- South America
Cartels and paramilitaries
Cocaine cartels and right-wing paramilitary forces intensify the conflict with assassinations, bombings, kidnappings, and massacres of civilians.
Era: Armed Conflict and the Search for Peace
Sources: History of Colombia · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- North America
Assassination of Archbishop Romero
Archbishop Oscar Romero is shot dead while celebrating Mass; the UN Truth Commission later concludes he was killed by a right-wing death squad, an act that helped ignite the war.
Era: The Civil War
Sources: St. Oscar Romero · Encyclopaedia Britannica, El Salvador: Civil war · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Asia
The Iran–Iraq War
Iraq invades in September 1980, igniting a devastating eight-year war; Iran accepts UN Security Council Resolution 598 and a ceasefire takes effect on 20 August 1988.
Era: The Islamic Republic
Sources: Iran–Iraq War · Encyclopaedia Britannica, United Nations Security Council Resolution 598 · Wikipedia
- Asia
The Iran–Iraq War
Iraq invades Iran in September 1980, beginning an eight-year war of attrition that kills an estimated several hundred thousand to over a million people on both sides before a UN-mediated ceasefire takes effect in 1988.
Era: The Republic, Saddam Hussein and the Wars
Sources: Iran–Iraq War · Encyclopædia Britannica
- North America
The Contra war
The United States finances and arms the Contra insurgency against the Sandinista government; the war kills an estimated tens of thousands and devastates the economy. Casualty figures vary and are estimates.
Era: Revolution and the Contra War
Sources: Contra (Nicaraguan counterrevolutionary) · Encyclopædia Britannica, Nicaragua: The Sandinista government · Encyclopædia Britannica
- South America
Shining Path launches its insurgency
As civilian democracy is restored, the Maoist Shining Path under Abimael Guzman begins an armed insurrection in the Ayacucho highlands, opening two decades of internal conflict.
Era: Reform, the Shining Path, and Modern Peru
Sources: Shining Path · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Abimael Guzman · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Oceania
The Coconut War on Espiritu Santo
Jimmy Stevens's Nagriamel movement declared the breakaway 'State of Vemerana' on Espiritu Santo; the lightly armed revolt was suppressed soon after independence.
Era: Independence and the Coconut War
Sources: Vanuatu — History (Melanesian, Colonization, Independence) · Encyclopædia Britannica
- North America
El Mozote massacre
An army counterinsurgency operation kills hundreds of villagers at El Mozote and nearby hamlets; in 2012 President Funes apologised for the deaths of 936 people.
Era: The Civil War
Sources: El Salvador: The postconflict era · Encyclopaedia Britannica, El Salvador: Civil war · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Africa
Coup attempt and Senegalese intervention
A violent attempt to seize power led by Kukoi Samba Sanyang briefly took Bathurst while Jawara was abroad; Senegalese troops intervened under a defence pact to crush the revolt and restore him.
Era: Independence, republic and the Jawara years
Sources: The Gambia (country overview and history) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Senegambia Confederation · Wikipedia, Dawda Jawara · Wikipedia
- Africa
Mike Hoare's mercenary raid fails
Mercenaries disguised as a beer-drinkers' club and backed from South Africa tried to seize power; the plot collapsed and they hijacked an airliner to flee.
Era: Independence, Coup and One-Party State
Sources: 1981 Seychelles coup attempt · Wikipedia
- Africa
The Ugandan Bush War
Museveni's National Resistance Army wages guerrilla war against Obote's government from the Luwero Triangle; the army's counter-insurgency kills and displaces many thousands of civilians.
Era: The Bush War, Museveni and the Northern Insurgency
Sources: Ugandan Bush War · Wikipedia, National Resistance Army · Wikipedia
- South America
The Falklands/Malvinas War
Argentina invades the Falklands/Malvinas on 2 April; after ten weeks of war its forces surrender to Britain on 14 June, discrediting the junta.
Era: Dictatorship, the Falklands/Malvinas, and Democratic Argentina
Sources: Falkland Islands War · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Argentina · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- South America
Argentine invasion
Argentine forces landed and seized the islands, overwhelming the small British garrison; Argentina described it as recovering the Malvinas, Britain as an invasion of its territory.
