The most common cause of wars

[Hades]

What is the most common reason of people waging war with one another? Keep in mind that politicans like to hide their true intention with a nobler version. It is the true intention that counts.
[plasma] :rocket:
:ripper:
:rocket2:
:shotgun: :die:

 

[Vrylakas]

The answer depends on when and where in history you mean. Primitive hunter-gatherer villages are known (and still today in places like New Guinea) to stage regular war bouts that are highly ritualized in game format. 7th and 8th century Arabs waged wars of conquest out of religious zeal and fervor. We live today in a world ruled by economics and wars are usually fought over resources and we have a tendency to look back in history and see similar motives in old wars. Tribalism sometimes causes wars - when two peoples just don't like each other. Extremists, religious (Iranian mullahs) or political (Hitler) cause wars. Sometimes raw passion - the Central American "Soccer war". Medieval Europe had only land (and its productive value, modern historians remind) for value so wars sprang up over land grabs. The Anglo-French "Hundred Years War" started over feudal protocol. I recall reading of family feud-wars in rural Bulgaria in the early 20th century being sparked by accusations of witchcraft. Military exigiency sometimes rules, like the Israeli strike against the Iraqi nuclear facilities in 1981 or the Polish seizure of Cieszyn in 1939.

There is no one cause for wars. We humans have been ingenious in finding a multitude of reasons to kill one another.

 

[nixon]

Roughly, it's the failure to solve political differences, which leads to war. One pattern cannot be applied on all wars; they grow out of insanity, geopolical expansion to reach a certain goal either national or beyond the borders of your country. But each period of world history contain wars, wars which were fought of reasons which belonged to the respective periods. Some of the old ancient basic reasons to go war still exist though.

No sane leader can, in this period of world history and probably never again say: "I'm going to declare war in order to gain this territory or this advantage, and if I declare the war and wage the war I will come out ahead rather than worser." This is not a viable position in the nuclear age. Sooner or later, foreign intervention would spoil your plans. In some areas though, the phrase still exists though, but with casualties we have never experienced in the Western hemishphere. Africa and some parts of Asia must be kept in mind here, areas that simply aren't included in Western spheres of interests. That's why atrocities happen in Africa without any Western intervention at all.

 

[EdwardTking]

IMHO the biggest single cause of wars are:

Power Obsessed Tyrants

e.g.

Alexander
Caesar
Genghis
Hitler
Khomenai
Mussolini
Napoleon
Phillip of Spain
Phyrus
Rhodes
Saddam

 

[Pangur Bán]

From studying the causes of many wars (the Peloponnesian war, the Persian Wars, the Punic Wars, the First World War and the Second World War) I think that several coomon factors lead to war:

1) When a nations have more to gain by going to war than by maintaining peace. This sounds obvious.

2) When the status quo does not reflect power realities. For instance, Germany was defeated in World War One and the Paris Peace reflected the situation of a beaten Germany. Yet 20 years later, Germany was the most powerful nation in Europe but Germany was expected to put up with political situation that was insulting to her dignity. Similarly, Rome imposed an unfair peace on Carthage when she was being crippled by her mercenary war, but Carthage recovered and was unwilling to put up with the status quo.

3) When a nation feels that if she doesn't act, her long-term security will be put is grave danger. For example, Britain in 1914 and 1939 and arguably Germany in 1914 and Sparta in the late 330s BC.

4) Misunderstanding the goals of rival powers, e.g. Germany in 1939 did not understand that England was not willing to allow Germany to dominate continental Europe. She still held to her age old policy of standing off the continent untill there emerged a serious threat to the balance of power.

5) In more ancient times there were things called "ecumenical states" which proclaimed the right to rule the world. They could make war whenever they felt it might be beneficial. The examples are endless, virtually any attempted conquest by Persia, Rome, the Great Arab Caliphate, China, etc.

6) Sheer ambition

7) Attempts to secure long-term security by expansion or creating buffer states, eg. Rome's conquest of Italy and victory over Macedonia.

8) Ideology, e.g. the early Arab wars of expansion, other religious wars, nationalist wars and even the wars of ecumenical states.

9) Self-esteem and honour, for instance Poland's occupation of the German Polish corridor was felt as an insult to German esteem or the Athenian expedition in Ionia injured Persia' esteem. This cause is related to ideology. Injuries to a nations self-esteem and honor reduce a nations respect and hence its power, hence more reasons for satisfaction. This type of injury can also lead to the internal instability and the weakening of a leader's position.

