Great War (The Evil of the Daleks)

The Great War was, according to some accounts, the name used by the Daleks to identify a series of galactic conflicts fought after 4000 which nearly resulted in the extinction of the Dalek race.

Origin
The Great War's origin could be traced back to the Daleks' alliance with Mavic Chen and the rulers of the Outer Galaxies, and their attempt to destroy the Solar System with the Time Destructor. Due to the interference of the First Doctor, the Time Destructor's Taranium core was stolen, leading the Daleks and Chen to chase the Doctor through time until they recovered it, after which the Daleks broke off the alliance. The Doctor, Steven Taylor and Sara Kingdom followed them back to Kembel and freed the surviving delegates who fled back home to warn their civilisations and others of the Dalek attack. The Doctor managed to get hold of the Time Destructor and activated it, wiping out the invasion force stationed on Kembel. The Dalek Prime was left to deal with the failure as the fleet and the Black Dalek lost on Kembel were near irreplaceable. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan, PROSE: Mission to the Unknown/The Mutation of Time)

The wars
After the Daleks' failure, their plans were exposed and several powers retaliated by declared war on the Dalek Empire over the course of the following millennium. One of the earliest shots was fired by Space Security Agent Dryn Faber a very short time after the Kembel incident, when he successfully destroyed a Dalek drilling rig on the water planet of Antalin, costing the Daleks valuable minerals and chemicals they were in the process of mining. Faber was driven by the desire to avenge the death of his friend and fellow agent Marc Cory who was killed by the Daleks on the eve of the wars. (PROSE: War of the Daleks, TV: Mission to the Unknown)

As the Great War continued, the Daleks were overwhelmed. Much of the known events that occurred over the centuries were massive Dalek defeats as they were driven back on all fronts: During this time, the Dalek Prime took on the title of Dalek Emperor. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)
 * A Thal offensive in Sector Seven resulted in the loss of 200 Dalek saucers.
 * The Draconians annihilated half of the Dalek fleet along the Draconian frontier.
 * The efforts of the Terran Federation saw six worlds liberated from Dalek rule.

End of the wars
Over 1000 years after defeat on Kembel, Dalek computers predicted that the wars would eradicate the Dalek race in as little as 80 years if the defeats continued. The Dalek Emperor ordered the Daleks to conduct research into the Dalek Factor in a last ditch effort to prevent this. The Dalek Factor was to be spread throughout all areas of human history, thus preventing the Great War from ever happening. The Second Doctor intervened and infected many of the Daleks with the Human Factor and they began to question orders which escalated into a full-scale rebellion. The Emperor Dalek's guards retaliated and the ensuing battle destroyed the Dalek City, seemingly taking the Dalek race with it and ending the wars. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks, PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)

However, the Dalek Civil War did not end the Daleks as the Doctor predicted it would. The humanised Daleks were defeated and the Emperor's forces began rebuilding, resulting in the emergence of a new command structure involving grey Dalek drones and Gold Supreme Daleks. The Doctor next encountered the Daleks in his third incarnation and reflected on how he was wrong to believe that the Daleks had been utterly defeated. (TV: Day of the Daleks)

Behind the scenes

 * The only direct reference to the Great War is in the prologue to the novelisation of The Evil of the Daleks by John Peel, although the connections to the other stories references in the article are made clear. This helps place the previously undated Dalek Civil War sometime during or after the 51st century by stating the events of The Daleks' Master Plan took place over 1000 years prior.
 * In John Peel's War of the Daleks, the Draconians are briefly featured in one of three interludes in a small fleet enters into battle with the Daleks and is destroyed. It is certainly possible that Peel intended this to be an event of the Great War given that he often drew connections between his novelisations and original stories. However, it is left ambiguous. The interlude could just as easily take place in another Dalek conflict the Draconians took part in such as the Second Dalek War of the 26th century. The Human Interlude included in the article featuring Dryn Faber, on the other hand, has its time period of the early 41st century shortly after The Daleks' Master Plan made clear.
 * According to the Dalek Wars section in issue #35 of Battles in Time magazine, the Dalek Civil War occurred simultaneously with the defeat of the Seventh Dalek Armada at the Battle of Gurnian, which fits in with the idea of an ongoing war against the Daleks in the lead up to the climactic events of Evil.