So, what do you think was the most important war ever fought in the history of the world? Yes, wars are not the answer to everything, but sometimes war was necessary. 

I would like to say the Persian Wars were very important, especially the 2nd invasion. The Persians were about to invade Greece, and Xerxes wanted to conquer  moreover for revenge from what happened to his father, Darius the Great. This is where the famous story of the final stand of the 300 Spartans. Greece depended on these Spartans to give enough time for the Athenians to start a counter-attack against the Persians. However, the stand was much more important, for if the Persians had won and invaded before the Athenians could start, then the ideas the Greeks started, most importantly, democracy, would not be present today. If the Persians won, they would have spread their influence to around the continent of Europe, and democracy is not one of their ideas. Without democracy, what would have impressed the Romans? The Greeks' idea of democracy impressed the Romans very much, so the absence of that would lead to probably a non-existent Roman Empire. Without the Roman Empire, who do the Founding Fathers of the United States draw inspiration from? The Romans and their democracy? No, for they would be non-existent. 
So there you have it. That's my opinion, tell me what you think!

Sidewinder : Call me crazy but I think World War II. It was fought around the globe, it cost thousands of lives, and the Nazis almost won.

And you're reminding me...I gotta study for my report on Greek Mythology that's due next week!

Im going to take a mathematcal standpoint on this and say the earliest battle of nations ever fought.

I could say ww2 but if britain had won or lost various wars before ww2 wouldnt have happenned.
But then i could say hastings because frances invasion of england kickstarted their drive for dominance.
But then the viking warlords were the ancestors of the french kings so those wars could be more significant.
Equally if france hadnt later been fighting england then england Wouldnt have put forward the idea of the union of nations with scotland. Great britain, and later the united kingdom of great britain and ireland, would never have been created. America, australia, new zealand, hong kong etc, others would have gained most of that.
But then, the romans sudden collapse is the reason the vikings moved into western europe, so the goths sacking of rome is more significant. But then without rome would their be such advancement in europe? Perhaps the middle east would be dominant today.
The earlier the battle the more significant. Its like a web, it all stems from a point. The further back you go the more each part becomes responsible for

In my honest opinion all the wars were pointless pretty much it's just about people fighting over an issue and then they ignore the more logical talking and get people to do there bidding and then there's pointless deaths and it's just so the winner can take away something from the war to benefit their country and not care about the after effects of what the war caused that much

tacosauce1 :

You must take into consideration when simple negotiations fail to succeed. Yes, people fight over an issue, and most likely that issue has the ability to affect many others in a positive or negative way. People fight wars to prevent the issue from having a negative affect, and the other side is trying to do the same. It is two sides fighting for the same thing, yet only one can come out victorious.

I am very bias on this and it was not the most famous or important war in the world but still, I am going to say the winter war.

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

Why,  you ask? It united our people after the civil war we had (20 years before) and though we lost the war, we kept our independence. And we did it with out major foreign military help.

There are too many conflicts to pick one as most important.  The political, economic, social, and religious results from various wars throughout the history of humanity are too numerous to select.  Outcomes that affect one part of the world may not affect the other.  I live in the United States and the countless wars fought in mainland Asia don't reach me as much as they would Europeans and Asians.  The wars fought over here don't reach South Americans and so on.

I would say from my ethnocentric point of view, the American Civil War is the most important war ever fought.  It brought new strategies with defensive positions and new technologies in modern day warfighting.  It came close to bringing European countries into the conflict and changed the political spectrum of arguably one of the most influential countries in our current age.

Deep down, I think when early humans 'warred' against Cro-magnon man and bashed his head in, thereby eliminating that potential species from competition, they set up the history of everything we know.  That was the most important war.

I'd probably go with the American Civil War. Am I biased? Probably, but it was easily one of the most important events in American history.

ace3llard : I agree, there is no need to get involved in a war unnecessarily if it can be avoided. 

I am going to say ww2 as well just because it involved the entire world, duh and it also costs several thousands of lives. So I think that is just one of the most important wars. Then again it is hard to decide and confirm on just one because they are all very important in their own way. Like the civil war gave rights and freedom of slavery and each war was over something important. So it is really hard to just pick 1, but if I had to choose, i would say WW2.

Good thread by the way, it is a break from all of those spammy brag threads for a change.