List of armed conflicts involving the United States
The history of armed conflicts involving the United States of America spans a period of more than four centuries. A period ranging from the early era of European colonization and the formation of the new national polity that would become the United States, to its evolvement through technological and political upheavals into a decisively modern republic and military force, and ascent onto the world stage, through the calamities of the 20th century, as the largely unrivaled hegemon that it is today. Colonial and early national period. The lines of conflict demarcating the  wars, rebellions, and revolutions in the North American colonial and national period can be traced far back into early pre-Columbian times. However, due to the scarcity of written sources, not least resulting from the Spanish colonizers destroying a sizable amount of original Maya writings, deeming them to be heretical, historians typically make the early European settlements as their initial point of departure, of which sources are more plentiful. A further concern highlighted by historians, relating to the history of slavery and colonialism in particular, is the inherent unevenness of the terrain in which conflicts erupt, and often tremendous disproportionality  of means by which they are fought and settled. As historian Ira Berlin points out slavery, by its very definition, poses a profound asymmetry of power: "For three centuries, slave masters mobilized enormous resources that stretched across continents and oceans and employed them with great ferocity in an effort to subdue their human property. Slaves, for their part, had little to depend upon but themselves." As such, four distinctive lines of conflict can be identified weaving through the colonial and early national period. Firstly, the conflicts between the European colonists and the Native American tribes. Secondly, the rival conflicts between  the European states over control of the Americas. Thirdly, the mounting tensions and armed conflicts between the settlers and their rulers in Europe. And lastly, as violence between the white people grew, so too did the revolutionary fervor of the African slaves in their quest for freedom through armed insurrection.