War
A cave painting in the Galeria del Roure, located in Morella la Vella, depicts archery combat. This image offers one of the earliest visual records of organized violence between groups. Anthropologists disagree on whether warfare was common throughout human prehistory or if it emerged later with agriculture and states. Evidence suggests that most Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies may have been fundamentally egalitarian and rarely engaged in organized violence. Some sources claim that before 400,000 years ago humans clashed like groups of chimpanzees but later preferred peaceful social relations. American cultural anthropologist Raymond Case Kelly argued that high surplus product encourages conflict so raiding often begins in the richest environments. In his book Warless Societies and the Origin of War he explores how these dynamics shaped modern wars.
Lawrence H. Keeley, a professor at the University of Illinois, stated in his 1996 book War Before Civilization that approximately 90 to 95 percent of known societies throughout history engaged in at least occasional warfare. Many fought constantly using styles such as small raids, large raids, and massacres. Early war raids were not well organized because participants lacked formal training. Scarcity of resources meant defensive works were not cost-effective against enemy raids. William Rubinstein wrote that pre-literate societies even those organized in relatively advanced ways were renowned for their studied cruelty. Since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago military activity has continued over much of the globe. The oldest known battlefield in Europe is thought to date to 1250 BC. The Bronze Age marked a key period in the intensification of warfare with the emergence of dedicated warriors and metal weapons like swords.
Asymmetric warfare describes methods used in conflicts between belligerents of drastically different levels of military capability or size. Biological warfare involves the use of infectious agents or toxins such as bacteria viruses and fungi against people plants or animals. This can be conducted through sophisticated technologies like cluster munitions or rudimentary techniques like catapulting an infected corpse behind enemy lines. Chemical warfare includes the use of weaponized chemicals in combat. Poison gas as a chemical weapon was principally used during World War I resulting in over one million estimated casualties including more than 100,000 civilians.
Cyberwarfare involves actions by a nation-state or international organization to attack and attempt to damage another nation's information systems. Cold warfare represents an intense international rivalry without direct military conflict but with a sustained threat of it. It may involve active conflicts by indirect means such as economic warfare political warfare covert operations espionage cyberwarfare or proxy wars. Conventional warfare is a form of warfare between states in which nuclear biological chemical or radiological weapons are not used or see limited deployment. Total war is warfare by any means possible disregarding the laws of war placing no limits on legitimate military targets using weapons and tactics resulting in significant civilian casualties. Unconventional warfare can be defined as military and quasi-military operations other than conventional warfare and may use covert forces or actions such as subversion diversion sabotage espionage biowarfare sanctions propaganda or guerrilla warfare.
Estimates for total deaths due to war vary widely. In one estimate primitive warfare from 50,000 to 3000 BCE has been thought to have claimed 400 million plus or minus 133,000 victims based on the assumption that it accounted for 15.1 percent of all deaths. Ian Morris estimated that the rate could be as high as 20 percent. Other scholars find the prehistoric percentage much lower around 2 percent similar to Neanderthals and ancestors of apes and primates. For the period 3000 BCE until 1991 estimates range from 151 million to several billion. The lowest estimate for history of 151 million was calculated by William Eckhardt who summed recorded casualties and multiplied their average by the number of recorded battles or wars.
The deadliest war in history in terms of cumulative deaths since its start is World War II from 1939 to 1945 with 70 to 85 million deaths. This figure surpasses all other war-death-tolls. As concerns a belligerent's losses in proportion to its prewar population the most destructive war in modern history may have been the Paraguayan War. War usually results in significant deterioration of infrastructure and ecosystem leading to famine large-scale emigration and mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians. Of the nine million people who were on the territory of the Byelorussian SSR in 1941 some 1.6 million were killed by Germans in actions away from battlefields including about 700,000 prisoners of war 500,000 Jews and 320,000 people counted as partisans. During Napoleon's retreat from Moscow more French military personnel died of typhus than were killed by Russians.
Once a war has ended losing nations are sometimes required to pay war reparations to victorious nations. In certain cases land is ceded to the victorious nations. For example the territory of Alsace-Lorraine has been traded between France and Germany on three different occasions. Typically war becomes intertwined with the economy and many wars are partially or entirely based on economic reasons. The common view among economic historians is that the Great Depression ended with the advent of World War II. Many economists believe that government spending on the war caused or at least accelerated recovery from the Great Depression though some consider that it did not play a very large role in the recovery.
