Two-front war

According to <a href="/facts/Military_terminology/qszmhJ9w">military terminology</a>, a two-front war occurs when opposing forces encounter on two geographically separate <a href="/facts/Front_(military)/RYQf04RP">fronts</a>. The forces of two or more allied parties usually simultaneously engage an opponent in order to increase their chances of success. The opponent consequently encounters severe logistic difficulties, as they are forced to divide and disperse their troops, defend an extended front line, and is at least partly cut off from their access to trade and exterior resources. However, by virtue of the central position, they might possess the advantages of the <a href="/facts/Interior_lines/qbSy4fg6">interior lines</a>.
The term has widely been used in a metaphorical sense, for example to illustrate the dilemma of military commanders in the field, who struggle to carry out illusory strategic ideas of civilian bureaucrats, or when <a href="/facts/Centrism/jybYq4vR">moderate</a> legal motions or positions are concurrently opposed by the political <a href="/facts/Left-wing_politics/JUcz1kvS">Left</a> and <a href="/facts/Right-wing_politics/CVoubHMm">Right</a>. Disapproval and opposition by the domestic <a href="/facts/Opposition_to_United_States_involvement_in_the_Vietnam_War/Cu2MJhrr">anti-war movement</a> and <a href="/facts/Civil_rights_movement/llwscvvR">civil rights</a> groups as opposed to the bloody military struggle of the late <a href="/facts/Vietnam_War/W0gfbGTE">Vietnam War</a> has also been described as a two-front war for the US troops, who fought in Vietnam.
Wars in antiquity

During the 5th-century BCE <a href="/facts/First_Peloponnesian_War/Iy1ugqbr">First Peloponnesian War</a> the <a href="/facts/Ancient_Greece/PTVBrWXq">Greek</a> <a href="/facts/Polis/U4qS9yqU">polis</a> of <a href="/facts/Classical_Athens/a3b6Hpbw">Athens</a> had been embroiled in a drawn out struggle with the poleis of <a href="/facts/Aegina/IyVQ3qoM">Aegina</a> and <a href="/facts/Corinth/GtvbldxS">Corinth</a> among others and its primary enemy <a href="/facts/Sparta/6V9o1DSz">Sparta</a>. Aware of the dangers of a battle with the superior Spartans, Athens concentrated on the conquest of <a href="/facts/Boeotia/V8Prmucy">Boeotia</a> and thus avoid a prolonged two-front war.
On several occasions during the third century BCE, the <a href="/facts/Roman_Republic/Han0FRLT">Roman Republic</a> engaged in two-front conflicts while clashing with the <a href="/facts/Gauls/r8nFrHmV">Gauls</a> and <a href="/facts/Etruscans/yw3dmLgd">Etruscans</a> to the north and also campaigning in <a href="/facts/Magna_Graecia/XdhvdfTN">Magna Graecia</a> (the coastal areas of Southern Italy). When Rome was enmeshed in the <a href="/facts/Second_Punic_War/0XfszHUd">Second Punic War</a> against <a href="/facts/Carthage/MXGPRNFA">Carthage</a>, <a href="/facts/Hannibal/a3az4Rj6">Hannibal</a>, formal ally of the Sicilian city of <a href="/facts/Syracuse,_Sicily/d6TtVugX">Syracuse</a>, intrigued with <a href="/facts/Philip_V_of_Macedon/zRWpS5cw">Philip V of Macedon</a> in 215 BCE, who promptly declared <a href="/facts/First_Macedonian_War/1LDq78jJ">war</a> on Rome. After the establishment of the <a href="/facts/Roman_Empire/l4E1aUuV">Roman Empire</a> and the consolidation of its frontiers under <a href="/facts/Augustus/RGfMCR2V">Augustus</a>, the Roman legions regularly battled multiple enemies, most notably Germanic tribes on the <a href="/facts/Rhine/MgJ88oaz">Rhine</a> and the lower <a href="/facts/Danube/8lMeM9xg">Danube</a> and the <a href="/facts/Parthian_Empire/2Yxcllsk">Parthian Empire</a> in Syria and <a href="/facts/Mesopotamia/f0mmbhTK">Mesopotamia</a>. Various emperors, such as <a href="/facts/Septimius_Severus/CbkVjW1D">Septimius Severus</a> and <a href="/facts/Aurelian/cVWGJJeP">Aurelian</a> forcibly led large armies to the opposite ends of the empire in order to deal with the various threats. Beginning in the third century the <a href="/facts/Roman_Empire/l4E1aUuV">Roman</a> - and its eastern successor the <a href="/facts/Byzantine_Empire/njEELXWF">Byzantine Empire</a>, trying to preserve its <a href="/facts/Exarchate_of_Ravenna/R3p44ECk">territories in Italy</a>, struggled with the <a href="/facts/Sassanid_Empire/JvbRevkA">Sassanid Empire</a> to the east for a period of more than 400 years. Large-scale incursions of Germanic tribes, such as the Goths and Hunnic raids in the west began during the fourth century and lasted for more than a hundred years.
Political methods are also used in multi-pronged warfare. These methods include weakening the power of the target country, infiltration, internal sabotage, espionage, sabotage and terrorist activities, behind-the-scenes manipulation, manipulation using influential figures, blatant interference, worsening instability, and shaping the situation. In addition, political pressure is exerted by using the media to support terrorist organizations that oppose the state government, and by spreading fabricated news, misinformation, and fake news.
Seven Years' War

The <a href="/facts/French_and_Indian_War/K44TukVy">French and Indian War</a> was a local conflict in North America, that occurred in the context of the trans-continental <a href="/facts/Seven_Years%27_War/fVDINs8P">Seven Years' War</a>. In 1755 armed forces of <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Great_Britain/5yBEtQIt">Great Britain</a> under the command of General <a href="/facts/Edward_Braddock/dXBUWPyK">Edward Braddock</a> <a href="/facts/Battle_of_the_Monongahela/mIWywEWd">invaded</a> the territories of <a href="/facts/New_France/zDK9hedl">New France</a> (eastern part of modern Canada, Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys and much of the upper Midwest of the modern United States) and attacked <a href="/facts/Fort_Duquesne/zSoSdaUA">Fort Duquesne</a>. Although numerically superior to the local French militia and their Indian allies, the British army became ensnared in a two-front conflict and was routed.
<a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Prussia/x796l7vx">Prussia</a> had to fight against <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_France/Ul6rT7cQ">France</a>, <a href="/facts/Habsburg_monarchy/ctwsV3TC">Austria</a>, and <a href="/facts/Russian_Empire/hg1g5SpV">Russia</a> during the <a href="/facts/Third_Silesian_War/SXrQshHU">Third Silesian War</a>, and also against <a href="/facts/Age_of_Liberty/Rqwz8Als">Sweden</a> during the <a href="/facts/Pomeranian_War/lMU67XfS">Pomeranian War</a>.

Two-front war open-in-new

Two-front war