War: Is It Inevitable?

History provides us with different answers. Thousands of wars have occurred throughout the course of human history, leading one to believe that some war is inevitable. Hostilities will always exist between groups of human beings, and therefore conflicts will invariably ensue.

The list of causes for wars is a long one, ranging from territorial battles (Napoleonic), religious (Crusades), and political struggles (World War I, World War II) to those heavily driven by social issues (American Civil War), and many others. Part of what makes it so difficult to determine as a historian whether a specific war is irrepressible is the knowledge that war is not an action springing from a single cause. Rather, it is an extreme, violent response to a myriad of social, political, economic, and religious factors that create such a level of hostility as to render compromise unsuccessful.

World War I 

So much of history is left to chance. Had it not been for Gavrilo Princip, an idealistic Yugoslav nationalist, World War I may never have begun. Perhaps if the driver of the Archduke Ferdinand had not incorrectly turned down a quiet street on that June afternoon, millions of men across Europe would never have lost their lives. There is a school of thought, however, that says that with the explosive climate that was set in the early 1900s, any incident such as Princip’s shooting would have brought along the same result. Any hostile action or false move, then, could have exploded into war-Princip just shot first.

In the case of the First World War, the Archduke’s assassination began a domino effect. That event set in motion many others, working as a machine to lead almost inevitably to war. Austria-Hungary responded harshly to Serbia, which it held responsible for the actions of the nationalist Princip. In order to protect itself from Russian (which served as protector to the Balkan region) reprimand, Austria-Hungary allied itself with Germany in case of war. Due to a complicated and intertwined series of political alliances, Serbia’s declaration of war led to a rapid sequence of war declarations across the continent, resulting in a war that would eventually span the globe.

 The Civil War

For well over a century, many historians have viewed the American Civil War (1861-1865) as an inevitable conflict, stemming from irreparable social issues and economic conflict. Others argue that the war was avoidable with the correct political compromises. Like all wars, however, the causes had deep roots in the past, creating such tension between two halves of the country that with the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, most of the Southern states were determined to dissolve the Union.

For these states, too much was at stake. Much of their stance, of course, had to do with the protection of the institution o slavery. Economically, slavery was worth billions of dollars to the American South. It also served a crucial social role. In this way, slavery was important to all Southerners, slave holders and non-slave holders alike: no matter how poor or downtrodden a white southerner was, there was-in Southern eyes-still one class of people below them. Thus, the institution of slavery was crucial, and seen as a right, to those below the Mason-Dixon line. With these issues at the forefront, and the political divisions that resulted from them, it is easy to see why many historians believe that the Civil War was an inevitable confrontation.

The Iraq War

To any argument, however, there is a counter-argument. For example, one may present the Iraq war as a case in which conflict may not have been inevitable. One of the primary causes of military action in Iraq, per George Bush, was the fear of weapons of mass destruction, which were never found. In the years that followed the initial surge, thousands of Americans have lost their lives while serving. To some, the events of September 11th, 2001 are reason enough to perform preemptive protection measures, such as the invasion of an unfriendly foreign nation. Yet there is a large school of though that still searches for answers concerning the continuing presence in Iraq.