Wars as National Disasters

Abstract

            Wars can fall into the category of national disasters. The categorization is on the reason that wars can destroy life and property. Examples are evident with the aftermath of various wars which took place before such as the World Wars and the Revolutionary movements in European countries that led to deaths and destruction of infrastructure.

Introduction

Maintaining peace in the world after the occurrence of various wars around the world is an involving task that requires total participation in countries as well as the population. The effects of wars are usually catastrophic and fatal to both the economy and stability of the State. The details of the paper shall attempt to give an understanding of the reasons that countries participate in wars. Also, the article will try to find out the progressive nature of war with time, impacts of conflicts in changing the society and peoples’ intuition and finally the initiative that the western civilization implemented to reduce the chances of wars.

Why states fight wars

A perfect definition of a war is conflict that either occurs within the borders on a country or any conflicts that arise with a country with its fellow state. War also results from hostility between different people within a state. There are some reasons why states participate in wars. One common reason for wars between States is the acquisition of another States’ resources for the benefit of the fighting State. Germany for example mainly participated with wars with other European countries to strengthen its military capacity.

States participate in wars through RevolutionaryWars.  In France, the French Revolution arose, and the revolution’s rise was due to the conflicts between the French residents and their administration. The citizens of France were frustrated with the heavy taxation imposed on them by their government as well as inflation of the necessary essential commodities. The heavy taxes profoundly affected the peasants who were struggling to cope up with the poor harvest returns and the government taxing their produce. More problems changed the unemployed and the peasants, regardless of their occupation, they had an obligation of paying taxes.  The escalating heights of inflation and the spendthrift nature of Louis XVI led to the collapse of his kingdom. The agenda of the French Revolution deviated its interests by persecuting the non-collaborators, and eventually, the revolutionary movement was overthrown and led to the establishment of a new government. Civil wars also bring to an understanding of countries participating in wars.  Civil wars tend to arise after the attempts of the revolutionary wars. States engage in wars for the scramble of resources in their neighboring countries.

Changing Nature of War.

            The industrial revolution resulted in the creation and development of new war strategies and the use of technology to develop new and confiscated weapons. First instances of war came about during the era of Christopher Columbus. War crafts used included sophisticated but straightforward weapons and the use of battleships to cruise from one continent to the next. Years later, in the industrial revolution, the creation of weapons led to new tactics in the warfare affairs as more soldiers and fighters acquired arms with ease. The trend continued as the production of other weapons such as tanks and airplanes came to use primarily in World Wars I and II. The evolution led to the development of atomic bombs that highly caused catastrophic effects in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

War then changed for the use of weapons to economic wars, mostly experienced during the cold war era. An example is the formation of policies by the United States, which is a democratic nation that hindered any involvement with a communist country such as Russia even though they were allies in the World War II against Germany.

Impacts of Wars on the Society and People’s Consciousness. 

Wars always have an impact to both the society and the consciousness of people for they mostly result to the establishment of either new government organization structure or ideologies that have an overall goal of restoring harmony in the country.

Wars have made tremendous impacts on changing society. Formation of ideologies such as liberalism meant that the working class, especially the middle class could have a voice in airing their constitutional rights and privileges to the government. The system of liberalism originated after the French Revolution in France. Another ideology that came along with liberalism is socialism. The method of socialism encouraged equality in society and also an equal allocation of resources to the individuals. In a nutshell, every government changes their administrative role and replace them with new laws that minimize the emergence of wars either within the State or by neighboring States.

Western civilization systems created to prevent war

Western civilization involvement after World War II led to the establishment of treaties, The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formed in 1949. NATO’s primary objective is to defend its member states such that an attack to a member state would mean an attack to all the members of the NATO. NATO’s success is evident for there has not been another world war since 1945.

In Europe, Westernization resulted in the establishment of the European Union, a body that facilitates trade within their member states as well as sharing a common currency known as the Euro. Not only does the EU encourage trade activities, but it also offers security to member states, and this could even mean reinforcement during wars.

Conclusion

            State wars mainly arise from either internal disputes between citizens and the government, the citizens by themselves or external conflicts of one state to another. Such wars could be a fundamental of overthrowing an oppressive regime or scrambling for resources in other states.

The nature and structure of war have experienced changes from the ancient techniques of using fires, catapults or other makeshift warfare techniques to more confiscated methods such as the use of firearms, fighter jets, tanks and submarines to nuclear weapons and finally the cold war. Currently, the use of information is the new trend in wars in modern society.

The effects of war have resulted in the formation of state policies that eradicates the prevalence of wars in the future. Western civilization’s involvement included the establishment of treaties and unions that would eliminate any chance of war happening.

 

 

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