The Nature of Humans 3 - Peace and War
This essay examines the nature of humans in terms of their ability to be peaceful or warlike.
It establishes the total and rate of wars through history from 3000 BC to the present day to establish an average and overall rate of warfare to peace.
A War is considered to be a named conflict from sources. Total numbers of wars are considered to be based on the greatest number of either the number of parties involved or the defeated parties involved since each country considers a conflict to be their own war.
Data
3000 BC to 999 AD
= 673 Wars
= 2001 years / 673 wars
= 1 war every 2.9 years
1000 BC to 1499 AD
= 399 Wars
= 499 years / 399 wars
= 1 war every 1.25 years
1500 AD to 1799 AD
= 916 Wars
= 299 years / 916 wars
= 1 war every 0.32 years
1800 AD to 1899 AD
= 999 Wars
= 99 years / 999 wars
= 1 war every 0.09 years
1900 AD to 1944 AD
= 504 Wars
= 44 years / 504 wars
= 1 war every 0.08 years
1945 AD to 1989 AD
= 494 Wars
= 44 years / 494 wars
= 1 war every 0.08 years
1990 AD to 2002 AD
= 208 Wars
= 12 years / 208 wars
= 1 war every 0.05 years
2003 AD to 2010 AD
= 101 Wars
= 7 years / 101 wars
= 1 war every 0.06 years
2011 AD to 2015 AD
= 51 Wars
= 4 years / 51 wars
= 1 war every 0.07 years
Total time = 5015 years
Total Wars = 4345
Average Rate of War = 1 every 1.1 years
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_wars_by_date
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_before_1000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_1000%E2%80%931499
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_1500%E2%80%931799
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_1800%E2%80%9399
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_1900%E2%80%9344
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_1945%E2%80%9389
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_1990%E2%80%932002
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_2003%E2%80%9310
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_2011%E2%80%93present
‘Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history.’
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/books/chapters/0713-1st-hedges.html
‘Estimates for the total number killed in wars throughout all of human history range from 150 million to 1 billion.’
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/books/chapters/0713-1st-hedges.html
"One source claims that 14,500 wars have taken place between 3500 BC and the late 20th century, costing 3.5 billion lives, leaving only 300 years of peace (Beer 1981: 20)."
Source: Conway W. Henderson (9 February 2010). Understanding International Law. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 212–. ISBN 978-1-4051-9764-9. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
Current War and Peace
There are in 2015, 195 countries, 72 dependent areas and other entities.
This gives a total of 267 countries.
Source: CIA World Factbook 2015
Out of 162 countries. Approx. 60% of the total number of countries. 151 are currently involved in war and 11 are not involved in war.
Source: Institute for Economics and Peace’s (IEP’s) latest study
Therefore approx. 56% of the planet is currently at war.
Source: CIA World Factbook 2015
Conclusions
Taking the Total time from each source, 5015 years, 3,400 years and 5,515 years an average of 4,643 years of warfare can be established out of a maximum of 5,515 years. This allows for an average rate of 1 war every 1.1 years.
The total number of wars range from 4,345 to 14,500 in number since 3000 - 3500 BC to 1981.
Taking an average from these figures 9,423 wars have taken place over 4,981 years allowing for an average rate of war of 1 war every 1.8 years.
Humans have therefore been at war every year since prehistoric times, 3000 BC, to the present time 2015.
The average rate of war is approx. 1 per 1.1 to 1.8 years.
56% of the planet is at War.
Humans had been involved in an increasing rate of warfare from 3000 BC up to 1944.Then the rate levelled off until 1989 and then increased until 2002 and has since been declining again back to 1944 levels.
The speculations could be made that warfare increased from ancient times up to the creation and use of atomic weapons. The rate of war then levelled off. The rate of war increased with the use of terrorism and has since the 911 Twin Towers incident been declining due to anti-terrorism policies.
The conclusion from the data is that the nature of the Human race is a naturally aggressive, defensive, persistently warlike species.
Ian K Whittaker
Websites:
https://sites.google.com/site/architecturearticles
Email: iankwhittaker@gmail.com
26/05/2015 updated on website
01/06/2015
14/10/2020
773 words over 3 pages
See also ‘Britain a Century of War, Austerity and Welfare. Article 099’ for a similar examination of Britain in terms of War