War
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War is the use of force by an organized group, usually a tribe or state, for political or religious purposes. A civil war is a war within a tribe or nation. Murder, unlawful killing, is generally distinguished from killing during hostilities. War is a universal phenomenon whose form and scope is defined by the society that wages it. [1] The conduct of war extends along a continuum, from the almost universal tribal warfare that began well before recorded human history, to wars between city states, nations, or empires.
A group of combatants and their support is called an army on land, a navy at sea, and an air force in the air. Wars may be conducted simultaneously in one or more different theatres. Within each theatre, there may be one or more consecutive military campaigns.
A military campaign includes not only fighting but also intelligence gathering, troop movements, logistic support, propaganda, and other components. A period of continuous intense conflict is traditionally called a battle, although this terminology is not always applied to conflicts involving aircraft, missiles or bombs alone, in the absence of ground troops or naval forces. Many other actions may be undertaken by military forces during a war, including weapons research, prison internment, assassination, Military occupation, and in some cases genocide, the system killing of an ethnic or religious group, may occur.
War is not limited to the human species, as ants engage in massive inter-species conflicts which might be termed warfare, or chimpanzee or wolf packs will engage each other in tribe like warfare. It is theorized that other species also engage in similar behavior, although this is not well documented. [2][3][4]
As the strategic and tactical aspects of warfare are always changing, theories and doctrines relating to warfare often reformulated before, during, and after every major war. This was clearly evident in the 18-20th century where the industrial revolution had a major influence on the art of military affairs, and present day nuclear deterrence theory represents the next stage of this process of re-assesment.
Organizations and Nations abroad may take extreme measures to both prevent and instigate warfare. This may take many forms including espionage, sanctions, embargos, treaties, petitions, and protests.
Contents |
Causes of war
Casus belli does not mean cause of war but justification for war.
War is a traditional method of solving disputes
Humans have resorted to war from time immemorial, often when the resulting damage far outweighs the cost of the conflict and when the probability of success in the endeavor is low.[5] Thus engaging in war is usually error, and sometimes, folly, "mindless persistence in conduct clearly counter-productive".[6]
Necessity or choice
War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars by Richard N. Haass put those concepts into the public discourse, but what a war of necessity would be can depend on what is viewed as a vital interest.
Offense
It is self-evident that one cause of war is simply to take what the opposing group or state has, land, resources, or wealth. Sometimes the object is simply to subjugate a rival as was the object of the United States government when it commenced the Great Sioux War of 1876-77.[7]
Defense
From the perspective of a belligerent nation war is often conducted for defense. This is true even in the case of states that have initiated, or intend to initiate, a war of aggression.[8] Typically, claims are put forth which are not accepted by those affected by them.
Treaties
States often seek allies who would assist in the event of war and enter into treaties for that purpose. Thus, as in the case of World War I, interlocking treaties of alliance can result in a major conflict wholly out of proportion to the precipitating event.
Civil war
Tensions within nations frequently result in rebellions, and sometimes full blown civil war. A theory of the causes of war must adequately explain why such tensions sometimes result in armed conflict rather than being resolved peacefully. Globalization may have resulted in the 21st century in a world wide civil war, the War on Terror.
Deterrence
Particularly in the nuclear age, states may rely on deterrence in an attempt to discourage attack by weapons of mass destruction such as hydrogen bombs delivered by intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Further reading
- R. J. Rummel, Understanding Conflict and War: War, Power, Peace, Sage Publications, Inc (September 1, 1979), hardcover, 436 pages, ISBN-10: 0803912706 ISBN-13: 978-0803912700
- Knowing the Roots of War: Analyses and Interpretations of Six Centuries of Warfare (Collected Papers) Frank H. Denton, 2003
- Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly ~ From Troy to Vietnam, Knopf (February 12, 1984) hardcover, 447 pages, ISBN-10: 0394527771 ISBN-13: 978-0394527772
- John A. Vasquez, What Do We Know about War?, Rowman & Littlefield (October 28, 2000), trade paperback, 448 pages, ISBN-10: 0847699277 ISBN-13: 978-0847699278
History of war
Before the dawn of civilization, war likely consisted of small-scale raiding. One half of the people found in a Nubian cemetery dating to as early as 12,000 years ago had died of violence.[9] Since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago,[10] military activity has occurred over much of the globe. The advent of gunpowder and the acceleration of technological advances led to modern warfare which revolves into hatred.
The Human Security Report 2005 documented a significant decline in the number and severity of armed conflicts since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. However, the evidence examined in the 2008 edition of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management's "Peace and Conflict" study indicated that the overall decline in conflicts had stalled.[11]
Motivations for war may be different for those ordering the war than for those undertaking the war. For a state to prosecute a war it must have the support of its leadership, its military forces, and the population. For example, in the Third Punic War,[12] Rome's leaders may have wished to make war with Carthage for the purpose of eliminating a resurgent rival, while the individual soldiers may have been motivated by a wish to make money. Since many people are involved, a war may acquire a life of its own from the confluence of many different motivations.
