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The major causes of war historically have been

- money

- territorial ambitions

- racism / cultural expansion

- religion

- petty grievances getting out of hand

Money: Some wars have been mainly about dominating trade. Sometimes plunder has been a factor.

Territorial ambitions: Nations have desired the chance to expand and have done so at the expense of neighbors. The United States did this against the Indian Nations. Russia did this with Poland. Japan tried to do this with Korea and Taiwan. Russia and Japan did this, both taking advantage of weakness and chaos in Manchuria.

Racism and culturalism: Many wars have been fought to expand 'civilization'. American Indian nations fought each other (often bitterly) in order to expand their own tribal standing.

Religion: Desire to expand the base of a religion - whether Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, or whatever, has been the major motivation or a supporting reason for hundreds of wars.

Petty grievances: The Bible talks about whole villages being slaughtered because someone took a wife without going through the proper arrangements. Nations went to war in Europe because one country didn't like the idea that Another Country's new king would be related to some other country's king.

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15y ago

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