What Causes War

War-- a horrific way of justifying our actions and the innocent lives that have been lost, but on the other hand has resolved some of the greatest conflicts in history. Not every issue ever raised in this world is resolved through negotiation and discussion, rather sometimes war becomes a necessity for countries to settle disputes. War is a part of how a society strengthens itself politically, socially, and economically however, ultimately it becomes a country’s abusive use of power.

There are many reasons why countries go to war. One country may want to go to war to take revenge on something that another country or countries did to them. Germany, for example, wanted to take revenge on the rest of the European nations after they all unanimously agreed that the responsibility for the First World War should be laid upon Germany. Countries also go to war for another reason, territorial expansion. The crusades were a good example of this because even though they started out a holy war, they converted into wars that focused on expanding borders. There are many other reasons why wars start, but revenge and land expansion are the two greatest ones.

The idea of war has been around for centuries and yet humanity is still doubtful as to what causes us to be so engaged in war. Could it possibly have anything to do with the feelings and emotions that come along when dealing with an actual war? In “The Ecstasy of War”, Barbara Ehreneich argues that war brings such powerful and uplifting feeling that it seems to resemble a religious experience. War exposes a lot about human nature and why despite the destruction caused by war, we still manage to participate. It is important to understand the origins by acknowledging the repetitive and compulsive behavior that arises in human beings at war. By changing the perspective on war, humanity can begin to take the first step to freedom. I will examine

From the beginning of recorded history was has always existed. The causes of war varied from disputes between lands, power, resources, religions, government systems, and economy status. No matter what they reason, war seems to be part of human nature. Every culture around the word has different views of war. In ancient times the Mongolians viewed it as sport and desired to conquer lands and gain more power. The Chinese considered it a great honor to serve their country and go to war. Customs were diverse throughout the regions about how to honor the soldiers, living or dead. Rules of war were developed in some places, but many accounts of war have been unregulated and bloody. Treatment of the innocents of the enemy side varied, as well as the treatment of captives and the dead bodies.

Warfare is the engagement in war of violence it is believed that warfare is human nature and that it is enviable. Warfare can be caused by many things. Some which include, environmental factors, political , religious beliefs, completion between states and even excessive population growth. This has been studied through ancient civilizations. By studying them we can compare them to modern day humans.When this is done we can see that warfare is a huge part of our lives, whether we want to admit it or not. One ancient civilization that distinctly shows violence and war is the Mayans. Though in many books they are seen as a peaceful population, when loosely closely at their lifestye, you can see that was not the case.

Throughout much of the history of civilizations, states have declared war for land, valuables, and resources. In the course of the mid-20th century and the 21st century, ascendant super powers have invaded foreign lands for resources such as oil, and weapons companies have profited from the ongoing cycle of war these super powers promote. The populations of these states have been fed lies vis-à-vis the media; propagandizing these “rogue nations” and promoting an ‘Us vs. Them’ mentality, to garner support for these armed conflicts. War is our primordial instinct, as humans are territorial and aggressive. That is our nature, and by looking at events in our history, one may see that war appears to be timeless and inevitable.

The people of the Trobriand Islands have developed a unique and mysteriously symbolic style of playing the game of cricket. Cricket was first introduced to the Trobriand Islands by Christian missionaries in the early 1900s. They hoped that having a competitive game to occupy their time, they would be less inclined to participate in tribal warfare (Foster, 742). However, even if the game is not promoting warfare among people, cricket could still be putting forth images of battle. I believe Trobriand cricket has become a symbol for tribal war, and incorporates many themes associated with warfare including negotiation, power and resistance.

The purpose of this essay is to inform on the similarities and differences between systemic and domestic causes of war. According to World Politics by Jeffry Frieden, David Lake, and Kenneth Schultz, systemic causes deal with states that are unitary actors and their interactions with one another. It can deal with a state’s position within international organizations and also their relationships with other states. In contract, domestic causes of war pertain specifically to what goes on internally and factors within a state that may lead to war. Wars that occur between two or more states due to systemic and domestic causes are referred to as interstate wars.