In Why Nations Go to War, by John G. Stoessinger, the author points out that both sides will claim that morality justifies their fight. He also states that the rationale for beginning a war depends on an overly optimistic assessment of the outcome of hostilities (casualties and costs), and on misperceptions of the enemy's intentions. In War Before Civilization, Lawrence H. Keeley, a professor at the University of Illinois, says that approximately 90–95% of known societies throughout history engaged in at least occasional warfare, and many fought constantly.[13]
In Western Europe, since the late 18th century, more than 150 conflicts and about 600 battles had taken place.[14]
Theories behind the existence of warfare
Tradeoff analysis theories
Wars happen when a group of people or an organization perceives the benefits that can be obtained to be greater than the cost. This can happen for a variety of reasons:
- To protect national pride by preventing the loss of territory
- To protect livelihood by preventing the loss of resources or by declaring independence
- To inflict punishment on the "wrongdoer", especially when one country is stronger than the other and can effectively deal out the punishment.
Behavioral theories
Psychologists such as E.F.M. Durban and John Bowlby have argued that human beings are inherently violent. While this violence is repressed in normal society, it needs the occasional outlet provided by war. This mixes with other notions such as displacement, where a person transfers their grievances into bias and hatred against other ethnic groups, racial groups, religions, nations or ideologies.
While these theories may have some explanatory value about why wars occur, they do not explain when or how they occur. Nor do they explain the existence of certain human cultures completely devoid of war.[15] If the innate psychology of the human mind is unchanging, these variations are inconsistent. A solution adapted to this problem by militarists such as Franz Alexander is that peace does not really exist. Periods that are seen as peaceful are actually periods of preparation for a later war or when war is suppressed by a state of great power, such as the Pax Britannica.
If war is innate to human nature, as is presupposed and predetermined (according to determinism philosophy) by many psychological theories, then there is little hope of ever escaping it. Psychologists have argued that while human temperament allows wars to occur, this only happens when mentally unbalanced people are in control of a nation. This school of thought argues leaders that seek war such as Napoleon, Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and Stalin were mentally abnormal, but fails to explain the millions of free and presumably sane people who wage wars at their behest.
Some psychologists argue that such leaders are a manifestation of the build up of anger and madness repressed in modern societies and it is only they that are allowed to show various mental anomalies. Because people elect and support such leaders suggestions have been made that very few people are in fact sane and that modern society is an unhealthy one.
The Italian psychoanalyst Franco Fornari, a follower of Melanie Klein, thought that war was the paranoid or projective “elaboration” of mourning. (Fornari 1975). Our nation and country play an unconscious maternal role in our feelings, as expressed in the term “motherland.” Fornari thought that war and violence develop out of our “love need”: our wish to preserve and defend the sacred object to which we are attached, namely our early mother and our fusion with her. For the adult, nations are the sacred objects that generate warfare. Fornari focused upon sacrifice as the essence of war: the astonishing willingness of human beings to die for their country, to give over their bodies to their nation. Fornari called war the “spectacular establishment of a general human situation whereby death assumes absolute value.” We are sure that the ideas for which we die must be true, because “death becomes a demonstrative process.” It is argued that national leaders take the role of fathers and people taken the role of children.
Evolutionary psychology
A distinct branch of the psychological theories of war are the arguments based on evolutionary psychology. This school tends to see war as an extension of animal behaviour, such as territoriality and competition. However, while war has a natural cause, the development of technology has accelerated human destructiveness to a level that is irrational and damaging to the species. The earliest advocate of this theory was Konrad Lorenz.[16]
These theories have been criticized by scholars such as John G. Kennedy, who argue that the organized, sustained war of humans differs more than just technologically from the territorial fights between animals. Ashley Montagu[17] strongly denies such universalistic instinctual arguments, pointing out that social factors and childhood socialization are important in determining the nature and presence of warfare. Thus while human aggression may be a universal occurrence, warfare is not and would appear to have been a historical invention, associated with certain types of human societies.
Sociological theories
Sociology has long been very concerned with the origins of war, and many thousands of theories have been advanced, many of them contradictory. Sociology has thus divided into a number of schools. One, the Primat der Innenpolitik (Primacy of Domestic Politics) school based on the works of Eckart Kehr and Hans-Ulrich Wehler, sees war as the product of domestic conditions, with only the target of aggression being determined by international realities. Thus World War I was not a product of international disputes, secret treaties, or the balance of power but a product of the economic, social, and political situation within each of the states involved.
This differs from the traditional Primat der Außenpolitik (Primacy of Foreign Politics) approach of Carl von Clausewitz and Leopold von Ranke that argues it is the decisions of statesmen and the geopolitical situation that leads to peace.
Demographic theories
Demographic theories can be grouped into two classes, Malthusian theories and youth bulge theories.
Malthusian theories see expanding population and scarce resources as a source of violent conflict.
Pope Urban II in 1095, on the eve of the First Crusade, wrote, "For this land which you now inhabit, shut in on all sides by the sea and the mountain peaks, is too narrow for your large population; it scarcely furnishes food enough for its cultivators. Hence it is that you murder and devour one another, that you wage wars, and that many among you perish in civil strife. Let hatred, therefore, depart from among you; let your quarrels end. Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulchre; wrest that land from a wicked race, and subject it to yourselves."
This is one of the earliest expressions of what has come to be called the Malthusian theory of war, in which wars are caused by expanding populations and limited resources. Thomas Malthus (1766–1834) wrote that populations always increase until they are limited by war, disease, or famine.
