Why war? essay

War is defined as the use of organized, socially-sanctioned, armed violence to achieve apolitical, social, or economic objective. Wars take huge place in human history. The futility and insanity of wars can not be ignored. Human history full of with bloody conflicts which even big civilizations disappeared.

Why humans fight with each other is a complicated question. Two main reasons stand out why human history faced with wars as mental reasons and economic reasons. Firstly, mental reasons of was should be examined.

Humans, as species, are biological organisms. If one wants to discover why wars occur; firstly, he or she should work on the nature of human. In antique ages humans like other species, solved their problems by fighting. The powerful one overcame the weak one and owned everything. Then fighting spread onto nations.

Nations began to make war to gain every kind of power. Keith L. Nelson and Spencer Colin Jr. explain that humans both individual and as groups are aggressive organisms. They are essentially irrational so if only an organization of power balance can kept them in peace and stops war. (1980, p. 34-35) Also aiming to own more can cause huge wars. This aim can be various; money, land, power, contemporary example: information.

The second mental reason is spreading religion. In the middle ages, human history faced with great religion wars. For many centuries, Christians believed that it was right and proper to use violence –and thus war- to spread the faith and deal with its opponents. They did not regard violence as an inherently bad thing; whether it was bad or not depended on what it was being used for (www. Bbc. co. uk 2001 parag.

4) In addition to mental reasons, economic reasons of wars should be carefully considered. In human history, wealth, money has been the actual reason for lots of conflicts because if one had money or land he had the power. However in last centuries many thing have changed. Quincy Wright examined the economic reasons of wars and recognized that Marxists have theory of war that claims: …That wars as well as other evils grew from the struggle of economic classes manifested in modern times by phenomena of capitalism and imperialism…Among the ‘ forces’ often said by these: ‘ The International Arms Trade’ and ‘ International Finance’. (Evan, 2006, p.

101) Dealing with this quotation brings us that the significant reason behind the wars is imperialism and its outcomes for all humanity. Every kind of imperialism may cause wars. Nations which exposed to imperialism want to protect their civilization. Thus wars occur. The other economic reason is the distribution of water springs. They are very important for humans.

Water wars have occurred especially where there is lack of rains such as Middle East. Israel-Arab conflict; refers to a series of skirmishes and battles. During a two and half year period between 1964 and may 1967. The fighting centered on the issue of riparian rights including the control and use of available fresh water sources on their respective territories within the Jordan River drainage basin. www.

circleofblue. org, 2010, parag. 5) Another example of wars on resources is the ones in America in 18. Century. There were many wars for gold and silver sources between Mexicans and English people. To sup up as it is seen in examples, world’s big problem: imperialism and desire to control sources are the economic reasons of wars.

All in all; because of money. religion. power or weakness of human psychology, human history experienced a lot of bloody wars and it seems that will experience many of them. Without revealing the actual reasons of was, humans can not live in peaceful world. No one waits that wars will finish in a morning all of a sudden but in my opinion, humans, by remembering their real humanity, can reduce those un reasonable wars.

Referenceshttp://www. bbc. co.

uk/religion/religions/christianty/christianethics/war. shtml http://www. circleofblue. org/waternews/2010/world.

html Evan, William M. (2006). War and Peace. Cambridge University Press. Keith L.

Nelson and Spencer Colin Jr. (1980). Readings on War.