This is an interesting video about war over the past 1,000 years. The size of the explosions indicate how many people are estimated to have died (and this probably doesn’t include civilian deaths). What’s interesting for our (sociological) purposes is how these wars occur in the areas of notable socioeconomic development and political expansion. Empires. Think empires and their growth and natural inclination to grow. Keep in mind, by the way, that there was plenty of conflict taking place all over the planet that is not included in these explosions.
60 responses to “War Through the Ages — 001 blog”
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When looking at the video it was amazing how it the first wars started where the current problems still are at unrest today. You can tell the major civilizations started in the Eastern Hemisphere and that expanded tremendously over the beginning years. The Number 1 hotspot was Europe. The Number 2 hotspot was the Middle East. The Number 3 hotspot was China/Japan/Korea. It’s very interesting that history moves in a circle. All of these problems that are brewing in the world are in these exact spots with the exception of Europe at the moment. Things are going to get very interesting in the upcoming years. It shows throughout history the major empires get tested throughout the years and if you fail there goes everything you have built transferred to another nation. I think we are on the verge of an epic war. With all the major powers of the world building and striving to be the main power of the world the United States are seeming to be a little uneasy. With North Korea there has been said that they were willing to retaliate in the United States if we ever went through their country as we have been doing with past countries in the Middle East. Then we have the civil unrest happening in many countries in the Middle East. The citizens are starting for fight for their freedom and are tired of being oppressed. When Rebellions like these occur the United States feel as if they have to get involved, making it seems as if we are the world police. I think we make a lot of enemies by doing this because we are sticking our noses on other countries business meanwhile we are doing the same things in terms building new and stronger weapons. It will be very interesting when a country just tells the United States enough and forces there hand, a Country that will not back down and will take the fight back. As it shown in the video many countries in Europe that were empires were attacked by many countries and eventually leaded to the countries demise. We can only wait and see.
War is crazy to think about. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, and how it affects people. But I guess I haven’t really thought about how people affect war. War happens because countries want to rise up and become stronger and more powerful in the world. Our greed is the reason all of this shit happens. Our greed kills fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, spouses, etc. Is this nonsense really worth it? Should it really fucking matter at all which country is more powerful? Is that power more important than a child having his father or mother there for his childhood? Oil or whatever the fuck else we fight for should not be more important than human life; especially the lives of our own citizens. We talk a lot in this country about supporting the troops. But we don’t support the troops. If we REALLY supported them, we would be smart enough to not go to war in the first place. What we’re really doing, is supporting the troops, and supporting them as they go to a different country where they could die.
It’s hard to believe that there have been so many wars. There’s been so much fighting, and I never realized it. In a way the wars that I didn’t live through seem unreal to me. Like they didn’t happen because I wasn’t alive. That video helped me realize just how long people have been fighting over bullshit, and how many people have been killed over bullshit. What the fuck are we doing to ourselves? The United States is killing its own kids for money. They say we’re fighting terrorism, and I guess we are now. Because the people we decided to fight are fighting back… and that’s terrorism. Apparently. But we aren’t terrorists. We kill half of a country’s whole population with atom bombs. But we’re the good guys. And I think it’s more of our ideology and stubbornness than anything else. Anyone who opposed our government’s ideology is considered a threat and we have to destroy them before they destroy us, even if they have no intention of violence. There’s no way in hell we could be wrong, right?
First of all, I got interested in this video just by seeing the title; I think this fast overview of the all the wars that have happened in the world are a good example. I thought it was going to be differently, but overall it was intense for the five minutes it lasted. Starting watching the video it was getting slow and not much happening. The wars seemed to happen only in Europe and the Middle East. The video caught me waiting, and focus for more and more, it had its calm states and in times there were many wars happening at the same time. The explosion then started moving to Asia specifically Japan. Then to China, Vietnam and continuing with Mexico, then the explosions run to South America. One thing I noticed was that the wars started in North and South America after Europe and Africa and Asia. At the end of the 16th century the intensity of the wars started to happen and it seemed that it was going to get bigger. Is weird to being seeing all the first wars that occurred in the first ages, and imagining which conflicts started all this first wars all around the world. Thinking about all those wars that happened and how later one war who started in one continent was followed by other war and later another one. I also see that in Italy the wars keep happening. Most of the wars that occur in the 17th century were in the Northern Europe and at the end of the century a war occurs in Canada. In the 18th century wars start to occur in the Caribbean and in Canada. This is so amazing because even though they already sat history these events already happened, for me it feels good to know in this very small amount of time how all the wars occurred. At the beginning of the 19th century is starting to get scary and it gets tense because wars happen without stopping and it seems that more and more are going to happen. In this same century is where the first wars occurred in the United States. At the ending of the 19th century wars are happening all over the world, in the beginning of the 20th century a big explosion is made by surrounded wars in Europe, I think it was the WWI that is happening. Following this, in this same century, Europe was in chaos, because of the WWII and the Vietnam wars together with a war in Cuba. The 21st century started with wars in the Middle East and we don’t know what will be continuing.
