The History 20 Final @humansatwar-blog - Tumblr Blog

Is war necessary? Can some conflicts only be solved by violence? Human history is indeed often presented as primarily a history of wars and battles, conquests and defeats. While that is only one perspective amongst many possible ones, violence of one sort or another has certainly been, if not centre-stage, at least lurking in the wings throughout the human story.

Robert Aubrey Hinde, War: The Bases of Institutionalized Violence

War--Human Nature?

War and human nature. It is something that continues to be discussed by people all over the world today. Is war really an inevitable human urge? Sometimes, when looking at history it appears that war really is a part of our human nature. Look at the horror of World War I, which at times can seem like a mindless and almost pointless war over power. Surely, it shows that it is in our nature to fight and compete for power and control. Or, what about the pain, suffering and outright cruelty from World War II? Again, it seems that fighting is a part of our nature. Think of the concentration camps, Hiroshima and other historic and horrifying events. And yes, we must consider again the Cold War and how close it really came to all-out nuclear warfare, and all the other wars that happened during that time period, such as Korea and Vietnam. Today there is still conflict, like Afghanistan, Iraq and the Palestine-Israel conflict to name a few. When looking at this it can seem that war is really a part of our human nature and is inevitable. Yet, if we look deeper we will find that war is in fact not as unpreventable as we thought. Throughout history there is a large amount of evidence that shows that war is really not a part of our nature. To find it we need only look.

If we do look it becomes apparent that war is really not a part of our human nature. All of these wars were started by a small group of people. Just because the leaders of a country may want to fight, does not mean they represent the rest of humanity. Also, if people want to fight so badly things such as drafts would be unneeded. For both the Vietnam and Iraq wars there were huge protests by the general population. If war was really a part of our nature, then these protests would have never happened. There are many other reasons that war is not a part of our human nature and many of them can be found in the history books.

“It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Anne Frank

"The War to End All Wars"

World War I did not just suddenly ‘happen’, in fact, the tension and animosity between the countries had been growing for years. The relationships between the countries and the relationships between their leaders as well, only worsened the situation as time went on. There may have even been a time it all could have been prevented, but no country wanted to back down. The ‘Powder Keg’ was ready.

Germany & Britain

It was obvious to anyone that Germany and England were not the best of friends. They competed with eachother over almost everything, but mainly they competed for first place in the Arms Race. Britain was undoubtably the master of the seas, and had a very large and powerful navy. This didn’t sit well with Germany. In fact, Germany set out to create her own more advanced navy. This in return did not sit well with Britain. Tensions continued to rise as each country began designating more and more effort and money towards building up their defense.

#Germany #Britain

Germany & France

It was common knowledge amoung the leaders of the European countries that war was approaching. They didn’t know exactly when or how but they knew they had to be prepared. Many countries had general military plans. Germany was no exception. Germany knew that if a war was to start she would be forced to fight two separate fronts, against France and Russia. Germany knew they would need a plan to take on both the Russian’s and French. They came up with the Schlieffen Plan.

In retaliation France came up with their own plan, called Plan 17. Of course, this did nothing to help the tensions, which were already bad between the two countries. Germany had humiliated France in 1870 and they had been forced to give up Lorraine and Alsace. This was not something France was ready to forget

#Germany #France

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