No. of Recommendations: 3
You left out a couple that D[o]pe might be familiar with, at least enough to contemplate the possibility of another way of thinking. (Ha! I make a joke. I crack myself up.)
Wow. So much spinning up here.
The Revolutionary War: the Americans (who thought of themselves as British until the actual British showed up) took blow after blow from one of the most powerful military forces on the planet, and after many battles and years, the British finally got tired of spending all that money and losing all those soldiers, and packed up and went home. Britain won more battles, but in the end they just got tired of the fight. The Americans never did, in spite of facing almost insurmountable odds. Why? Because they lived there .
George Washington beating Cornwallis on the battlefield might have had something to do with it, just a thought.
Asterisks indicate conflicts in which the “weaker”, but resolute party eventually won and repelled the invader.
I love how so many here think they have this overriding point that the Invader Loses So Often that "this" (Ukraine) looks just like "That". But there's so much historical context being absolutely butchered here.
Let's take one example: The American Revolutionary War
Cornwallis, after unsuccessfully chasing Washington's forces all around North and South Carolina decided to focus on Virginia. Cornwallis, unwisely as it turned out, chose Yorktown, Va. as his rally point. Washington ordered his forces to block the land escape routes (Yorktown sits on a small peninsula) while coordinating with the French fleet to deny British ships access to the ports. The French in fact defeated the Royal Navy and forced them to retire to New York City. Washington (along with the French army) was thus able to lay siege to Yorktown, squeezing the Crown forces in a vice: no supplies were able to come in from land or from sea.
The siege lasted for roughly 2 and a half weeks (September 28, 1781 - October 19, 1781). Cornwallis and his men attempted to sneak over the York River to escape to the north but bad weather thwarted their plans. Outgunned and under constant American artillery fire, Cornwallis surrendered himself and his entire army on October 19th.
The British lost all 7,000 men, about 20% of their entire strength in the Colonies. Great Britain had no more troops to send, and with its main field army captured, had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
So it wasn't just a case of "little country outlasted the big one". America got dudes, guns and money plus direct intervention from France (and others).
Let's take another example: The Russian/Japanese war of 1904
The argument gets made, "Oh, Japan is smaller than Russia". Was that true?
In the Naval sense: No.
The Russo/Japanese war was a largely Naval affair. Here's the order of battle between both:
Russia
16 total ships, including 6 battleships, with a combined tonnage of 145,000. Russia attempted to reinforce its fleet based in Port Arthur but was never able to transfer any assets from its Atlantic ports to the Pacific.
Japan
17 total ships, including 6 battleships and a combined tonnage of 170,000. However, the Japanese ships were more modern with better armor and firepower. While the battleship numbers were equal, the Japanese had 6 armored heavy cruisers of a modern type compared to the Russian's...1.
Japan was focused on its interests in Korea and keeping Russia from advancing too far in the region. Russia's Tsar Nicholas was often on hunting trips leaving the Russian response unfocused.
Ultimately, Japan would coordinate its actions far better than the Russians: Their invasion of Korea initiated the hostilities with the immediately followup of an attack on the Russian fleet in Port Arthur. Japanese destroyers would disable 2 Russian battleships and a cruiser, effectively eliminating the Russian Navy as a fighting force. Two more battleships were disabled when they attempted to sneak past the Japanese blockade of Port Arthur but one was sunk and the other damaged by mines. A quick Japanese invasion of Port Arthur followed which allowed them to shell the Russian Navy, which was still trapped in port.
Ultimately the Russians lost almost all of their capital ships without ever firing many shots at the Japanese. The Russians would sortie their Baltic Fleet to the Pacific in 1905...only to run into logistical issues keeping them fueled with coal. To make Vladivostok, the Russian fleet had to sail precariously close to Japan, which laid a naval ambush at the Tsushima straits. The resulting battle cost the Russians 8 more battleships and 5,000 men to the Japanese loss of 2 torpedo boats and 116 men.
With their entire Navy essentially having been wiped out, the Russians sued for peace.
In this case, the "big" country couldn't bring to bear all of its resources against the "small" country. The "small" country could, and in fact could concentrate more firepower and supplies that the "Big" one.
