History Lesson
Winston Churchill once said, "Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft."
Over the years CNN.com has taken an in-depth look at several of the major conflicts around the world, digging deep into the sources of those conflicts with comprehensive timelines. To learn why the Kosovars and Serbians fight or why the Kurds want a homeland in the Middle East, check out the following timelines.
China | Colombia | India | Indonesia | Iraq | Israel | Korea | Kosovo | Northern Ireland | Pakistan | Russia
Taiwan | Turkey | Sierra Leone | Yugoslavia
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| Yugoslavia Decides, September 2000 |
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Yugoslavia's political fate remains on a razor's edge, with the country's opposition threatening to call a general nationwide strike unless President Slobodan Milosevic, who has ruled the country for the last 13 years, accepts apparent defeat in the September 24th ballot.
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| Conflict and Hope in Northern Ireland, September 2000 |
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For more than 30 years, the words Northern Ireland have brought to mind images of violence and bitter sectarian division. During that period, the counties that make up Northern Ireland have witnessed a depressing catalogue of death and injury as Catholics and Protestants fought each other.
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| Colombia: War Without End, August 2000 |
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Colombia's government is fighting a war from all sides. Besieged by two leftist rebel organizations, South America's oldest democracy is also being undermined by brutal right-wing paramilitary groups and powerful narcotics traffickers.
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| Mideast Struggle for Peace: Camp David 2000, July 2000 |
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The Camp David summit of July 2000 is the latest in a long line of attempts by Israelis and Palestinians to secure peace in the Middle East. Palestinians and Israelis must contend not only with the political pressures of the moment but also with a lengthy history of conflict.
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| Korea: States of War, May 2000 |
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As Koreans basked in the euphoria of a landmark summit in June that saw the leaders of the North and South shake hands for the first time, they also faced the 50th anniversary of the war that drove a wedge of hostility deep across the middle of the peninsula.
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| Russia Elections, March 2000 |
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Examine the past 15 years of Soviet-Russian history -- the events that took a nation from the heart of the Cold War to the uncertainty of today.
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| Taiwan Decides, March 2000 |
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Taiwan's history since the arrival of the Chinese Nationalist government half a century ago is marked by conflict with Beijing, shifting international tides and a decade-long move toward democracy.
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| Sierra Leone: February 2000 |
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More than eight years of civil war have ravaged this West African nation, which was first visited by Europeans in 1462.
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| Kosovo: Prospects for Peace, January 2000 |
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NATO's 11-week bombing campaign ended in June 1999 when Serb officials halted their persecution of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and agreed to a U.N. peacekeeping mission. Look back all the way to the 14th century to see the events that brought about the situation in Kosovo.
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| India Decides, September 1999 |
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Fifty years of independence for India are underscored by 5,000 years of history. For centuries, India beckoned to the outside world, and wave upon wave of invaders responded, from the Aryans to the Muslims to the final foreign rulers, the British. Each of these groups, and the others who fell in between, helped sew the quilt that is India today.
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| Visions of China, August 1999 |
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Chairman Mao Tse-tung stood victoriously at Tiananmen Gate in 1949 and declared, "The Chinese people have stood up." The Chinese Communist revolution ended more than 100 years of division and upheaval, including occupation of key cities and territories by foreign powers; peasant, ethnic and religious uprisings; the fall of the Qing (Ch'ing) Dynasty; civil war; Japanese invasion; and more civil war.
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| At a Crossroads: Indonesia Votes, June 1999 |
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From Dutch colony to teetering developing nation, from an economic powerhouse to an ethnically-riven archipelago, Indonesia has worn many faces in the last several decades.
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| Turkey and the Kurds: The Ocalan Trial, April 1999 |
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Turkey's arrest of Abdullah Ocalan sparked a frenzy of protest actions in 16 European cities. Why would thousands of people put their bodies on the line to aid a man wanted for terrorism? The answer may lie in the plight of the Kurds, a people who were denied a state in the redrawing of the maps at the end of World War I.
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| Strike on Iraq, December 1998 |
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The December 1998 conflict with Iraq had been building for years, dating back to the events that precipitated the Persian Gulf War. Review key events, beginning with the invasion of Kuwait.
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| India & Pakistan: Fifty Years of Independence, August 1997 |
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These two countries have fought three wars, two of them over the disputed region of Kashmir. The region is small, but nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, its strategic importance and beauty making it a prized possession. The friction between India and Pakistan is relevant to the rest of the world not only because both are the newest members of the nuclear club; it also affects the stability and economic potential of region that includes more than a billion people.
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