by Janet Grischy

Created on: March 10, 2010

Before history, there was war. Fossil records, ancient paintings, and some of our earliest cultural documents depict war. The Bhagavad-Gita is framed by war. The Iliad famously describes a war, even if it was only a cattle raid by modern standards.

Men have always gone into battle. To say “men” is to generalize, but with reasonable accuracy. Boudica and her sisters are famous because they are rare. In human history so far, mostly men have made war.

From the earliest records, most women have been the victims, the bereft, or the spoils.

It’s our human nature to make war, all agree, but in why? What drives us to destruction? Here are some competing theories on why countries make war.

Escalating Male Displays

Battles are dangerous. Warriors are disabled, territories are damaged, haying time is wasted. When bighorn sheep link horns in springtime meadows, sometimes both die. Therefore, male animals evolved other means of determining who is master.

Many male creatures, frogs, songbirds, gorillas, and more, advertise their might. This display is intended to attract a female, true, if it is a courtship display, but may also have evolved to drive other males from the battleground. Animals that establish a pecking order without actual battle do not lose any blood or treasure.

Those that are too evenly matched, however, will engage in increasingly fearsome displays until one slinks off, or until battle is joined.

Among humans, some countries are famous for parades, in which cannons and tanks roll down Main Street, to awe citizens and inspire small boys. Bands make loud noises. At nightfall, colorful fireworks startle and delight with imitation war.

This is all very well, but if one country can’t see another’s display, or is blinded by the display put on by its own military, then displays may escalate, until war comes.

Perhaps this explains why many enclaves stood up against overreaching empires, in brief blind heroism.

Economics by other Means

Economics is the science of the allocation of scarce resources. It studies who gets what, and how they get it. War, unfortunately, is a way, however wasteful, of dividing up the world’s limited supply of goods and territory. Dry land is actually abundant, but good well-watered strategically useful land is relatively rare. In many westerns, the ranchers fought the homesteaders for access to water holes. This still goes on, in one sense or another; there are still range wars.

Population Reduction

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