This video starts very slowly, but the amount of explosions steadily increases. It gets to the point where you can’t even read what the battles were over or were called. When WWII was going on the explosions were huge and very frequent. In comparison, the explosions for The American Revolution and the Civil War were relatively small. One of the things this video made me aware of was that the America’s have not have many home battles. Especially for America it seems like almost all of the military deaths have been overseas, which is a little odd. The other thing this video made me aware of was where most of the battles actually occurred. Central Europe (like France and Germany) seems to be were probably 80% of the deaths from battle have occurred. If wars and battles occur because of arguments and needs for resources, then it would seem logical that these countries are rich in resources. Back when acquiring natural gases wasn’t an issue these regions could have been rich in food or goods. If the battles were not due to resources then they could have had something to do with malevolent leaders. WWII occurred in Germany because of dictatorial leader Adolf Hitler. These days a lot of conflicts seem to occur over oil and gases. An example of this is they current war, the Iraqi War. How war started seemed to be the progression of European empires, such as the Romans. They could have been fighting over power, resources, or land. As more people began populating the land and the population spread out to the rest of earth power and land possession were still a very common thing to fight over. Another issue that started many wars or battles during any of these 1000 years could be differences in religion. Religion had always been an issue, and will most likely continue to be an issue. A final thing I know could be causation of war is money. Everyone wants more money, and when a country surrenders it means the victorious country could ask for war reparations. Wars are expensive, and any reparations are greatly appreciated. As our society continues to progress and resources become more scarce there will become more and more battles. Also as our military weapons of mass destruction become more and more accurate and destructive more people will die. We are in a never ending incline of war deaths.
Ever since the World Wars and the development of high tech weapons, the world, especially the United States, has been addicted to war. We see a string of wars such as the Korean War, Vietnam War, Cold War, Gulf War, and most recently, the Iraq War. The list of wars keeps growing, and does not include other conflicts such as Libya. According to the statistics shown in the video, the Western hemisphere’s war casualties, which includes both military and civilian deaths, have also increased dramatically.
First of all, let us address a few key issues. Why did the number of casualties dramatically increase in modern wars? The most obvious explanation would be the increased usage of big guns and bombs. During the American Civil War, soldiers marched onto a field, shot at each other with rifles and cannons, and fought bare-handed when they ran out of ammunition. This warfare technique left most civilians untouched and safe. In contrast, modern warfare involves billion dollar fighter jets dropping bombs on cities and on civilians. Ninety percent of all casualties in the Iraq War were civilians, Iraqi civilians.
So, what is the rationale behind all this fighting? To bring freedom and democracy to the world. However, what is freedom and democracy? Do they even exist? As established in sociology class, the American ideal of democracy does not really exist. We are fighting to establish legalized bribery in other countries. Even our guest speaker spoke about how only the rich controls the current Iraqi government. Our ideas of freedom are also influenced by invisible factors and forces, meaning one country’s idea of freedom might be different from another country’s depending on what they have been taught to believe.
No matter what, war will always exist. In fact, the rate of fighting will probably continue to increase in the future because natural resources (mainly petroleum) are hitting its peak while demand keeps exploding. People are scrambling to fight over those resources, and bigger guns will be developed to help attain them. Whoever wants to win must kill. Therefore, we can be assured to see more wars and casualties.
The video really showed how war has always been an issue throughout human history. I noticed that since the 1700's humans have seemed to decide that war is a good idea and a good way to solve problems… The amount of war that has happened since 1700 is incredible. I dunno if humans have changed, or if society just evolved but war seems to have become much more common thing to use against other populations of people. Its crazy to watch the timeline and notice the events that go along with the dates. Like the conquistadors marching in south america, the crusades, and even WWII.
I think that war has become an overused and easy form of problem solving. Throughout human history there are no real examples of problem solving using politics, however there are a huge number of wars that have become major factors in human history and evolution based on their outcomes. Imagine if the germans had won world war two, or if the crusades had gone differently and the world was a Muslim dominant place. The world would be a totally different place, and we all might view the image of war differently.