World War II was the most financially costly conflict in history. Its belligerents cumulatively spent about a trillion U.S. dollars on the war effort adjusted to 1940 prices. By the end of the war 70 percent of European industrial infrastructure was destroyed. Property damage in the Soviet Union inflicted by the Axis invasion was estimated at a value of 679 billion rubles. The combined damage consisted of complete or partial destruction of 1,710 cities and towns 70,000 villages hamlets 2,508 church buildings 31,850 industrial establishments 40,000 hospitals 84,000 schools and 43,000 public libraries. Russia's involvement in World War I took such a toll on the Russian economy that it almost collapsed and greatly contributed to the start of the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Dutch psychoanalyst Joost Meerloo held that war is often a mass discharge of accumulated internal rage where inner fears of mankind are discharged in mass destruction. Other psychoanalysts such as E.F.M. Durban and John Bowlby have argued human beings are inherently violent. This aggressiveness is fueled by displacement and projection where a person transfers grievances into bias and hatred against other races religions nations or ideologies. The Italian psychoanalyst Franco Fornari thought war was the paranoid or projective elaboration of mourning. He focused upon sacrifice as the essence of war: the astonishing willingness of human beings to die for their country.
Several theories concern the evolutionary origins of warfare. One school sees organized warfare emerging after the Mesolithic as a result of complex social organization and greater population density and competition over resources. Another school argues that since warlike behavior patterns are found in many primate species such as chimpanzees conflict may be a general feature of animal social behavior. Psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker argued that war-related behaviors may have been naturally selected in the ancestral environment due to benefits of victory. Malthusian theories see expanding population and scarce resources as a source of violent conflict. Thomas Malthus wrote that populations always increase until they are limited by war disease or famine. Demographic theories also include youth bulge theory which occurs when 30 to 40 percent of males belong to fighting age cohorts from 15 to 29 years of age.
The morality of war has been the subject of debate for thousands of years. The two principal aspects of ethics in war according to just war theory are jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Jus ad bellum dictates which unfriendly acts and circumstances justify a proper authority in declaring war on another nation. There are six main criteria: first any just war must be declared by a lawful authority; second it must be a just and righteous cause with sufficient gravity to merit large-scale violence; third the just belligerent must have rightful intentions namely that they seek to advance good and curtail evil; fourth a just belligerent must have a reasonable chance of success; fifth the war must be a last resort; and sixth ends being sought must be proportional to means used.
Jus in bello is the set of ethical rules when conducting war. The two main principles are proportionality and discrimination. Proportionality regards how much force is necessary and morally appropriate to ends being sought and injustice suffered. The principle of discrimination determines who are legitimate targets in a war specifically making separation between combatants who it is permissible to kill and non-combatants who it is not. Failure to follow these rules can result in loss of legitimacy for the just-war-belligerent. Religious groups have long formally opposed or sought to limit war as in the Second Vatican Council document Gaudium et Spes stating any act of war aimed indiscriminately at destruction of entire cities merits unequivocal condemnation.
Anti-war movements have existed for every major war in the 20th century including most prominently World War I World War II and Vietnam War. In the 21st century worldwide anti-war movements occurred in response to United States invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. Protests opposing the War in Afghanistan occurred in Europe Asia and United States. During a war parties may agree to pauses called ceasefires. A ceasefire is a stoppage of war in which each side agrees with other to suspend aggressive actions often due to mediation by third party.
A ceasefire can be temporary with intended end date or may be intended to last indefinitely. It is distinct from an armistice in that armistice is formal end to war whereas ceasefire may be temporary stoppage. The immediate goal of ceasefire is to stop violence but underlying purposes vary. Ceasefires may be intended to meet short-term limited needs such as providing humanitarian aid manage conflict to make it less devastating or advance efforts to peacefully resolve dispute. Durability of ceasefire agreements is affected by factors such as demilitarized zones withdrawal of troops and third-party guarantees and monitoring like peacekeeping. Ceasefire agreements are more likely durable when they reduce incentives to attack reduce uncertainty about adversary intentions and when mechanisms prevent accidents from spiraling into conflict.
Common questions
What is the earliest visual record of organized violence between groups?
A cave painting in the Galeria del Roure located in Morella la Vella depicts archery combat and offers one of the earliest visual records of organized violence between groups.
When did the oldest known battlefield in Europe date to?
The oldest known battlefield in Europe is thought to date to 1250 BC during the Bronze Age which marked a key period in the intensification of warfare with the emergence of dedicated warriors and metal weapons like swords.
How many deaths occurred during World War II from 1939 to 1945?
World War II from 1939 to 1945 resulted in 70 to 85 million deaths making it the deadliest war in history in terms of cumulative deaths since its start.
Who argued that high surplus product encourages conflict so raiding often begins in the richest environments?
American cultural anthropologist Raymond Case Kelly argued that high surplus product encourages conflict so raiding often begins in the richest environments in his book Warless Societies and the Origin of War.
What are the six main criteria for jus ad bellum according to just war theory?
Jus ad bellum dictates which unfriendly acts and circumstances justify a proper authority in declaring war on another nation with six main criteria including declaration by lawful authority just cause rightful intentions reasonable chance of success last resort and proportionality.