This theory is thought by Malthusians to account for the relative decrease in wars during the past fifty years, especially in the developed world, where advances in agriculture have made it possible to support a much larger population than was formerly the case, and where birth control has dramatically slowed the increase in population.
Youth bulge theory differs significantly from malthusian theories. Its adherents see a combination of large male youth cohorts (as graphically represented as a "youth bulge" in a population pyramid) with a lack of regular, peaceful employment opportunities as a risk pool for violence. While malthusian theories focus on a disparity between a growing population and available natural resources, youth bulge theory focuses on a disparity between non-inheriting, "excess" young males and available social positions within the existing social system of division of labour.
Contributors to the development of youth bulge theory include French sociologist Gaston Bouthoul,,[18] U.S. sociologist Jack A. Goldstone,,[19] U.S. political scientist Gary Fuller,,[20][21][22] and German sociologist Gunnar Heinsohn.[23] Samuel Huntington has modified his Clash of Civilizations theory by using youth bulge theory as its foundation:
I don't think Islam is any more violent than any other religions, and I suspect if you added it all up, more people have been slaughtered by Christians over the centuries than by Muslims. But the key factor is the demographic factor. Generally speaking, the people who go out and kill other people are males between the ages of 16 and 30. During the 1960s, 70s and 80s there were high birth rates in the Muslim world, and this has given rise to a huge youth bulge. But the bulge will fade. Muslim birth rates are going down; in fact, they have dropped dramatically in some countries. Islam did spread by the sword originally, but I don't think there is anything inherently violent in Muslim theology."[24]
Youth Bulge theories represent a relatively recent development but seem to have become more influential in guiding U.S. foreign policy and military strategy as both Goldstone and Fuller have acted as consultants to the U.S. Government. CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson referred to youth bulge theory in his 2002 report "The National Security Implications of Global Demographic Change".[25]
According to Heinsohn, who has proposed youth bulge theory in its most generalized form, a youth bulge occurs when 30 to 40 percent of the males of a nation belong to the "fighting age" cohorts from 15 to 29 years of age. It will follow periods with total fertility rates as high as 4-8 children per woman with a 15-29 year delay.
A total fertility rate of 2.1 children born by a woman during her lifetime represents a situation of in which the son will replace the father, and the daughter will replace the mother. Thus, a total fertility rate of 2.1 represents replacement level, while anything below represents a sub-replacement fertility rate leading to population decline.
Total fertility rates above 2.1 will lead to population growth and to a youth bulge. A total fertility rate of 4-8 children per mother implies 2-4 sons per mother. Consequently, one father has to leave not 1, but 2 to 4 social positions (jobs) to give all his sons a perspective for life, which is usually hard to achieve. Since respectable positions cannot be increased at the same speed as food, textbooks and vaccines, many "angry young men" find themselves in a situation that tends to escalate their adolescent anger into violence: they are
- demographically superfluous,
- might be out of work or stuck in a menial job, and
- often have no access to a legal sex life before a career can earn them enough to provide for a family. See: Hypergamy.
The combination of these stress factors according to Heinsohn[26] usually heads for one of six different exits:
- Violent Crime
- Emigration ("non violent colonization")
- Rebellion or putsch
- Civil war and/or revolution
- Genocide (to take over the positions of the slaughtered)
- Conquest (violent colonization, frequently including genocide abroad).
Religions and ideologies are seen as secondary factors that are being used to legitimate violence, but will not lead to violence by themselves if no youth bulge is present. Consequently, youth bulge theorists see both past "Christianist" European colonialism and imperialism and today's "Islamist" civil unrest and terrorism as results of high birth rates producing youth bulges.[27] With the Gaza Strip now being seen as another example of youth-bulge-driven violence, especially if compared to Lebanon which is geographically close, yet remarkably more peaceful.[28]
Among prominent historical events that have been linked to the existence of youth bulges is the role played by the historically large youth cohorts in the rebellion and revolution waves of early modern Europe, including French Revolution of 1789,[29] and the importance of economic depression hitting the largest German youth cohorts ever in explaining the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s.[30] The 1994 Rwandan Genocide has also been analyzed as following a massive youth bulge.[31]
While the implications of population growth have been known since the completion of the National Security Study Memorandum 200 in 1974,[32] neither the U.S. nor the WHO have implemented the recommended measures to control population growth to avert the terrorist threat. Prominent demographer Stephen D. Mumford attributes this to the influence of the Catholic Church.[33]
Youth Bulge theory has been subjected to statistical analysis by the World Bank,[34] Population Action International,[35] and the Berlin Institute for Population and Development.[36] Detailed demographic data for most countries is available at the international database of the United States Census Bureau.[37]
Youth bulge theories have been criticized as leading to racial, gender and age discrimination.[38]
Rationalist theories
Rationalist theories of war assume that both sides to a potential war are rational, which is to say that each side wants to get the best possible outcome for itself for the least possible loss of life and property to its own side. Given this assumption, if both countries knew in advance how the war would turn out, it would be better for both of them to just accept the post-war outcome without having to actually pay the costs of fighting the war. This is based on the notion, generally agreed to by almost all scholars of war since Carl von Clausewitz, that wars are reciprocal, that all wars require both a decision to attack and also a decision to resist attack. Rationalist theory offers three reasons why some countries cannot find a bargain and instead resort to war: issue indivisibility, information asymmetry with incentive to deceive, and the inability to make credible commitments.[39]
Issue indivisibility occurs when the two parties cannot avoid war by bargaining because the thing over which they are fighting cannot be shared between them, only owned entirely by one side or the other. Religious issues, such as control over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, are more likely to be indivisible than economic issues.