I just want to first say, WOW! That was an incredibly mind opening video that really presented the debacle of world history in less that I thought possible, five minutes. I'm more of a science oriented person and so I was never too interested in world history but the amount of battles that have taken place since 1000AD are astronomical. More importantly though, is that the video shows a much bigger picture than what meets the eye. And really the bigger picture is this; people have always fought wars and will always fight wars. It’s a sociological thing that we can not overlook anymore. We’re not fighting wars for peace; we’re fighting wars for domination and power control. I think that idea is very evident from this video in the fact that as time progressed and the amount of people increased, more battles were fought. It was also evident that every important society through those years, like Europe, Japan, and parts of America, were involved in some sort of military conflict. Sociologically speaking war is really determined by forces outside our control, or by the strings.
For example, the reason that America goes to war so often is not because of American’s yearning for world peace but rather the power struggle that occurs on a daily basis. America likes being on the top and of course it’s going to do everything to maintain its power.
This video clip really upset me though because it reminds me of the statement “Learn from history.” In which it is evident that we have not. It also makes me upset because in the news war is always played off by being about world peace and that is exactly the opposite of what it is. I mean seriously, does anyway really truly believe that our involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq is strictly for peace? Hell no, we're raping them dry of all of their oil so we can afford to buy gas and other byproducts that fuel our everyday lives. When it comes down to it, war is a fundamental to the world we live in and it will continue to be part of it until the end of time.
The video starts out slow and then rapidly increases the pace of explosion. The trend of increasing war is an scary one and is continuing to grow. The video we watched in class and the book we read has completely opened up my mind to see beyond the propaganda and lies. One of the scariest statistics presented was that there have only been twenty-seven years of peace. So why are we so quick to fight? I can understand back before modern civilizations countries fought war over land disputes. But now you would think that after the destruction that was cause after world war two we wouldn’t be so eager to start a war. But that is just not the case as the US has been all over the map since world war two fighting wars that were not even necessary. In the book we read the author questions what the higher purpose and goal of the Vietnam War was. And if you think about there really wasn’t a good reason for us to be there.
Another thing I noticed about the video is that none of the explosions came on American soil. So we are so eager to jump across the Atlantic and destroy countries but we don’t ever put ourselves in the shoes of the people whose country we are invading. Sams friend from Iraq talked about how before there were no terrorist groups in Iraq but once the Americans showed up people were flocking in from other countries to fight the Americans. So basically all we did was make things worse for this country and its people.
The second thing presented in the video is who are we really fighting in these modern day war? The video said that in the Iraq war ninety percent of the casualties for civilians. So you can understand why these people hate us so much because we are recklessly bombing the country to kill one or two people but instead we kill hundreds of civilians by accident and its ok because it was an accident. And of course nobody can stand up to American and make them accountable for what is basically murder.
War, in the dictionary is it’s defined so gentle and harmless, “a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations”. Behind these words war has so many horrific things behind, it is the cause of many instabilities, it the cause I many nations to go in top complete melt down. Because of war many people have lost their entire family, their lively hoods, and the things that make them human beings. War in itself is a big money maker, all the weapons that are crated and sold, all the allies that are made through the suffering and pain. I have been I a war, I have been in several wars and seen devastations. I have seen people killed, people hands cut off, people being burned in their houses alive, babies looking for their mothers, mother liking for their children, people in disarray, and all while others are watching. America has played its part in several different wars over the years. Just a few of the major ones include WWI, WWII, Vietnam and now the War with Iraq. These wars America has benefit from them one way or the other. From the time when America dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, the world has been scared of the US. With that one bomb it led to many things, kids being born with deformities, people no surviving, and taking decades to rebuild. Catastrophic is the word that should be used when regarding to war. With war, we all know there is much controversy from citizens and people affected by it, in regard to support and whether it is right or wrong. There are always those who strongly oppose war for different particular reasons and those who are actively for it and support all its efforts. War is so terrible it affects the people doing the hard to other, they come back from the experience messed up and they want to define as other things. When you are in war the ability to kill comes instantly, unless you are the one who is afraid for their lives. It’s easy to kill at times it become a custom but if you let it consume you and take over your lives it would eat you up inside and then you will have nowhere to go because it’s in your mind and it will keep eating you inside out. With these factors in mind, there are many different opinions that have and currently do emerge from the public, such as concerns about the people in the war. But war will never stop it is in our blood and we will be in war until we destroy the war.