Running Time: 56 minutes

Program 1 - Wars for the Continent
At the start of the 18th-century two factors shaped the colonial approach to war. First, early colonists found themselves isolated in hostile territory. If they were going to survive attacks from local tribes they would have to do it on their wn. There would be no help from the mother country. So they had to develop unique tactics and strategies similar to the native populations they were fighting.  It was the beginning of the self-reliant character that would define Americans.

Second, the colonists participated in the dramatic change taking place in European weaponry that came with the introduction of gunpowder.  Muskets, pistols and cannons replaced swords and other cutting edge weapons. However, the isolation from Europe ended when the four powers- the French, the English, the Spanish and the Native Americans- vied for control of the North American continent.

1702 Queen Anne's War
1713 Treaty of Utrecht Ends Queen Anne's War
1739 War of Jenkins Ear Begins
1754 - 1763 French and Indian War
1763 Pontiac's War
1770 Boston Massacre

Program Two - The Revolutionary War
The American colonists, having rid themselves of the French and the Native Americans, found a new threat: their own mother country, Britain.  The Boston Massacre, followed by the Boston tea Party were the beginnings of a rebellion. Britain, with more than 3000 troops in Massachusetts colony, moved rapidly to put the rebellion down. Its strategy was to capture the leaders and munitions in the rebel center of Concord Massachusetts. This action led directly to the first battle of the Revolutionary War....  One in which the colonists quickly learned that their militia units could not stand up to the European style of fighting.  Rather than fighting rows of soldiers against rows of soldiers, the colonists adopted the Native American strategy of fighting from concealment.  Let's look at how "the shot heard around the world" started the American Revolution

1775 - The Battle of Lexington and Concord
1775 - George Washington Assumes Command of The Continental Army
1776 - Washington crosses the Delaware
1777 - Second Battle of Saratoga
1777- John Paul Jones sets Sail
1777-78 - The Winter at Valley Forge
1778 - George Rogers Clark captures Kaskaskia
1781 - Siege of Yorktown

Program 3 - Manifest Destiny Wars
In this program we look at the 50 years between the Revolutionary War and the Alamo.  This period was the beginning of the United States' push westward...what would ultimately be called Manifest Destiny.

1797 - U.S.S. Constitution is Launched
1811 - Battle of Tippecanoe
1814 - Washington D.C. is Captured and Burned by the British
1814 - Star Spangled Banner is Written
1815 - Battle of New Orleans
1832 - Black Hawk War Ends with Massacre at Bad Axe River
1836 - Alamo Falls

Program 4 - The Civil War
In our fourth program we look at the years 1846 to 1865.  The two wars America fought in this period could not have been more different.  The Mexican American War of 1846 was a brief, almost light-hearted campaign that ended quickly and brought vast new territory to the nation.  Fifteen years later, the ultimate pain of war fell directly upon the country for the first time.  These were the darkest years militarily for the Republic...a time when Americans turned new, more lethal, weapons on each other in the Civil War.

1846 - United States Declares War on Mexico
1861 - Eleven States Comprise the Confederacy
1862 - Emancipation Proclamation
1863 - Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address
1863 - The Fall of Vicksburg
1865 - Lee Surrenders at Appomattox

Running Time: 56 minutes

Program 5 - The Imperial Wars
In the fifth program we look at the years 1868 to 1918.  With the Civil War over, the call of Manifest Destiny turned Americans westward once more, and very quickly the United States became engaged in its longest running war, The Plains Indians War, from 1868 to 1890.  We also see America's brief flirtation with Imperialism, as the U.S. for first time took its growing military might onto the world stage in the Spanish-American War and then again in World War One.

1750- Native American Horse Cultures Dominate the Great Plains
1876- Battle at the Little Big Horn
1890- Battle at Wounded Knee
1898 - Sinking of the Maine
1914 - 1917 - America Prepares for World War I
1917 - America Enters World War I

Program 6 - The Global Wars
After World War I the 19th century's old balance of power vanished.  Once more world domination through military conquest loomed as an actual possibility.  In the sixth program, the global wars, we look at the years 1939 to 1953 as America spread it's military across half the planet and took command of the fight against totalitarianism in World War II and communism in the Korean War.

1941 - Japanese Bomb Pearl Harbor
1944 - D-Day "Operation Overlord"
1945 - The Air Force Drops an Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima
1950 - President Truman Sends American Troops to the Aid of South Korea
1950 - 1953 The Korean War

Running Time: 56 minutes

Program 7 - The Cold War
By the middle of the 20th-century, a completely new kind of war emerged. It was a war whose battles did not allow for direct confrontation between the two main combatants, the United States and the Soviet Union.  This was because direct confrontation with atomic weapons would have led to the total annihilation of both adversaries. In the seventh program we look at the years from 1952 to 1969. These were the principal years of the Cold War battles between America and the Soviet Union.

1952 - The Marshall Plan Wins the Battle for Western Europe
1954 - John Foster Dulles Becomes Eisenhower's Cold War Warrior
1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis
1964 - Vietnam War: Congress Passes Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
1968 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive

Program 8 - The Police Wars
As the Vietnam War drew to a close, it became clear that the American military had experienced a devastating defeat to a communist adversary. It was the first loss in U.S. history. Ironically, at the same time the danger from the greater nemesis of global communism was on the decline. In this program we look at the years 1973 to 2004...a time when the American military would reach an all-time low only to reemerge as the world's single superpower with a new role as the world's policeman.

1973 - Vietnam War: Cease-Fire Ends War
1983 - The Grenada Conflict
1990 - The Gulf War
1991--End of the Cold War
2003 - Gulf War II