A bigger branch of the theory, advanced by scholars of international relations such as Geoffrey Blainey, is that both sides decide to go to war and one side may have miscalculated.
Some go further and say that there is a problem of information asymmetry with incentives to misrepresent. The two countries may not agree on who would win a war between them, or whether victory would be overwhelming or merely eked out, because each side has military secrets about its own capabilities. They will not avoid the bargaining failure by sharing their secrets, since they cannot trust each other not to lie and exaggerate their strength to extract more concessions. For example, Sweden made efforts to deceive Nazi Germany that it would resist an attack fiercely, partly by playing on the myth of Aryan superiority and by making sure that Hermann Göring only saw elite troops in action, often dressed up as regular soldiers, when he came to visit.
The American decision to enter the Vietnam War was made with the full knowledge that the communist forces would resist them, but did not believe that the guerrillas had the capability to long oppose American forces.
Thirdly, bargaining may fail due to the states' inability to make credible commitments.[40] In this scenario, the two countries might be able to come to a bargain that would avert war if they could stick to it, but the benefits of the bargain will make one side more powerful and lead it to demand even more in the future, so that the weaker side has an incentive to make a stand now.
Rationalist explanations of war can be critiqued on a number of grounds. The assumptions of cost-benefit calculations become dubious in the most extreme genocidal cases of World War II, where the only bargain offered in some cases was infinitely bad. Rationalist theories typically assume that the state acts as a unitary individual, doing what is best for the state as a whole; this is problematic when, for example, the country's leader is beholden to a very small number of people, as in a personalistic dictatorship. Rationalist theory also assumes that the actors are rational, able to accurately assess their likelihood of success or failure, but the proponents of the psychological theories above would disagree.
Rationalist theories are usually explicated with game theory, for example, the Peace War Game, not a wargame as such, rather a simulation of economic decisions underlying war.
Economic theories
Another school of thought argues that war can be seen as a growth of economic competition in a competitive international system. In this view wars begin as a pursuit of markets for natural resources and for wealth. While this theory has been applied to many conflicts. Such counter arguments become less valid as the increasing mobility of capital and information level the distributions of wealth worldwide, or when considering that it is relative, not absolute, wealth differences that may fuel wars. There are those on the extreme right of the political spectrum who provide support, fascists in particular, by asserting a natural right of the strong to whatever the weak cannot hold by force. Some centrist, capitalist, world leaders, including Presidents of the United States and US Generals, expressed support for an economic view of war.
"Is there any man, is there any woman, let me say any child here that does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry?" - Woodrow Wilson, September 11, 1919, St. Louis.[41]
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism." - simultaneously highest ranking and most decorated United States Marine (including two Medals of Honor) Major General Smedley Butler (and a Republican Party primary candidate for the United States Senate) 1935.[42]
"For the corporation executives, the military metaphysic often coincides with their interest in a stable and planned flow of profit; it enables them to have their risk underwritten by public money; it enables them reasonably to expect that they can exploit for private profit now and later, the risky research developments paid for by public money. It is, in brief, a mask of the subsidized capitalism from which they extract profit and upon which their power is based." C. Wright Mills, Causes of world war 3,1960
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." - Dwight Eisenhower, Farewell Address, Jan. 17, 1961.
Marxist theories
The Marxist theory of war states that all war is caused by a Class conflict. It sees wars as ventures to grow the power of the ruling class and divide the proletariat of the world for the contrived ideals of nationalism. These wars are a natural progression of the free market and class system, and will only disappear once a world revolution has occurred.
Political science theories
The statistical analysis of war was pioneered by Lewis Fry Richardson following World War I. More recent databases of wars and armed conflict have been assembled by the Correlates of War Project, Peter Brecke and the Uppsala Department of Peace and Conflict Research.
There are several different international relations theory schools. Supporters of realism in international relations argue that the motivation of states is the quest for security. Which sometimes is argued to contradict the realist view, that there is much empirical evidence to support the claim that states that are democracies do not go to war with each other, an idea that has come to be known as the democratic peace theory. Other factors included are difference in moral and religious beliefs, economical and trade disagreements, declaring independence, and others.
Another major theory relating to power in international relations and machtpolitik is the Power Transition theory, which distributes the world into a hierarchy and explains major wars as part of a cycle of hegemons being destabilized by a great power which does not support the hegemons' control.
The biggest war ever seen was World War II with 71,300,000 dead.
Continued at War, part 2
List of wars by death toll
These figures include deaths of civilians from diseases, famine, atrocities etc. as well as deaths of soldiers in battle.
This is an incomplete list of wars.
