Gunfreak | 22 Feb 2020 4:46 p.m. PST |
Some wars like ww2 makes it easy to find stuff. If you Google ww2 German soldiers, that's what you get. If you Google French napoleonic line infantry that's what you get. But if you Google Italian wars anything. You won't get the actual war called the Italian wars. You get all wars ever on Italy. You get roman stuff, medieval stuff, italian unification war and ww2. So what other wars are horribly named, when it comes to finding stuff online. |
robert piepenbrink | 22 Feb 2020 5:24 p.m. PST |
Well, the Social Wars, obviously. But there's a stack of classical stuff where you can only hope Autocorrect is good enough to carry you across the finish line. People clearly were not naming their wars with Google in mind. That's a pretty limited notion of "horribly named wars" though. More generally, I'd consider "wars of national liberation." |
John Armatys | 22 Feb 2020 6:11 p.m. PST |
Putting "Italian wars" in inverted commas helps… |
Au pas de Charge | 22 Feb 2020 7:16 p.m. PST |
Try looking for this league of augsburg, nine years war, late 17th century, Grand Alliance, Louis XIV, Williamite Wars, Dutch Wars mess and try to get coherent results. I say that whole period needs one common name like "Cat N Fiddle" |
Zephyr1 | 22 Feb 2020 10:46 p.m. PST |
And, you will always get an ad that says "Italian wars 40% off at Target!"… ;-) |
etotheipi | 23 Feb 2020 5:04 a.m. PST |
Mad Magazine had a paperback "Mad About History" or somesuch title that had single pane comics about history topics from the first humans up to the current date (which was either the late 70's or early 80's when it was published). There was a page with Hellenistic combat going on behind two scribes scratching their heads with stacks of crumpled papers in front of them. The caption was something like "415 B.C. The Peloponnesian War continues as neither side can find a treaty writer who can spell Peloponnesian." I assume the joke is that everyone knows contemporary records refer to this activity as the Attic War, which was much easier to spell. |
robert piepenbrink | 23 Feb 2020 5:37 a.m. PST |
Trust me, etotheipi, that was not a joke that any Mad writer would have gotten. For that matter, it's not true. It's a hypothesis about what the Spartans would have called it, not records to that effect. The Athenians did call the first half the Archadamian War, but that's not a vast improvement. |
ZULUPAUL | 23 Feb 2020 7:45 a.m. PST |
The "War to end all wars"…WWI |
USAFpilot | 23 Feb 2020 8:57 a.m. PST |
As a kid I was confused by the name "French and Indian War". Were the French fighting against the Indians? I learned it's a matter of perspective. I wonder what the French called that war? |
Au pas de Charge | 23 Feb 2020 9:32 a.m. PST |
In France the French and Indian War is called "Le sealee Breeteesh and stoopeed Amereecahn war" OR La guerre de Sept Ans |
tabletopwargamer | 23 Feb 2020 9:38 a.m. PST |
Google Italian wars… Top result is Wikipedia for… The Italian wars. So what's your point? |
Ryan T | 23 Feb 2020 10:24 a.m. PST |
In most of the English-speaking world it is called the Seven Years' War. In France it is la guerre de Sept Ans. In Prussia and Austria it was Dritter Schlesischer Krieg (Third Silesian War), but in German it is now more commonly the Siebenjährigen Krieg. But there are also a number of other parochial names as well. In Québec it is La guerre de la Conquête (War of the Conquest). In Sweden they use Pommerska kriget (Pomeranian War) and on the Indian subcontinent it is called the Third Carnatic War. And then finally in the US it is known as the French and Indian War. |
robert piepenbrink | 23 Feb 2020 10:54 a.m. PST |
FIW was sometimes also "King George's Second War" in the long-standing American practice of blaming wars on the chief executive. See also "King William's War" "Queen Ann's War" "Mr. Madison's War" "Mr. Lincoln's War" and so on until the description would get me benched for being political. |
The Virtual Armchair General | 23 Feb 2020 2:44 p.m. PST |
If by "Badly named wars," one also means those that don't have a nice, short, pithy title, then I have one that's a personal frustration to me. And the fact that I can't even refer to it specifically without writing out the over-long and/or obscure names for it makes my point. When, beginning in 1861 (actually, but not going ballistic until the next year) the French sent an expeditionary force to Mexico, there began a six year civil war that put the Second French Empire on the road to disaster in 1871. More or less "officially," this is commonly titled "The Fench Intervention in Mexico," which is NOT short OR pithy. It's also not accurate in that there was a previous French Intervention in Mexico that has the great good fortune to be known as "The Pastry War." But there was little more than skirmishing to that, and our Old Friend Santa Anna having his leg blown off--hardly enough for a stand-alone wargames subject. So, it's the "SECOND French Intervention in Mexico" we're left with. But not exclusively. In France, perhaps due to the almost entirely negative connotations associated with a cruel war that ended in their humiliation, it is made lighter--and even exciting--by being referred to as "The French Adventure." This title is really worse than the standard title in that while shorter, it's certainly not pithier--just vague, and given all the other "French Adventures" that country has engaged in all over the planet, it's clearly not specific enough. And in Mexico, it's lumped together with the "National Grand Decade" which includes The Reform War which directly led to the French (among others, initially) intervening in the first place. Not liking any of these, and believing that those of us in the hobby industry who do (or will) offer products for this subject would benefit from the gift of a short and pithy title, I'm open to suggestions from the jury. "Juarez' War" would be nice, but he was involved in so many, it lacks specificity. "Maximilian's War" is pretty good, actually, but he didn't start it, and some might think of earlier Max's in Central Europe and other periods altogether. Gentlemen, I rest my case. TVAG |
