where Muhammad of Ghor fought a couple of battles.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Kabul must be right up there. It's on several major trade routes and the Khyber Pass leads you there from India. Actually, the Khyber Pass itself gets fought over a lot.

There were three major battles of Panipat, which is about 50 miles NW of Delhi. About 35 miles NW of that is Taraori, where Muhammad of Ghor fought a couple of battles.

Intresting - thanks.

 

[FriendlyFire]

The Holy Land. Goes right back to the Battle of Kadesh and continues today in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Hell yeah right in the middle of like great superpowers since the time of civlization. Invaded by everyone from the Egyptions, hittiates, Persians, greeks, romans, turks, Byzatine, Cursaders and on and on and on.

 

[sabo]

Actually I the Watts in Los Angelos has 'em ALL beat

 

[privatehudson]

Besides, there's always the Battle of Britain, which was fought above Britain. Not in the north, though, of course

Its probably worth adding however that although the Battle of Britain primarily concentrated on the south of England the North did see its own share of bombing raids with the night fighting actions and all that entails. The most heavily bombed British area outside of London during the war after all was Liverpool.

Hmmm... might do a thread on that one day, I have tons of photos of the city during the blitz lying around on my hard drive.

 

[joycem10]

I was reading 'What If' last night and an intro to the battle of Adrianople (now known as Edirne) stated that it was the most fought over site in the history of the world. The author stated that over 15 major battles have occurred there.

 

[Azkonus]

If you look at current position of Edirne, it might be the next battleground for the potential Greek-Turkish war. Place is some what holy to us since it contains the worlds most beatiful mosque.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selimiye_Mosque

Mind you the dome stands still even though Bulgarians attacked it with artillery.

 

[Dachs]

I like how Wiki got the date of the bombardment horribly wrong.

[insert inflammatory comment about Hagia Sophia and minarets here]

 

[Che Guava]

Any places in central asia that might make the cut? THe silk trail must have been an area ripe for conflict for centuries...! How about the CIty of Samarkand, or Bactra?

 

[luiz]

In South America I'd say the Missions region (in the Triple Border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay) was the most disputed. First disputed between the Spanish and the Portuguese, scenario of the portuguese wars against the guarani indians and the jesuits, and later also the scenario of clashes between Brazil and Argentina and also of course of the tremendous bloodbath of the Triple Alliance War.


Though of course it pales in comparisson to disputed regions of other continents that have many more centuries of history.

 

[Bast]

Maybe Israel but Belgium is the battleground of all Europe.

 

[wurkwurk]

The Palestine area, for sure. Israelites, Phillistines, and Cannanites, Akkadians, Pharonic Egyptians, Hittites (who fought the first well documented Battle of Kadesh here), Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians, Selucids, Parthians, Romans (and all the famous Jewish rebellions), Palmyrans, Sassanian Persians, Byzantines, The Muslim conquest, the Seljuk Turks, NINE HUGE ASS CRUSADES, Saladin and the Mamluk Reconquest, the Ottoman conquest, Napoleon's invasion (and Ottoman and British kicking them out), British conquest in WWI, the first battles for the nation of Israel, the 1956 Suez crisis, the 1967 war, Yom Kippur War, and monstrous amounts of continuous conflict them then to now.

Can anything REALLY beat that? Of course the Low Countries in western Europe is constnantly fought over...since the middle ages. But stuff in the Middle East started occuring almost 4000 years before that time.

 

[Mirc]

Maybe Israel but Belgium is the battleground of all Europe.

In Europe, don't forget Istanbul too (or rather, on the border of Europe, but still in Europe partially).

 

[Phlegmak]

I'm sure parts of India have seen plenty of wars. I'm mentioning those only to find some place outside of Europe and the Middle East.

 

[ohcrapitsnico]

Any places in central asia that might make the cut? THe silk trail must have been an area ripe for conflict for centuries...! How about the CIty of Samarkand, or Bactra?

Well transoxania is the land link between the middle east and china, this is always the place where the middle eastern invaders come from, timur, genghis, hulagu, seljuks, etc. I would say though that after genghis this area was utterly demolished. Lets remember in Persia alone 90% of the pop of persia was eliminated by the mongols, and timur razed the million plus tatar cities on the russian steppe like sarai berke and sarai batu to the point they never existed past that point. I would also say the passage to India is hotly contested, Badakhshan and the cities of lahore, qandahar, and kabul.