- 60,000,000–72,000,000 - World War II (1939–1945), (see World War II casualties)[43][44]
- 36,000,000 - An Shi Rebellion (China, 755–763)
- 30,000,000–60,000,000 - Mongol Conquests (13th century) (see Mongol invasions and Tatar invasions)[45][46][47][48]
- 25,000,000 - Manchu conquest of Ming China (1616–1662)[49]
- 20,000,000–70,000,000 - World War I (1914–1918) (see World War I casualties)[50] note that the larger number includes Spanish flu deaths
- 20,000,000 - Taiping Rebellion (China, 1851–1864) (see Dungan revolt)[51]
- 20,000,000 - Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)[52]
- 10,000,000 - Warring States Era (China, 475 BC–221 BC)
- 7,000,000 - 20,000,000 Conquests of Timur the Lame (1360-1405) (see List of wars in the Muslim world)[53][54]
- 5,000,000–9,000,000 - Russian Civil War and Foreign Intervention (1917–1921)[55]
- 5,000,000 - Conquests of Menelik II of Ethiopia (1882- 1898)[56][57]
- 3,800,000 - 5,400,000 - Second Congo War (1998–2007)[58][59][60]
- 3,500,000–6,000,000 - Napoleonic Wars (1804–1815) (see Napoleonic Wars casualties)
- 3,000,000–11,500,000 - Thirty Years' War (1618–1648)[61]
- 3,000,000–7,000,000 - Yellow Turban Rebellion (China, 184–205)
- 2,500,000–3,500,000 - Korean War (1950–1953) (see Cold War)[62]
- 2,300,000–3,800,000 - Vietnam War (entire war 1945–1975)
- 300,000–1,300,000 - First Indochina War (1945–1954)
- 100,000–300,000 - Vietnamese Civil War (1954–1960)
- 1,750,000–2,100,000 - American phase (1960–1973)
- 170,000 - Final phase (1973–1975)
- 175,000–1,150,000 - Secret War (1962–1975)
- 2,000,000–4,000,000[63] - French Wars of Religion (1562–1598) (see Religious war)
- 2,000,000 - Shaka's conquests (1816-1828)[64]
- 2,000,000 - Mahmud of Ghazni's invasions of India (1000-1027)[65]
- 300,000–3,000,000[66] - Bangladesh Liberation War (1971)
- 1,500,000–2,000,000 - Afghan Civil War (1979-)
- 1,000,000–1,500,000 Soviet intervention (1979–1989)
- 1,300,000–6,100,000 - Chinese Civil War (1928–1949) note that this figure excludes World War II casualties
- 300,000–3,100,000 before 1937
- 1,000,000–3,000,000 after World War II
- 1,000,000–2,000,000 - Mexican Revolution (1910–1920)[67]
- 1,000,000 - Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988)[68]
- 1,000,000 - Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598)[69]
- 1,000,000 - Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005)
- 1,000,000 - Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970)
- 618,000[70] - 970,000 - American Civil War (including 350,000 from disease) (1861–1865)
- 900,000–1,000,000 - Mozambique Civil War (1976–1993)
- 868,000[71] - 1,400,000[72] - Seven Years' War (1756-1763)
- 800,000 - 1,000,000 - Rwandan Civil War (1990-1994)
- 800,000 - Congo Civil War (1991–1997)
- 600,000 to 1,300,000 - First Jewish-Roman War (see List of Roman wars)
- 580,000 - Bar Kokhba’s revolt (132–135CE)
- 570,000 - Eritrean War of Independence (1961-1991)
- 550,000 - Somali Civil War (1988- )
- 500,000 - 1,000,000 - Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
- 500,000 - Angolan Civil War (1975–2002)
- 500,000 - Ugandan Civil War (1979–1986)
- 400,000–1,000,000 - War of the Triple Alliance in Paraguay (1864–1870)
- 400,000 - War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714)
- 371,000 - Continuation War (1941-1944)
- 350,000 - Great Northern War (1700-1721)[73]
- 315,000 - 735,000 - Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639-1651) English campaign ~40,000, Scottish 73,000, Irish 200,000-620,000[74]
- 300,000 - Russian-Circassian War (1763-1864) (see Caucasian War)
- 300,000 - First Burundi Civil War (1972)
- 300,000 - Darfur conflict (2003-)
- 270,000–300,000 - Crimean War (1854–1856)
- 255,000-1,120,000 - Philippine-American War (1898-1913)
- 230,000–1,400,000 - Ethiopian Civil War (1974–1991)
- 220,000 - Liberian Civil War (1989 - )
- 217,000 - 1,124,303 - War on Terror (9/11/2001-Present)
- 200,000 - 1,000,000[75][76] - Albigensian Crusade (1208-1259)
- 200,000–800,000 - Warlord era in China (1917–1928)
- 200,000 - Second Punic War (BC218-BC204) (see List of Roman battles)
- 200,000 - Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2000)
- 200,000 - Algerian Civil War (1991- )[77][78]
- 200,000 - Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996)
- 190,000 - Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871)