Lilian | 23 Feb 2020 5:09 p.m. PST |
¿the French Adventure?…never heard that, it exists the «Intervencion Francesa» in México the english-speaking have the "Mexican adventure" and despite they would like to imagine, it was not perceived as an "humiliation" in France and it is not also really named or known like that in the french-speaking world but Expédition or Campagne du Mexique to distinguish from «Guerre du Mexique» the US-Mexican War where US reduced the size of his neighbour by two even if sometimes this last one could be used for 1862-1867 |
Rudysnelson | 23 Feb 2020 5:10 p.m. PST |
Never liked the War of Jenkins Ear. |
Au pas de Charge | 23 Feb 2020 11:06 p.m. PST |
What about the Battle of Bad Axe? One wonders how many bad axes were involved. |
Stoppage | 24 Feb 2020 4:23 a.m. PST |
Kartoffelkrieg (Potato War) |
Frederick | 24 Feb 2020 8:28 a.m. PST |
Having grown up between Canada and the US I did wonder for a while as a kid why the French and Indian War and the Seven Years War weren't the same thing! |
CFeicht | 24 Feb 2020 4:23 p.m. PST |
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Legion 4 | 24 Feb 2020 4:28 p.m. PST |
Of course War of the Worlds was always one of my favorites. But if written today, it would have been called "The War Of Undocumented ET Aliens" … Not really too catchy … |
Korvessa | 24 Feb 2020 5:52 p.m. PST |
Hey etotheipi! I still have that book! One of my favorite resources. |
Franck | 24 Feb 2020 11:35 p.m. PST |
-- "In France, perhaps due to the almost entirely negative connotations associated with a cruel war that ended in their humiliation, it is made lighter--and even exciting--by being referred to as "The French Adventure." ??? Where did you get that ? I guess you base this comment on Chartrand's book ? it's a nice and "romantic" title but Chartrand is not French. Here it is just called "Expédition du Mexique". And it certainly is not known as an humiliation in France. Just because virtually nobody ever heard of this war :)) |
etotheipi | 25 Feb 2020 6:19 a.m. PST |
I still have that book! One of my favorite resources. DOM has mine. I gave it to her for getting a BA in History at the same time as a BS in EE. |
Lilian | 25 Feb 2020 6:48 a.m. PST |
Indeed Franck I thought also exactly the same : that this so-called humiliating "Mexican Adenture" supposed to be given by french-speaking should come from René Chartrand's popular Osprey MAA 272, a great French-Canadian author writing in french and english but here it is a title for the english-speaking market : on the web there are 106 000 references «The Mexican Adventure» and it seems most around this last one, on the french-speaking web there were only 5460 references to «l'Aventure Mexicaine» en français dans le texte including references to the singer Luis Mariano (1914-1970)! to say that nobody has heard of it is quite excessive, the expedition became unpopular but certainly not percevied as an humilitation, many Mexican Officers were interned in France and received not as POW's but as guests in the French families as said it is known as Expédition or Campagne du Mexique and even Guerre du Mexique despiste this last one it is also mainly used for the US-Mexican War 1846-1848
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gounour | 02 Apr 2020 2:51 a.m. PST |
how about "les évènements d'Algérie"? Because of course it took us 50 year to admit it could have been a civil war… "La Grande Guerre" or "The Great War", and there you have a green midget with long fluffy ears telling you that "Wars do not make anybody great" or something "World War I" forgetting that the seven years war was a worldwide event too "the Cold War", as for a few billions not-NATO/not-COMECON citizens it has been quite warm for quite some time. |
Legion 4 | 02 Apr 2020 8:04 a.m. PST |
And let's not forget – The Milagro Beanfield War … link |
Lilian | 02 Apr 2020 12:46 p.m. PST |
nobody called the Algerian War like that even in the years 60 and 70 and beginning by the first concerned how many years it will take to the Algerians to admit it was a civil war between them more than with French soldiers |
Sandinista | 10 Apr 2020 4:58 p.m. PST |
Is that similar to the Algerian War of Independence? |
Puster | 11 Apr 2020 3:59 a.m. PST |
Personally when I look for "Maximilian's War" I would like to get results on the wars between France and Burgund from 1478 to 1493, on his campaigns vs. the Hungars, or in northern Italy. I never thought that a conflict between French and US interests fought on Mexican soil should be called after the unlucky galeon man, especially when I look for the man who practically created the post-medieval Europe. On the other hand… who cares. :-) |