A Brief History of American Wars and Their Immediate Causes

(This is not an exhaustive list. Please read to the end for a contemporary application.)

Beginning with the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, six years before the 13 colonies declared their independence from the British crown, U.S. history is replete with examples of the mass loss of American lives resulting in a formal declaration of war. Sometimes it takes several years, as in the above instance, or in World War I, when the United States waited almost two full years after the sinking of the Lusitania before declaring war on Germany. However, in more cases than not, when a foreign entity or power launches an attack that kills scores of U.S. citizens, war ensues... often sooner rather than later.

Here are just a few examples…

June 18, 1812 – After years of enduring naval blockades and suffering pirated ships, the United States declared war on Great Britain. The British managed to capture and burn much of Washington D.C., including the White House, while American victories at Baltimore, Plattsburgh, and New Orleans turned the tide, resulting in an eventual stalemate and the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in 1814.

May 12, 1846 – The United States declared war on Mexico for not recognizing the Treaties of Velasco in 1845, by which the U.S. annexed the Republic of Texas. This formal action came almost 10 years to the day after the loss of between 182 and 257 Texians, as they were known, at the Alamo in San Antonio at the hands of Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna’s army.

April 12, 1863 - Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina after Major Robert Anderson, the fort’s commanding officer, refused multiple demands to surrender. Only one Union soldier was killed and one mortally wounded, both during a 100-gun salute prior to the surrender, causing the salute to be shortened to just 50-guns. On April 15th, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling out 75,000 troops under the Militia Act of 1792 to suppress the insurrection. Four days later, Lincoln signed a second proclamation which authorized the blockade of all Southern ports by the Union Navy. Following the Civil War, the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged this measure, usually interpreted as an act of war, to be the official beginning of the War Between the States.

February 15, 1898 – The USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor, Cuba, killing 266 sailors, roughly 2/3 of its crew. Of the 94 survivors, only 16 were uninjured. Although it was never proven, claims that the explosion was due to a Spanish mine led to the United States declaring war on Spain on April 25th, retroactive to April 21st, the day that Spain severed diplomatic relations with the U.S. while America simultaneously launched a naval blockade.

May 7, 1915 – The British ocean liner Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat off the southern coast of Ireland. Almost 1,200 passengers and crew members were killed, including 123 Americans. However, war wasn’t declared by Congress – at the request of President Woodrow Wilson – until April 1917, after Germany resumed the targeting of U.S. transport ships that were resupplying Great Britain. The U.S. Senate approved Wilson’s request on April 4th and the House of Representatives followed suit two days later.

December 7, 1941 – On “a date that will live in infamy,” the naval and air forces of Imperial Japan launched a secret and unprovoked attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii that resulted in 2,403 dead and 1,178 wounded. Congress acted the very next day and President Franklin D. Roosevelt immediately signed the official declaration of war.

September 11, 2001 – Multiple planes, hijacked by Islamist terrorists, struck the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. A fourth plane, whose intended target was the White House, went down in a field in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania. Altogether, 2,977 American lives were lost – not including those who died later from health complications – and the Global War on Terrorism was initiated, beginning with Operation Enduring Freedom on October 7, 2001.

Curiously, neither the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon on April 18, 1983, that claimed 32 Lebanese and 17 American lives; or the October 23, 1983 terrorist attack on the multinational military base in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French personnel resulted in a formal declaration of war. In fact, the dual bombings actually hastened the withdrawal of the international peacekeeping force in February 1984.

So, there you have it, my fellow Americans. Seven instances in which attacks on U.S. citizens precipitated a war and two where they didn’t. It remains to be seen what will result from the deaths of 25 innocent Americans (possibly more) at the hands of Hamas.

I guess the question that needs to be asked and answered is this: Is there a specific number of American deaths that are required for war to be declared? Or are some acts of international violence so heinous that they require, let alone demand, formal and immediate American military action?

Remember that the spark that ignited World War I in Europe was the June 28, 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the presumptive heir to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and his wife on the streets of Sarajevo. Those two deaths resulted indirectly in approximately 20 million more over the next five years, including 9.7 million military personnel and 10 million civilians.

We had best tread carefully, but boldly and unafraid. After all, some things are worth fighting and dying for, and eradicating barbarians such as Hamas from the face of the earth is at the top of my list.

Thankfully, for now, it appears that America’s role will be limited to supplying arms, munitions, military intelligence, and humanitarian aid to our Israeli allies. However, should the conflict spread beyond the borders of Israel and Gaza to Lebanon and Syria, all bets are off. Either way, the United States must be resolute and prepared.

As Scripture says, wise as serpents but innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16).