- 180,000 - 300,000 - La Violencia (1948-1958)
- 170,000 - Greek War of Independence (1821-1829)
- 150,000 - Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990)
- 150,000 - North Yemen Civil War (1962–1970)
- 150,000 - Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905)
- 148,000-1,000,000 - Winter War (1939)
- 125,000 - Eritrean-Ethiopian War (1998–2000)
- 120,000 - 384,000 Great Turkish War (1683-1699) (see Ottoman-Habsburg wars)
- 120,000 - Bosnian War (1992–1995)
- 120,000 - Third Servile War (BC73-BC71)
- 117,000 - 500,000 - Revolt in the Vendée (1793-1796)
- 103,359+ - 1,136,920+ - Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (2003-Present)
- 101,000 - 115,000 - Arab-Israeli conflict (1929- )
- 100,500 - Chaco War (1932–1935)
- 100,000 - 1,000,000 - War of the two brothers (1531–1532)
- 100,000 - 400,000 - Western New Guinea (1984 - ) (see Genocide in West Papua)
- 100,000 - 200,000 - Indonesian invasion of East Timor (1975-1978)
- 100,000 - Persian Gulf War (1991)
- 100,000–1,000,000 - Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962)
- 100,000 - Thousand Days War (1899–1901)
- 100,000 - Peasants' War (1524-1525)[79]
- 80,000 - Third Punic War (BC149-BC146)
- 75,000 - 200,000? - Conquests of Alexander the Great (BC336-BC323)
- 75,000 - El Salvador Civil War (1980–1992)
- 75,000 - Second Boer War (1898–1902)
- 70,000 - Boudica's uprising (AD60-AD61)
- 69,000 - Internal conflict in Peru (1980- )
- 60,000 - Sri Lanka/Tamil conflict (1983-)
- 60,000 - Nicaraguan Rebellion (1972-91)
- 55,000 - War of the Pacific (1879-1885)
- 50,000 - 200,000 - First Chechen War (1994–1996)
- 50,000 - 100,000 - Tajikistan Civil War (1992–1997)
- 50,000 - Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) (see Wars involving England)
- 45,000 - Greek Civil War (1945-1949)
- 41,000–100,000 - Kashmiri insurgency (1989- )
- 36,000 - Finnish Civil War (1918)
- 35,000 - 40,000 - War of the Pacific (1879–1884)
- 35,000 - 45,000 - Siege of Malta (1565) (see Ottoman wars in Europe)
- 30,000 - Turkey/PKK conflict (1984- )
- 30,000 - Sino-Vietnamese War (1979)
- 25,000 - Second Chechen War (1999 - present)[80]
- 25,000 - American Revolutionary War (1775-1783)
- 23,384 - Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 (December 1971)
- 23,000 - Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994)
- 20,000 - 49,600 U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan (2001–2002)
- 15,000–20,000 - Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995)
- 11,053 - Malayan Emergency (1948-1960)
- 11,000 - Spanish-American War (1898)
- 10,000 - Amadu's Jihad (1810-1818)
- 7,264–10,000 - Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 (August-September 1965)
- 7,000–24,000 - American War of 1812 (1812-1815)
- 7,000 - Kosovo War (1996–1999) (disputed)
- 5,000 - Turkish invasion of Cyprus (1974)
- 4,588 - Sino-Indian War (1962)
- 4,000 - Waziristan War (2004-2006)
- 4,000 - Irish Civil War (1922-23)
- 3,000 - Civil war in Côte d'Ivoire (2002-2007)
- 2,899 - New Zealand Land Wars (1845-1872)
- 2,604–7,000 - Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 (October 1947-December 1948)
- 2,000 - Football War (1969)
- 2,000 - Irish War of Independence (1919-21)
- 1,975–4,500+ - violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (2000 -)
- 1,547–2,173+ - 2006 Lebanon War
- 1,724 - War of Lapland (1945)
- 1,500 - Romanian Revolution (December 1989)
- 1,000 - Zapatista uprising in Chiapas (1994)
- 907 - Falklands War (1982)
Quote
- “War, organised war, is not a human instinct, it is a highly planned and co-operative form of theft.” J.Bronowski – “The Ascent of Man” part 2 "The Harvest of the Seasons"
See also
General reference articles
War related lists
References
- ^ Keegan, John, (1994) "A History Of Warfare", (Pimlico)
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ Knowing the Roots of War, Frank H. Denton, 2003 "If there is one most important finding in this work it is that repeatedly wars are started with the most limited understanding of the probable consequences. Just as repeatedly wars once started are not easily stopped by the leaders initiating them. This tradition of seeking a solution through a contest of relative abilities to administer violence when no other solution offers much appeal is a root cause of war."
