Wars and battles in human histoy inevitable?

Avichal

Most of the wars and battles that took place happened because of fight for natural resources, right?
Could these wars be avoided? Every country wants its survival so they will naturally fight for resources. Now that we have advance technology we can trade resources quickly so fight for resources has gone down but in those days I think wars were a valid option for survival.
Any opinions?

phinds

I think you are wildly optimistic to think that natural resources are the primary reason for war. I think the bad side of human nature plays a much bigger role, and technology isn't going to change that.

Avichal

Well then what were the reasons for which these wars happened?
I think all the wars must have happened because humans wanted to survive. Obviously they didn't see the long-term effect but ultimately the main reason was survival right?

ImaLooser

Many wars in the past were fought in order to get rich. You'd march in and steal the gold and jewels, then demand tribute so you wouldn't do it again. Taking of slaves was common. It was a form of organized crime. You could also take the farmers land and give it to your soldiers. According to Albert Einstein the main motivation for Germany joining WWI was economic. The nation had been enriched by the previous war and they wanted to do it again All this happened as recently as WWII which was largely to get rich by stealing land and gold and widespread enslavement.d Japan attacked the Allies in order to get iron and petroleum, so that was very much resource-motivated. Colonial wars were all about money. The France-Vietnam war was for control of the opium crop from Laos. The Chinese occupation of Tibet was a land grab, as was the state of Israela, as was the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

In the US the Spanish-American and 1812 wars were land grabs. The war on the native americans was all about land. The Civil War was about slavery which was both a moral and economic issue. The US got very wealthy through war, particularly against Mexico. In those days it was the Department of War.

Modern war is a lot more costly and destructive, so it isn't as popular. The widespread distribution of the AK-47 rendered colonialism less profitable. Nuclear weapons render war extremely unprofitable. Without them I think we would still be having big wars.

Most revolutions are about money too. Not to get rich, but to avoid starvation. If you are going to die for sure if you do nothing....

So I would say that most wars have been due to the profit motive, not simple survival. In the wars I mentioned the aggressors would have survived comfortably without their war. The one who is worried about survival is the victim.

During some recent wars where the winner loses money there are often influential interests who gain considerable wealth. Some say that the Israel/Arab conflict is about religion, but actually it is about land. If all the Jews converted to Islam today it would make no difference at all. They would continue to fight over the land.

Inevitable? aCertainly not. If a warlike place like Europe can find peace, then any place can.

willbell

There is five factors that influence human history, especially war:
Social
Relationships in groups and societies, think Pakistan/India type conflicts.
Political
Competing Ideologies, think Fascism vs. Communism vs. Democratic Liberty in WW2 and the Cold War.
Economic
Natural Resources and other stuff, the 13 colonies were heavily taxed and they rebelled.
Religious
Different religions conflict like in the 30 years war.
Military
I can't think of anything in particular at the moment, during a particularly rocky stretch of the Roman Empire, the Year of the Six Emperors saw the military auctioning off the position of emperor to the highest bidder.

Just consider that, its not all natural resources. To make a peaceful world you would somehow need to remove that, it would most likely involve totally removing human inequality, our basic instincts and ambitions, all natural barriers to ensure a global culture, and involve a socialist or simply totalitarian world government, and to avoid conflict it would have to have happened really early in our history. In other words its impossible.

ImaLooser

Look at South America. In the past 200 years there have been a few "wars" but these are just border skirmishes. It is true that they have had civil wars, but these are pretty small potatoes compared with European wars, particularly the "World" wars.

Of all the continents I would say that Europe was the most warlike by a very great margin. Our history is biased toward Europe so we get a distorted view of things.