List of longest wars

Throughout history humans have engaged in diverse forms of war. Even though there is disagreement among scholars as to how long each of these wars were, the following list classifies wars according to their duration.

War	Dates	Duration
Reconquista	722-1492	770 years[1]
Roman–Persian Wars	92BC–629AD	721 years
Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War	1651-1986	335 years[2]
American Indian Wars	1622-1924	302 years
Arauco War	1536-1825	290 years[3]
Byzantine–Seljuq wars	1048-1308	260 years
Byzantine–Ottoman Wars	1265–1479	214 years
Hundred Years' War	1337-1453	116 years[4]
Seleucid–Parthian wars	238BC–129BC	109 years
Eighty Years' War	1568-1648	80 years[5]
Karen Conflict	1949-Ongoing	66 years[6]
Korean War	1950-1953	3 years
Dutch–Portuguese War	1601–1661	60 years
Colombian Conflict	1964-Ongoing	52 years
Greco-Persian Wars	499-449	50 years[7]
Wars of the Diadochi	322-275	47 years[8]
Thirty-Eight Years' War	770-811	38 years
War in Afghanistan (1978–present)	1978-Ongoing	38 years and 2 days
Guatemalan Civil War	1960-1996	36 years, 1 month, 2 weeks, and 2 days[9]
Wars of the Roses	1455-1487	32 years[10]
First War of Scottish Independence	1296-1328	32 years[11]
Aceh War	1873-1904	31 years[12]
Thirty Years' War	1618-1648	30 years[13]
Portuguese Restoration War	1640-1668	28 years[14]
Peloponnesian War	431-404	27 years[15]
Angolan Civil War	1975-2002	27 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days[16]
Livonian War	1558-1583	25 years[17]
Second Sudanese Civil War	1983-2005	22 years
Great Northern War	1700-1721	21 years, 6 months, and 19 days[18]
Gothic War	535–554	19 years
Vietnamese War	1955-1975	19 years, 5 months, 4 weeks, and 1 day[19]
First Sudanese Civil War	1955-1972	17 years
Lebanese Civil War	1975-1990	15 years and 6 months
War on Terror	2001-Ongoing	14 years [20]
Portuguese Colonial War	February 4, 1961 – April 25, 1974	13 years, 2 months and 3 weeks
Wars of Alexander the Great	336BC–323BC	13 years
Napoleonic Wars	1803-1815	12 years[21]

See also

• List of wars extended by diplomatic irregularity

References

1. McKitterick, Rosamond; Collins, R. (1990). The New Cambridge Medieval. History 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 289. ISBN 9780521362924. Retrieved July 26, 2012.
2. Bowley, R. L. (2001). Scilly at war. St Mary's: Bowley Publ. ISBN 0900184345.
3. Cruz, Eduardo Agustin (2010). The grand Araucanian wars (1541-1883) in the kingdom of Chile. [S.l.]: Xlibris. ISBN 1450055281.
4. Corrigan, Gordon (2014). Great and glorious adventure : a history of the hundred years war and the birth of renaissance... [S.l.]: Pegasus Books. ISBN 978-1605985794.
5. Hart, Marjolein 't (2011). Dutch wars of independence : the eighty years struggle, 1566-1648. [S.l.]: Longman. ISBN 0582209676.
6. Charney, Michael W. (2009). A history of modern Burma (1. publ.3. print. ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521617588.
7. Green, Peter (1996). The Greco-Persian wars ([Repr.]. ed.). Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Press. ISBN 0520205731.
8. Romm, James (2012). Ghost on the throne : the death of Alexander the Great and the war for crown and empire (1st ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0307271641.
9. Chauche, Victor Perera ; photographs by Daniel (1995). Unfinished conquest : the Guatemalan tragedy. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520203496.
10. Jones, Dan (2014). Wars of the roses : the fall of the plantagenets and the rise of the tudors. [S.l.]: Viking. ISBN 0670026670.
11. Traquair, Peter (1998). Freedoms̓ sword. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0004720792.
12. Martinkus, John (2004). Indonesia's secret war in Aceh (1. publ. ed.). Milsons Point, N.S.W.: Random House. ISBN 174051209X.
13. Wilson, Peter H. (2011). The Thirty Years War : Europe's tragedy (1st Harvard University Press pbk. ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674062310.
14. Birmingham, David (2003). A concise history of Portugal (2. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521536863.
15. Kagan, Donald (2004). The Peloponnesian War. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0142004375.
16. III, W. Martin James (2011). A political history of the civil war in Angola, 1974-1990 (Pbk. ed.). New Brunswick, [N.J.], U.S.A.: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1412815061.
17. Stevens, Carol B. (2007). Russia's wars of emergence : 1460-1730. Harlo [u.a.]: Pearson Longman. ISBN 0582218918.
18. Frost, Robert I. (2000). The northern wars : war, state, and society in northeastern Europe, 1558 - 1721 ([Nachdr.] ed.). Harlow [u.a.]: Longman. ISBN 0582064295.
19. Karnow, Stanley (1997). Vietnam, a history (2nd rev. and updated ed.). New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140265473.
20. Bowman, Karlyn (July 24, 2008). "America and the War on Terror" (PDF). American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Retrieved April 3, 2010.
21. Rothenberg, Gunther E. (2006). The Napoleonic Wars. [Washington, D.C.]: Smithsonian Books. ISBN 006085121X.