- ^ Page 166 and Chapter 1, "Pursuit of Policy Contrary to Self-Interest", in The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam, Barbara W. Tuchman, Alfred A. Knopf (1984), hardcover, 448 pages, ISBN 0-394-52777-1
- ^ Pages 23 to 34, John S. Gray, Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1976, The Old Army Press (1876), trade paperback, 396 pages, ISBN-10: 0-88342-049-X
- ^ Pages 27 to 33, John S. Gray, Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1976, The Old Army Press (1876), trade paperback, 396 pages, ISBN-10: 0-88342-049-X
- ^ Keeley: War before civilization: The myth of the peaceful savage
- ^ Diamond, Jared, Guns, Germs and Steel
- ^ Hewitt, Joseph, J. Wilkenfield and T. nevertheless the concept war is more than just a word but a signification to the meaning Death. Gurr Peace and Conflict 2008, Paradigm Publishers, 2007
- ^ Punic Wars
- ^ Review: War Before Civilization
- ^ World War One --- A New Kind of War | Part II, From 14 - 18 Understanding the Great War, by Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, Annette Becker
- ^ Turnbull, Colin (1987), "The Forest People" (Touchstonbe Books)
- ^ Lorenz, Konrad "Darian" (Oxford University Press)
- ^ Montagu, Ashley (1976), "The Nature of Human Aggression" (Oxford University Press)
- ^ Bouthoul, Gaston: "L`infanticide différé" (deferred infanticide), Paris 1970
- ^ Goldstone, Jack A.: "Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World", Berkeley 1991; Goldstone, Jack A.: "Population and Security: How Demographic Change can Lead to Violent Conflict", [4]
- ^ Fuller, Gary: "The Demographic Backdrop to Ethnic Conflict: A Geographic Overwiew", in: CIA (Ed.): "The Challenge of Ethnic Conflict to National and International Order in the 1990s", Washington 1995, 151-154
- ^ Fuller, Gary (2004): "The Youth Crisis in Middle Eastern Society"[5]
- ^ Fuller, Gary (2003): "The Youth Factor: The New Demographics of the Middle East and the Implications for U.S. Policy"[6]
- ^ Gunnar Heinsohn (2003): "Söhne und Weltmacht: Terror im Aufstieg und Fall der Nationen" ("Sons and Imperial Power: Terror and the Rise and Fall of Nations"), Zurich 2003), available online as free download (in German) [7]
- ^ ‘So, are civilizations at war?’, Interview with Samuel P. Huntington by Michael Steinberger, The Observer, Sunday October 21, 2001.[8]
- ^ Helgerson, John L. (2002): "The National Security Implications of Global Demographic Trends"[9]
- ^ Heinsohn, G.(2006): "Demography and War." [10]
- ^ Heinsohn, G.(2005): "Population, Conquest and Terror in the 21st Century." [11]
- ^ G. Heinsohn: "Why Gaza is Fertile Ground for Angry Young Men." Financial Times Online, June 14, 2007[12], retrieved on December 23, 2007; compare demographic data for Gaza Strip ([13],[14])and Lebanon ([15], [16]) provided by the U.S. Census Bureau; see also David Bau: "History is Demographics"[17], retrieved on December 23, 2007
- ^ Goldstone, Jack A.: "Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World", Berkeley 1991
- ^ Moller, Herbert (1968): ‘Youth as a Force in the Modern World’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 10: 238–260; 240–244
- ^ Diessenbacher, Hartmut (1994): Kriege der Zukunft. Die Bevölkerungsexplosion gefährdet den Frieden. Muenchen: Hanser 1998; see also (criticizing youth bulge theory) Marc Sommers (2006): "Fearing Africa´s Young Men: The Case of Rwanda." The World Bank: Social Development Papers - Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction, Paper No. 32, January 2006[18]
- ^ National Security Study Memorandum 200 (NSSM 200) - April 1974
- ^ Stephen D. Mumford: The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S. Population Policy
- ^ Urdal, Henrik (2004): "The Devil in the Demographics: The Effect of Youth Bulges on Domestic Armed Conflict," [19],
- ^ Population Action International: "The Security Demographic: Population and Civil Conflict after the Cold "[20]
- ^ Kröhnert, Steffen (2004): "Jugend und Kriegsgefahr: Welchen Einfluss haben demografische Veränderungen auf die Entstehung von Konflikten?" [21]
- ^ United States Census Bureau: International Database [22]
- ^ Hendrixson, Anne: "Angry Young Men, Veiled Young Women: Constructing a New Population Threat" [23]
- ^ Fearon, James D. 1995. "Rationalist Explanations for War." International Organization 49, 3: 379-414. [24]
- ^ Powell, Robert. 2002. "Bargaining Theory and International Conflict." Annual Review of Political Science 5: 1-30.
- ^ The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Arthur S. Link, ed. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990), vol. 63, pp. 45–46.
- ^ 1935 issue of "the non-Marxist, socialist" magazine, Common Sense.
- ^ Wallinsky, David: David Wallechinsky's Twentieth Century : History With the Boring Parts Left Out, Little Brown & Co., 1996, ISBN 0316920568, ISBN 978-0316920568 - cited by White
- ^ Brzezinski, Zbigniew: Out of Control: Global Turmoil on the Eve of the Twenty-first Century, Prentice Hall & IBD, 1994, ASIN B000O8PVJI - cited by White
- ^ Ping-ti Ho, "An Estimate of the Total Population of Sung-Chin China", in Études Song, Series 1, No 1, (1970) pp. 33-53.
- ^ Mongol Conquests
- ^ The world's worst massacres Whole Earth Review
- ^ Battuta's Travels: Part Three - Persia and Iraq
- ^ McFarlane, Alan: The Savage Wars of Peace: England, Japan and the Malthusian Trap, Blackwell 2003, ISBN 0631181172, ISBN 978-0631181170 - cited by White
- ^ "Military Casualties of World War One"
- ^ Taiping Rebellion - Britannica Concise
- ^ Nuclear Power: The End of the War Against Japan
- ^ Timur Lenk (1369-1405)
- ^ Matthew's White's website (a compilation of scholarly estimates) -Miscellaneous Oriental Atrocities
- ^ Russian Civil War
- ^ Oromo Identity
- ^ Glories and Agonies of the Ethiopian past
- ^ Inside Congo, An Unspeakable Toll
- ^ Conflict in Congo has killed 4.7m, charity says
- ^ Come Back, Colonialism, All is Forgiven
- ^ The Thirty Years War (1618-48)
- ^ Cease-fire agreement marks the end of the Korean War on July 27, 1953.
