Hello and can you help me.

[Guest -?-]

Hi

 

New to the forums and could use some help.

Firstly let me say that I visit these forums 5 days a week (Im a junior in high school) because I think the ideas discussed here are great reading. I havent registered though because Ive never really been able to contribute to a conversation. Very plainly Im not as knowledgeable about the things discussed here as most of you are.

 

I need your help though, Im attempting to write a paper (only 15 pages) on the origins of war and I need some opinion or some good resources. I know that thats a very broad topic, but Im not really sure where to start. Ive read a bit on the origins of war in nature (nature. vs. nurture theories) and I watched a movie my teacher recommended (didnt help much :-\ ) on the origins of war. It was more abouyt the origin of war in man though, saying the entire concept has only been around for some 5000 years, and that the origin of war is theft. I disagree but I really have no valid opinion or supporting arguments. Im really interested in anything anyone has to offer me and Im hoping you can help me with some quality resources/articles/anything to look at. Im really struggling with where to begin and what to discuss. Any help would be much appreciated. (please simplify any answers Im a victim of public education ) thx.

[fafalone]

Simple answer to why war came about: religion.

[greg1917]

I can understand what he means about theft. If you take war as conflicts throughout history, many had a religous aspect but theft was a major issue. in the midde ages conquest was the driving factor - in medieval france the ruling culture was almost entirely based on violence, so when few people were left to fight crusades started. the temptation to conquer new lands for people to tax, pillage monasteries and castles, expand ure empire drives people to fight. the nazi empire in 1942 stretched from the atlantic ocean to the volga, quite an expansion on the germany the league of nations created in 1919.

 

have a look at some medieval history textbooks cos if ure looking at the basis for war itself, it helps not to get too bogged down in late 20th century wars which have very specific political machinations. In saying that u can still say the same base desire for conquest for war is there tho, such as argentina invading the falkland islands...

[the GardenGnome]

I don't know much about the origins of war but I do know Genghis Khan was a great warlord.

[DocBill]

Obtain a copy of "The Art of War" (Sun Tzu) and "The Prince" (Niccolo Machiavelli). If there is not 15 pages of INTRO on war to be gleaned from this...then I can't help you other than to recomend you to ask your folks to please remove you from public school ASAP.

 

Good luck;

 

Bill

[Radical Edward]

Sun Tsu's thirteen chapters is nice and short, and most of what he says makes sense. It is however more about the art of war... utilising the lie of the land, tactics, information and so on. Another issue is finding a good translation, which sometimes can be difficult. I forget who translated mine, but it is pretty good I think, and actually discusses some of the translation complexities in the footnotes. If you want more on the origins of war, then you want to look more to the human condition, think about aspects of the human mind that make us prone to it. land, dominance, power... they are all natural instincts, and can be seen in conflicts between other creatures when they defend their territory, and perhaps most notoriously ants and termites who afaik (do any bees or hornets do it? I don't think so) are the only other creatures on earth that war on the scale that we do. Be careful when mentioning religion. While it is a common reason for wars occuring, it is not the origin and exclusive reason.

[Guest -?-]

Thank you all for your help, I really appreciate it. Im going to continue to visit the forums and learn. Ill keep you updated and let you know how my paper goes, I may need your help again too. Thx.

[Guest -?-]

Also I apologize if there is an increase of under-educated activity here I was talking about my sources in a class and mentioned the forums. Just assuming you dont want to spend your days explaining things to people who dont know what the probably should. Thx again for your help though.

[fafalone]

Questions like yours are good. It's just annoying when someone asks a question that answered by spending 10 seconds on Google, and isn't something that we can build a discussion around.

 

That and non-descritive topics. People are much more likely to read a topic like "The history of war" rather than "please help me".

[Guest -?-]

Ok so Ive decided to write more about the History of war in man opposed to the history of the concept of war. Just less research to do and the history of war in nature is going deeper than I want to. I have to make this a controversial topic though, I cant make it an informative report. My idea was to establish what the basic functions of war in man are, and then debate wether or not goals are accomplished. I want to have more options though, any suggestions about what issue I can present and debate?

[fafalone]

If you want to make it controversial just talk about what I did... religion has caused more death in war than anything else.

[Ryoken]

Actually, you could look back in time 20 000 years and discover people having war.

Also, chimps also have wars of their own between groups, ie; group A kills leader of group B then systematically hunts down and kills remaining members of group B.

 

Sources: Discovery channel, National Geographic channel

[Guest -?-]

Its been awhile since Ive replied, Ive been busy, but I need your help again.

 

 

In research Ive found an idea, or set of ideas, that I like. The controversy is still "what is the origin of war" and I havent chosen an answer. Im contemplating and will choose one of the following theories:

 

[*]Sociobiology: An updated version of the Spencerian thesis, war serves the grand fuction of human evolution.

[*]Cultural Darwinism:The process of cultural evolution mimics natual selection.

[*] Cultural Ecology: an updated version of the cultural-anthropological thesis combining Rousseau and Malthus;

[/list=1]

 

* Rousseauean Thesis - War is not part of human nature but was invented by the states for the internal function of solidarity and the external function of maintaining the balance of power.

 

*Malthusian Thesis - War serves the grand function of reducing population, quite apart from its conscious proximate functions.

 

Reference

 

Im really interestead in and wanting to hear your opinions. Any input on any idea mentioned, or not mentioned, is greatly appreciated. Ive had trouble understanding alot of what Ive been reading and any help is always appreciated.

 

Also* War existed in nature before religion, and has existed in man without religion. War can be a reoccuring incident in religious issues, but isnt the origin.