War has been going on just about as long as people have been alive. Whether it is just some cavemen fighting over a fire, or multiple countries going to war for justice, there has always been some scale of war. I am going to be analyzing way through functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives.

Those who accept that war as a sociological inevitability, believe that warfare is a creature that was caused by the development of state. They accept that the struggle for land and resources will never end, and believe that the history of war will repeat itself. Although the same people who assume that war is a sociological inevitability believe that war is not in the nature of man, they say that war is eternally unavoidable unless we transform our social system, outlaw classes, and possessions. If and only if these transformations were complete, then the plague of warfare would be cured in the eyes of sociological inevitability.Margret Mead defines warfares as “a recognized conflict between two groups as groups, in which each group puts together an army into the field to fight and kill, if possible, some of the members of the army of the other group.” Mead uses the Pygmy people from the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal as an example. The Pygmies would line up 15 soldiers in the field and would fight, however even then Mead declares that is warfare. The Pygmies were a simple people that were hunter and gatherers, but even

In this essay I will be giving the definition of war and conflict and I will be describing the causes of war and giving examples of wars that have happened because of the conflicts that I will be mentioning in my essay. The causes of war I will be looking at will be; Politics, Nationalism, Ideology, Land, resources, historical rivalry, ethnic conflict and religion. These are the main causes of war.

As soon as there were men, there was war. The history of warfare can be traced all the way back to one of the earliest known civilizations, Mesopotamia. Since the development of organized city-states, warfare has been used to settle disputes, including disagreements over land, resources, and religious beliefs.

War is a seen by those who are against it as the most devastating and dreaded type of human interaction ADDIN EN.CITE Hedges2003517Hedges (2003)5175176Hedges, C.War is a force that gives us meaning2003Gütersloh, GermanyRandom House9781400034635http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=k-KlOS_4b-8C HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_4" o "Hedges, 2003 #517" Hedges (2003). In the society, we leave in, discussions about war are held and preparations for warfare are a normal day-to-day occurrence. Proponents of war argue that nations get a meaning from war and not just carnage and destruction in it way. ADDIN EN.CITE Hedges2003517Hedges (2003)5175176Hedges, C.War is a force that gives us meaning2003Gütersloh, GermanyRandom House9781400034635http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=k-KlOS_4b-8C HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_4" o "Hedges, 2003 #517" Hedges (2003) argues that war gives life a meaning and purpose there by giving people a reason to leave. According to Hedges, with war an excitement hangs in the air. War provides a cause and a resolve to a country as it allows its citizens to be noble ADDIN EN.CITE Hedges2003517(Hedges, 2003)5175176Hedges, C.War is a force that gives us meaning2003Gütersloh, GermanyRandom House9781400034635http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=k-KlOS_4b-8C( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_4" o "Hedges, 2003 #517" Hedges, 2003).

People have been going to war and attacking each other for years. War is a messy thing, and no one likes to go to war, even the people who advocate for going to war do not enjoy it they just see value in it. Regardless, people have been going to war for a variety of reasons for all of history. A brief look at recent US history would show us that we have gone to war in the case of protecting people internationally such as World War One, retaliation such as in world war two, and even stopping the spread of ideas as in the Vietnam war. People go to war because they get something out of it. This view is crucial in understanding that there should be a desired outcome to war. Even so cold “just wars” not only limit violence by stopping oppressors, but they also perpetuate violence by requiring any country that enters into armed conflict to be inherently violent.

It has also been found useful to distinguish between ‘necessary’ and ‘sufficient’ causes of war. A necessary condition is one that must be present for it to occur if that condition is not present then there will be no breakout of war. The existence of arms is a necessary condition of war because without weapons no war can be fought. It is also necessary for humans to be in organized groups – states, tribes, ethnic groups, nations, or mechanisms for preventing it - such as an effective world government.