- ^ Huguenot Religious Wars, Catholic vs. Huguenot (1562-1598)
- ^ Shaka: Zulu Chieftain
- ^ K. S. Lal: Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, 1973
- ^ Matthew White's Death Tolls for the Major Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century
- ^ Missing Millions: The human cost of the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1921
- ^ Timeline: Iraq
- ^ Jones, Geo H., Vol. 23 No. 5, pp. 254
- ^ The Deadliest War
- ^ Clodfelter, cited by White
- ^ Urlanis, cited by White
- ^ Northern War (1700-21)
- ^ The curse of Cromwell
- ^ Albigensian Crusade (1208-49)
- ^ Massacre of the Pure, Time, April 28, 1961
- ^ Attacks raise spectre of civil war
- ^ Journalists in Algeria are caught in middle
- ^ Peasants' War, Germany (1524-25)
- ^ Russian Federation: What justice for Chechnya's disappeared? - Amnesty International
Bibliography
- Angelo Codevilla and Paul Seabury, War: Ends and Means (Potomac Books, Revised second edition by Angelo Codevilla, 2006) ISBN-X
- Angelo M. Codevilla, No Victory, No Peace (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005) ISBN
- Barzilai Gad, Wars, Internal Conflicts and Political Order: A Jewish Democracy in the Middle East (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996).
- Clausewitz, Carl Von (1976), On War (Princeton and New Jersey: Princeton University Press)
- Fry, Douglas P., 2005, The Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions about War and Violence, Oxford University Press.
- Gat, Azar 2006 War in Human Civilization, Oxford University Press.
- Gunnar Heinsohn, Söhne und Weltmacht: Terror im Aufstieg und Fall der Nationen ("Sons and Imperial Power: Terror and the Rise and Fall of Nations"), Orell Füssli (September 2003), ISBN, available online as free download (in German)
- Fabio Maniscalco, (2007). World Heritage and War - monographic series "Mediterraneum", vol. VI. Massa, Naples. ISBN.
- Keegan, John, (1994) "A History Of Warfare", (Pimlico)
- Kelly, Raymond C., 2000, Warless Societies and the Origin of War, University of Michigan Press.
- Small, Melvin & Singer, David J. (1982). Resort to Arms: International and Civil Wars,. Sage Publications. ISBN.
- Otterbein, Keith, 2004, How War Began.
- Turchin, P. 2005. War and Peace and War: Life Cycles of Imperial Nations. New York, NY: Pi Press. ISBN
- Van Creveld, Martin The Art of War: War and Military Thought London: Cassell, Wellington House
- Fornari, Franco (1974). The Psychoanalysis of War. Tr. Alenka Pfeifer. Garden City, New York: Doubleday Anchor Press. ISBN: . Reprinted (1975) Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN
- Walzer, Michael (1977) Just and Unjust Wars (Basic Books)
- Keeley, Lawrence. War Before Civilization, Oxford University Press, 1996.
- Zimmerman, L. The Crow Creek Site Massacre: A Preliminary Report, US Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, 1981.
- Chagnon, N. The Yanomamo, Holt, Rinehart & Winston,1983.
- Pauketat, Timothy. North American Archaeology 2005. Blackwell Publishing.
- Wade, Nicholas. Before the Dawn, Penguin: New York 2006.
- Rafael Karsten, Blood revenge, war, and victory feasts among the Jibaro Indians of eastern Ecuador (1923).
- S. A. LeBlanc, Prehistoric Warfare in the American Southwest, University of Utah Press (1999).
- Duane M. Capulla, War Wolf, University of Pili (2008)
External links
PBS on Now: Talking About War How does democracy decide to wage war?
- The Warlords,C. Wright Mills,The Power Elite,1956
- Map of current wars
- War Articles and History guide, open community site on war
- A timeline of War and Conflict across the globe: 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1999
- Bloodiest Battles of the 20th Century
- Death Tolls for Battles of the 16th, 17th, 18th & 19th Centuries
- Death Toll from Disasters, War & Accidents
- Great Battles of History
- Wars in the World
- Documents and Resources on War, War Crimes and Genocide
- The Security Demographic - provides information about demographic theories of war
- Correlates of War Project
- Correlates of War 2
- Antiwar.com
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
- Complex Emergencies Database (CE-DAT) - A database on the human impact of conflicts and other complex emergencies.
- Christopher Caldwell: Youth and War, a deadly Duo - short summary of youth bulge theory (see section "demographic theories" above)
- WarWiki - a Wikia-hosted wiki about war
- War Disaster and Genocide
- The Myth of the Peaceful Savage
- The fraud of primitive authenticity
- Warfare among tribal peoples
- "The Art of War – maintaining the objective?" on BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time featuring Sir Michael Howard, Angie Hobbs and Jeremy Black
- War Studies Primer - an introductory course on the study of war
- War Trend Will Soon Face Its End - A strategy to end all wars
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