Era: The 1982 War
Sources: The South Atlantic Crisis, 1982 (Conflict over the Falkland Islands / Islas Malvinas) · U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Falkland Islands War · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- South America
Belgrano and Sheffield sunk
A British submarine sank the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano on 2 May; on 4 May an Argentine Exocet missile sank the destroyer HMS Sheffield.
Era: The 1982 War
Sources: Falkland Islands War · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- South America
British landings at San Carlos
British forces landed at San Carlos on East Falkland and advanced overland, capturing Darwin and Goose Green before closing on Stanley.
Era: The 1982 War
Sources: Falkland Islands War · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- South America
Argentine surrender at Stanley
Argentine forces surrendered at Stanley after a 74-day campaign; about 255 British and 649 Argentine personnel and three islanders died in the war.
Era: The 1982 War
Sources: The South Atlantic Crisis, 1982 (Conflict over the Falkland Islands / Islas Malvinas) · U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Falkland Islands War · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Asia
Israeli invasion and siege of Beirut
Israel invades Lebanon and besieges Beirut, forcing out the PLO; the assassination of president-elect Bashir Gemayel is followed by the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
Era: Civil War, Foreign Intervention and Collapse
Sources: Lebanese Civil War · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Africa
Casamance insurgency begins
Clashes in Ziguinchor over a Casamance flag mark the start of the MFDC separatist conflict, one of Africa's longest-running.
Era: A Democratic Republic and the Casamance Question
Sources: Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance · Wikipedia, Casamance: Between war and peace · The New Humanitarian
- North America
Contra war staging ground
Honduras hosts an expanded U.S. military presence at Soto Cano and serves as a base for the Nicaraguan Contras against the Sandinistas.
Era: Military Rule and the Cold-War Frontier
Sources: Honduras: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Africa
Second Civil War and the rise of the SPLM/SPLA
Khartoum abolishes southern autonomy and moves to impose sharia; the SPLM/SPLA forms under John Garang, beginning the Second Sudanese Civil War.
Era: Marginalisation and Two Civil Wars
Sources: History of South Sudan · Wikipedia, South Sudan: The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Conflict, Independence · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Asia
Civil war between the state and the LTTE
After the anti-Tamil violence of Black July in 1983, the LTTE fights for a separate Tamil state; the war ends with the group's military defeat in May 2009 after about twenty-six years.
Era: Republic, Civil War and the Modern Nation
Sources: Sri Lanka: Reconstruction and the modern nation · Encyclopædia Britannica, Sri Lanka: History · Encyclopædia Britannica
- Africa
Second civil war begins
Nimeiri scraps southern autonomy and imposes sharia; the SPLM/A under John Garang launches a war that kills an estimated two million people.
Era: Independence and the Long Civil Wars
Sources: Sudanese Civil Wars · Encyclopedia.com, Sudan · Wikipedia
- Africa
The Gukurahundi massacres
The army's Fifth Brigade carried out massacres in Matabeleland and the Midlands targeting ZAPU supporters and Ndebele civilians; estimates of the dead range from several thousand to over twenty thousand. The campaign ended with the 1987 Unity Accord.
Era: Independence, Gukurahundi and the Mugabe years
Sources: Gukurahundi · Wikipedia, Zimbabwe: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Africa
Agacher Strip war with Mali
A brief border conflict, the 'Christmas War', is fought with Mali over the mineral-rich Agacher Strip before regional mediation ends it.
Era: Sankara's Revolution and the Birth of Burkina Faso
Sources: Thomas Sankara · Wikipedia
- Africa
US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi
In Operation El Dorado Canyon, US aircraft strike Libyan targets in retaliation for a Berlin disco bombing, deepening Libya's confrontation with the West.
Era: The Gaddafi Era, Uprising and Division
Sources: 1986 United States bombing of Libya · Wikipedia, U.S. bombs terrorist and military targets in Libya · HISTORY
- South America
The Interior War
The mainly Maroon Jungle Commando under Ronnie Brunswijk fights the army in the east until a ceasefire in 1989 and a peace accord in 1992.
Era: Independence and the Military Years
Sources: Dutch police arrest man on suspicion of war crimes, Surinamese Interior War · Netherlands Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie), Suriname: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Africa
Battle of Cuito Cuanavale
Cuban, Angolan and South African forces fought a major conventional battle around Cuito Cuanavale, a turning point that helped lead to negotiated foreign troop withdrawals.
