World War I combat may have ended with the armistice on November 11, 1918, but at least one German colonial officer managed to avoid capture until the following January. More

History is filled with examples of soldiers who refused to capitulate even after their conflicts had come to an end. Some of these holdouts simply didn’t know war had ended, but others—including some of the six featured below—deliberately fought on even after peace had been declared More

Rebel generals plagued the Roman Empire for much of its history, but few were as bold or as successful as Carausius. A skilled naval commander, he first rose to prominence around 286 A.D., when he was tasked with protecting the coastlines of Gaul from Frankish and Saxon pirates. While he kept the marauders at bay, Carausius was also known to More

History is packed with examples of generals, mercenaries and adventurers who disregarded orders and used their armies to carry out a personal agenda. More

In 1738, a British mariner named Robert Jenkins displayed a severed, decomposing ear before the members of Parliament. As part of a formal testimony, he claimed that a Spanish coastguard officer had sliced off his ear seven years earlier as punishment for smuggling. Spurred on by this stirring testimony, the British had soon declared war on the More

Most wars are fought over serious issues like territory, resources or political freedom, but others arise from bizarre and even comical circumstances. Over the years, armies have mobilized and blood has been shed over everything from tragic misunderstandings and perceived slights to petty border disputes and even sporting events. Get the facts on More

If Rome’s sheer size made it difficult to govern, ineffective and inconsistent leadership only served to magnify the problem. More

Read on to discover eight reasons why one of history’s most legendary empires finally came crashing down. More

In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made its own re-ordering of the Ukrainian jigsaw. Western Ukraine was taken by Stalin from Poland at the end of the Second World War. Crimea was transferred by Moscow to the Ukrainian republic within the USSR in the 1950s, but retains strong links with Russia, symbolised by the Russian Black Sea fleet base in More

As Europe’s second largest country, its territory reaches deep into that of modern Russia, but it shares borders too with several EU members, including Poland and Hungary. More

The Crimean War of 1853–6 was, bar the Napoleonic Wars, the most significant conflict of the 19th century. It involved four major powers – Britain, France, Turkey (on one side) and Russia (on the other) – and, in many ways, laid the groundwork for the First World War. More

Members from eastern Europe are calling for tough sanctions, while others, led by Germany, seek mediation. More