10) Very importantly, the quality of previous peace agreements. This incorporates many of the above causes. If a peace agreement is poor, war is inevitable, because tensions will not be resolved. The classic example are the Paris Peace Treaties after world war one which vitually guaranteed a renewal of war.

11) Gambling. A daring leader may gamble by bluff, like Hitler in the 30s. If his bluff is called, it can be too injurious to self-esteem and honour to back down, as with Hitler in 1939.

I could go on for a long time, but these are some of the most important. Ulitimately, if you're a determinist, you'll believe that every war is caused by the Big Bang and that any other type of analysis is hence a waste of time.

 

[stalin006]

money! it always comes to it one way or the another! the crusades were more about money, religion was an excuse, politics and govt? cold war mmmh.....capitalists want money! glory? i dont think anyone would invade a poor-no-resurses-wasteland for glory, they seem to always go for the rich nations

 

[Mad Bomber]

Stalin006:

I agree with you its (almost) always about money (economics) I have the belief that has been wrtten down by my favorite author Tom Clancy. He states that wars are nothing more than a armed robbery. Wars are fought because a country desires something that another country possesses and cannot afford or wish to buy . Although it does not apply to all wars it does apply to large majority of them. Btw the crusades were about land, land land. they were led by the poorest nobles or landless sons of the great nobles in midevial europe. and were started because the turks wanted the lands in anatolia that the Byznantines had conquered.

 

[Hamlet]

In history, most wars have been caused by a simple longing for either personal or national glory on the part of some individual or nation. All sorts of reasons have been used to justify that, including political and religious ones.

 

[stalin006]

well yeah teh crusades were about land......but if u had plenty of land u had a nice life maybe glory could be the oter half of why people go to war, well it is not realy money, but the increasment of wealth and rising of the standard of living of the invading population

 

[G-Man]

Land and the people who live on it. Very few wars weren't made in order to get more land and inslave it's people.

 

[stalin006]

yup empires were made like that, look at the aztecs and the
romans!

 

[Panda]

Tough choice!

Ok, not so tough. IMO, it's wealth. Religion and ideology are in most cases only brought up to mobilize the masses (or should I say, cannon fodder ) into war.

 

[Lucky]

The only real cause for wars is GREED.

Someone else has something you don´t have and want? Take it by force!
You have something others want? Fight them off!
Usually all other "reasons" are just excuses for that only goal of mankind. Even religious fanaticism is often based on greed. There are only very few examples where the underlying reasons are different from greed.

 

[stalin006]

i agree w/ lucky

 

[Hades]

To my understanding, the crusades were initiated by the pope when islamic power expanded too much for his liking thought it was a threat to christan's survival. I wonder what the "others" are...

 

[God]

WW2 would be in the glory area, since Hitler wanted to spread the Third Reich power and conquer and "fix" the world.

Wars for wealth haven't been fought in a while. I guess the Mongol and other barbarian invasions are fit well here because they were out too loot the world.

There have been many wars for religions. Especially in the Middle Ages, mostly in Europe, like Thirty Year War.

I guess most wars are for politics and government, but they really include all of the categories.

 

[Lucky]

WW2 for glory???

Ever heard of "Lebensraum" in the East, "correction" of the treaty of Versailles, gaining the "proper" top position in the world and such?
The underlying fact the Nazi regime could do what it did was GREED again. The industry supported them because of greed, the population because they were denied prosperity due to the Versailles treaty (reparations) etc. Of course, the general racist and nationalist sentiment of the era also contributed to the war, but it only functioned as a catalyst to channel the basic sin of humanity into hatred and war readyness.

 

[MrPresident]

The biggest single cause of war? Humanity.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Originally posted by Lucky
The only real cause for wars is GREED.

Someone else has something you don´t have and want? Take it by force!
You have something others want? Fight them off!
Usually all other "reasons" are just excuses for that only goal of mankind. Even religious fanaticism is often based on greed. There are only very few examples where the underlying reasons are different from greed.

Greed can't be the only cause of wars. Most countries always have more to lose by war than gain, so their greed demands peace.
And humans are not that simple, ideology is often more important than desire for more resources.
Reducing conflict causation to greed and dictators is too simplistic and will yield profittable understanding of very few conflicts.

 

[Lucky]

I didn´t say that there aren´t other reasons for war. But in most cases, greed is driving factor behind everything, while the other reasons are more or less means to justify the war, justify it before your own people and/or before the world.
Humans and humanity is more complex in its ways, of course. But the basic instinct is to survive and reproduce. Even if we describe ourselves as evolved from animals, this is still part of us. And the way the world is and was organized gives a clear message. The richer you are, the easier it is to survive and reproduce. Which is even more true for a whole people than a single person.