Reasons To Start Large-Scale Conflicts

[Butterfly]

World War I - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Treaty of Versailles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thought I'd mention them seeing as this year is the hundred year anniversary of the outbreak of WW1.

 

[TheMirrorMage]

Sorry guys haven't updated in a while. Thanks for the contributions!

skip.knox

The general gist of things is that reasons can be divided up into long-term, underlying reasons and short-term reasons. Obviously a reason can fit into either category, but that depends on the nations etc involved, how tetchy they are.

There's also the scale of conflict at hand; some reasons fit well at different levels. I mean, a few cows being stolen wouldn't have started WW2.

Nagash, Alexandra, Butterfly

The "age-old battle between good and evil" reason is definitely worth a mention, the most notable example being Tolkien. But in that, I think there's a few other reasons, eg oppression. From my limited knowledge on Middle-Earth wars, the conflict there is similar in a way to the WW1 - WW2 (Germany being stereotyped as evil, having lost the first war and holding a grudge against the "Good" in the world. The period of "peace" between the two wars is shaky, there's disagreements and reluctance among the allies (Men, Elves and Dwarfs) and the final battle takes the armies to the gates of the enemy's "capital" - Mordor/Berlin. The fact that Hitler was wounded in the first war, killed in the second... anyway)

Thranduil

Culture - yes, I'm actually considering using that in my own story, and I think it's a fairly understandable reason for many people. Look at the Middle-East, Syria etc. You could extend culture to involve political ideas, bringing in Vietnam and Korea as examples. Even in Middle-Earth, there's the differences between dwarfish and elven culture, leading to some conflict. Culture would generally be seen as an underlying cause, rather than "BANG, there's your war"-type cause.

Alexandra

Love being a strong emotion no doubt leads to conflict. I guess it depends on the people who are in love, and their role in a world. I could imagine a street brawl over a woman, but give those guys armies and there's no reason to stop them waging a full-blown war, at least in the heat of the moment.

Gods are a factor, at least in a fantasy world where higher beings might provoke war. Seems like there might be plenty of other Greek and Roman myths/legends where this is the case.

Braveface, Malik

Hurt pride. If someone can fight about it in the street, then someone can fight about it on the battlefield. General rule of thumb. At the core of it is the same psychology. "Male bravado" as some people put it.

James G Pearson

Wars of attrition - another one I'm looking at for my story. It could be used as propaganda when "justifying" the war with other nations. "We did you guys a favour" sort of thing.

stephenspower

Capitalising on war - there's so much to it, which makes it an interesting one to write about. Arms manufacturers are some of the biggest corporations in the world. The only way they make their money is through conflict. Perhaps a truce between two races (eg elves and men) puts some corporations in the red. So begins a conspiracy whereby the corporations scheme to ignite conflicts again. It probably has happened before, to a lesser extent. There's a risk factor in it though, you may lose all your business if your side loses. Obviously you could start selling to the enemy...

Thanks again guys. Hope I got everyone there.