jeroenrottgering

Europe in history has been the continent with the most wars. During his entire pre cold war history almost every decade European powers battled each other for power. Outside Europe we pretended and were believed to be ubermenschen, but inside Europe we were slitting each others throats. Why and why in Europe? Did we hate each other so much or are white people more interested in world domination then other races or something else perhaps? Was it because we were so far developed in comparison to the rest of the world that knowledge made in attractive to engage in wars. Any good explanations?

PS: You just have to listen to this song it's about Europe's violent history.

Rongo

I think it's mostly because you have so many different cultures in such close proximity, with dense populations competing for limited resources. (Good song, by the way )

Kevinmeath

Sorry I do not know enough about world history to accept the statement that Europe was a particularly more warlike place compared to other regions of the world, say India, Japan or China.

Now at times all these regions have been ruled by a large central Empire (which I doubt came into being because the 'Ruler' asked nicely!) which kept the 'peace', Europe (or the West at least) didn't have this after the fall of Rome. So there were lots of 'Realms' incompetition with each other each one wanting to get ahead/afraid of the others.

Wasn't India like this after the decline of the Murghal Emperors? not a peaceful place at all and it was the British via The East India Company who came out on top.

infestør

europe indeed has many countries per sq. km than any other continent i think this was because of feudalism. after the fall of rome there were many tribes having their own sense of "nation": own dialect, own customs etc. simply put, lack of a central power. therefore this led to many clashes. thankfully, they stopped fighting each other after ww2.
imagine bismarck didn't unify many german states. there would be ~16 more countries in europe today.

Larrey

On the other hand northern Italy was full of little statelets (and more substantial ones). They fought each other, and the Emperor, and the French, anyone really, like buggery all through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (and they weren't feudal btw.). And then they stopped... The little states were still there (well, not quite all of the starting complement). They just settled down and got along with each other in the 18th c. One of these seeming paradoxes of European history. We have great political fragmentation and so ended up fighting innumerable wars — except the bits where we didn't, and just got along peacefully. Go figure?

Or maybe it's just as simple as political fragmentation not being in itself a reason for fighting? People can get along fine in a politically fragmented state. Fighting starts when some people, at certain levels, decide peaceful coexistance is less interesting than violent unification (under them for preference)?

KGB

Europe is not an exception. All old nations had a lot of wars. See Rome, for example. Or even USA! Or Russia, or China.

War is natural for history. In Europe we have huge historical dynamics on a relatively small territory. How without wars?

irishcrusader95

wherever there are people there will be wars

Brisieis

I don't agree with your statement, Europe has not been proven to have had more wars than anywhere else. Even tribal communities slaughtered one another over and over again. Where there are groups of people, you will get battles, this has been proven worldwide throughout history.

As long as there is mankind, humans will fight.

jeroenrottgering

A wise statement. But it looks like Europeans love it the most. Even China's wars don't come close to those of Europe.

tjadams

1. Everyone is so close together.
2. Fighting for the same resources
3. Fighting for expansion
4. Religious alliances
5. Monarchical alliances
6. Nationalism