What is war?

 «War is a conflict between political groups involving hostilities of considerable duration and magnitude».

britannica.com

Ability and willingness for war

The ability and will to fight is deeply rooted within us as human beings. The way how people fight has changed dramatically throughout history. Especially as a result of the development of technology, a large-scale population growth, and the lack of resources.

Armed conflict

A conflict is more than just disagreeing. It is something that goes on for a longer period of time, and where the parties try to prevent each other from having their needs met. The parties have different values, and try to make these relevant to each other.

What needs do we have as humans? It could be clean water, clear national borders, freedom of religious belief, access to natural resources and cultivated land. If any of this comes under threat by another party, an armed conflict, or war, may occur.

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Kain og Abel

Cain and Abel

The first murder in biblical history was when Cain killed Abel. This wasn’t in a war but a conflict between two brothers. The story of Cain and Abel is found in the Book of Genesis, and is about the sons of the first people to live on earth, Adam and Eve.

Cain was the oldest brother and was a farmer. Abel was a shepherd. Both brothers offered sacrifices to God to show their gratitude. The story tells that God was more pleased with the sacrifice made by Abel. Cain became jealous of his brother and beat him to death. Cain is therefore seen as the forefather of evil, and the one that introduces murder as the solution to conflict.

 

What can we learn from this story? Conflict can appear amongst close family members, and conflicts can be solved in many different ways. The story about Cain and Abel gives us the worst possible outcome. Maybe the storyteller wanted to demonstrate that murder should never be a solution to a conflict.

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Papirbakgrunn 8
Papirbakgrunn 8

War in ancient times

In old times, larger settled groups of people organised themselves into tribes or states. The development of agriculture made people settle in larger cities. They could produce more food and in return the population could grow larger. Some produced more than others, and as a result they gained higher status and more power. To defend themselves against enemies, some became specialised warriors.

Gunpowder and cannons

With the introduction of gunpowder and cannons in the 16th century, the nature of war changed dramatically. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, war and the use of weapons became more systematic, and millions of soldiers were trained under strict discipline and dressed in recognisable uniforms. In the 19th century the concept of ‘total war’ grew as a possibility.

This clip from the film «War Horse» contains explicit scenes and has an age limit of 11 years.

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Why is there war?

War often starts because of access to important natural resources, religion, ideology and the desire for political power. At other times, civil war may arise when the population of the country starts an armed rebellion against the head of state and the authorities.

Each war has its own story, depending on which side you support. The parties that are at war will usually disagree about what the war is really about, and there is great disagreement amongst experts about the why of wars.

There are usually reasons why two parties want to go to war. In some wars, you can understand both sides – you can understand the motivation behind it. Other wars give little reason to support one of the sides. An example of this is the Nazi view on human beings during the Second World War.

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Why?

The American Civil War: In the mid-19th century, the southern and northern states of the US disagreed on the right to get out of the union and slavery, amongst other things. The northern states were afraid that slavery would spread there and the southern states depended on the slaves to keep their plantations going.

After the northern politician Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, seven of the southern states left the Union. The president would not accept this, and within a year, civil war broke out. Then another four states left. Lincoln and the northern states wanted to limit or eliminate slavery in the south, but the plantation owners in the south wouldn’t accept this.

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Abraham Lincoln under borgerkrigen
Abraham Lincoln under borgerkrigen

Why?

Israel and Palestine: The conflict between Israel and Palestine is often called the Middle East conflict. It has also been called the world’s most difficult conflict. In 1948, Palestine was divided as a result of the foundation of the State of Israel. The Jews were to share the land with its existing inhabitants. They were given their own country due to the treatment they experienced during the Second World War.

According to the Bible, the Israeli people had a pact with God to get their own country, but the Israeli people have been in conflict with other groups of people for several thousands of years. The worst was the persecution of Jews during the Second World War. In 1948 the UN established the State of Israel in part as compensation for the the Holocaust.

Palestinians living in the area were moved by force, and clashes and armed conflict started. The UN has tried to divide the area between the two groups of people, but there has been a locked conflict for many years. In 2021 it broke out again and there was great disturbance in the area. Nobody knows how this is going to develop in the future.

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Far og sønn demonstrerer mot konflikten mellom Israel og Palestina
Far og sønn demonstrerer mot konflikten mellom Israel og Palestina

Why?

The Gulf War: The Gulf War was an armed conflict between Iraq and Kuwait. Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 to take control of the country’s huge oil resources. The parties were both supported by other countries and the war lasted for six months.

The whole Middle East is an area in conflict partly because of religious differences, but also because a third of the world’s oil resources are located there. Iraq and Iran were bitter enemies for many years, and Iraq piled up huge debts because of the war against Iran. As a mark of thanks, they wanted their neighbouring country Kuwait to delete the debt they had. At the same time, Iraq believed that they had a right to large areas of land which had rich oil stocks.

Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, attacked Kuwait in the autumn of 1990. The US and 34 other countries reacted to this, and had the support of the UN to rebuild Kuwait to be independent. A country can’t just occupy another country in the way that Iraq did. Is it understandable that Iraq and Saddam Hussein felt let down by neighbouring country Kuwait?

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Children on war

Even small children know what fighting, guns and shooting are all about. They are often exposed to it through computer games and films. Children are not able to understand the range of the term «war», but despite this, they are not very old before they play war. This can start as early as nursery. What do children really know about war?

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Films and TV shows about war

There is not much that captures the audience as much at the cinema, or on the TV screen, than films about war. Epic scenes, nerve-wracking tension and harsh realism mean that many people do love films and TV shows of this nature.

A director will often base the storyline on a real war, but will rewrite the action based on his own story and version of how close to the real events it should be. This is why it is important to be critical of the sources of war films. There are always some creative liberties that the director and the writer will take. Sometimes these liberties can be too far from the truth.

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Krigsfilm på kino
Krigsfilm på kino

Peaceful solutions

War is about making your enemy defenceless and about deciding how your enemy will live. Conflicts and wars will probably never end, but we must never give up the fight to find peaceful solutions.

Nobel Peace Prize

There are a lot of people who work on peaceful solutions, and Alfred Nobel wanted to honour them with a peace prize. Since 1895, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded. It is one of the most important prizes awarded in the world.

Sources:

  • Høiback, Harald: Krigskunstens historie – Fra 1500 til i dag.
    Cappelen Damm AS (2014)
  • Høiback, Harald; Cooper, Camilla Guldahl: krig i Store norske leksikon på snl.no.
    Hentet 8. desember 2020fra https://snl.no/krig
  • Steen, Tone: Sparta i Store norske leksikon på snl.no.
    Hentet 8. desember 2020 fra https://snl.no/Sparta
  • Arntzen, Jon Gunnar; Mæhlum, Lars: Nobelprisen i Store norske leksikon på snl.no.
    Hentet 8. desember 2020 fra https://snl.no/Nobelprisen
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