Era: The long civil war
Sources: Angolan Civil War · Wikipedia, Angolan Civil War (1975–2002) · BlackPast.org
- Africa
The Toyota War with Libya
Chadian forces under Hassan Djamous won a string of victories at Fada, Bir Kora and Ouadi Doum, driving the Libyan army back toward the disputed Aouzou Strip.
Era: Independence and civil war
Sources: Chad and Libya: The Impact of the Great Toyota War · History Defined, Territorial Dispute (Libya/Chad), Judgment of 3 February 1994 · International Court of Justice
- Asia
- Africa
Rise of the Lord's Resistance Army
Joseph Kony forms the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda, launching an insurgency notorious for atrocities and the abduction of children.
Era: The Bush War, Museveni and the Northern Insurgency
Sources: Q&A on Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army · Human Rights Watch, Lord's Resistance Army insurgency · Wikipedia
- Asia
Karabakh dispute reignites
Under perestroika, Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian majority demonstrated for transfer to Armenia, triggering intercommunal violence that grew into open conflict as the Soviet Union collapsed.
Era: The Azerbaijan SSR
Sources: Nagorno-Karabakh: conflicts, map and people · Encyclopædia Britannica
- Oceania
Ouvéa cave crisis
FLNKS militants killed four gendarmes and seized hostages in a cave on Ouvéa; a French military assault on 5 May freed the hostages but left nineteen Kanak dead, a tragedy that became a turning point toward negotiation.
Era: The Movement and les Événements
Sources: New Caledonia — History · Encyclopaedia Britannica, New Caledonia — The United Nations and Decolonization · United Nations, Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs
- Oceania
The Bougainville conflict
A secessionist war over the Panguna mine, land, and environmental damage pitted Bougainvillean rebels against the PNG Defence Force; death-toll estimates range widely, commonly cited at roughly 10,000–20,000 and treated as estimates.
Era: Bougainville and modern Papua New Guinea
Sources: Bougainville: the conflict in focus · Conciliation Resources, Bougainville · GlobalSecurity.org
- Africa
War in the north
Government forces wage a brutal counter-insurgency against the Somali National Movement in the north, bombarding Hargeisa and killing many thousands of civilians as armed opposition spreads.
Era: Independence, Union and the Siad Barre Era
Sources: Somalia (country and history) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, History of Somalia · Wikipedia
- Africa
Bombardment of Hargeisa and Burao
After an SNM offensive took much of Burao and Hargeisa, government forces subjected both cities to indiscriminate artillery and aerial bombardment, destroying the bulk of each and displacing hundreds of thousands.
Era: Grievance, the SNM and the Killings of the Late 1980s
Sources: Isaaq genocide · Wikipedia, Bombardment of Burao and Hargeisa 1988 · Wikipedia
- Asia
Soviet withdrawal
Under the 1988 Geneva Accords the Soviet Union pulls out; the last troops leave on 15 February 1989 after a war that killed huge numbers of Afghans and displaced millions.
Era: Revolution, the Soviet War and Civil War
Sources: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan — Summary & Facts · Encyclopaedia Britannica, The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and the U.S. Response, 1978–1980 · U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
- Africa
First Liberian Civil War begins
Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia invaded from Côte d'Ivoire, beginning a brutal civil war marked by ethnic massacres and the widespread use of child soldiers.
Era: The civil wars and Charles Taylor
Sources: National Patriotic Front of Liberia · Wikipedia, Liberia — accountability for civil war atrocities · Center for Justice and Accountability, Liberian Civil War · World Without Genocide (Mitchell Hamline School of Law)
- North America
U.S. invasion ousts Noriega
Operation Just Cause removes General Manuel Noriega; casualty estimates vary, and Panamanian deaths are reported from several hundred to around a thousand.
Era: Torrijos, the Treaties, and Noriega
Sources: United States invasion of Panama (Operation Just Cause) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
War & Rupture in the 1980s
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged war and rupture — wars, invasions, conquests, battles and armed conflict, narrowed to the 1980s — 38 of them, drawn from 33 nations, running from 1980 to 1989. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.
- Events
- 38
- Nations
- 33
- Earliest
- 1980
- Latest
- 1989
- Africa
- 15
- South America
- 8
- Asia
- 7
- North America
- 5
- Oceania
- 3
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.