How did war originate?

Question

I have my own opinions on this, but am interested to hear your viewpoints.

Answer 1

One fool perceiving his d**k is Bigger than his neighbor's and then setting out to prove it

Answer 2

Answers about origins always depend on a great deal of speculation and a good amount of faith. Take Fredhill for instance. He actually believes there is a time coordinate in which the event took place (the first war). For such a thing to be true, war would have to be a "cultural practice", something decided upon out of human diversity. People like Greenmanalishi and Maxhedr can't disagree more, since both consider war an inevitable (undesirable) part of "human nature". Thus it can have no beginning and it will have no end.

Others like Largegrass give the "human nature" answer a different twist. From a biological perspective war is not only expected but, at the end, useful for some purpose. Other animals do it so why shouldn't we? But this fails to acknowledge the fact that humans can decide over any "natural" programed practice, something other animals can only reach through human training.

I prefer Jackinirak´s speculations (I guess he has first hand info), because he answers a slightly different question " why is war present in human interaction?". Still he accepts the find-the-origin challenge with a pragmatic answer: because we can. But then again, only humans "can" decide to refrain from doing things they actually could do.

Answer 3

How did it originate? It dates back to the first animals that were competing for available ressources. War exists in the wild and is not limited to mankind. Ants frequently declare war on other nests or other bug colonies like termites. So do many other species. Man is no different. When ressources are limited, human beings will compete for them and if they cannot come to a peaceful resolution to co-exist, will wind up engaged in war.

Answer 4

From studies of apes, it is known that the species and our own behave the same.for we evolved from them. Apes are "territorial" and will kill to protect what they feel they "own" and some will even "take" what they want, fighting for it. It is not surprising, since man is the very same way, so we know that these behaviors go back "milliions" of years and most assuredly there were wars, though small ones even in caveman days.........

Answer 5

The same way it always does, someone has something that someone else wants or doesn't like, whether it's resources, land, or ideologies,etc.

Answer 6

Someone had something that someone else wanted. Or It is a natural instinct to protect and to survive. We are terretorial creatures. We protect our lands from intruders be they human or animal.

Answer 7

The origin is truly lost in the mists of time. War predates Homo sapiens.

Answer 8

War was invented because of people like you.

Answer 9

When the human tribed were nomadic, they did tried their best to avoid meeting another one for competition of ressources, but during hard time, when the food supply was becoming scarce, it was forced to go where food was, and at such period it was often that they met some kind of first arrived tribes on the site... For survival sake, war was occuring. As turning back to find another spot, would have cause the tribe to starves few more days...

But after tribed become sedentarian, tribes grow by attrition and after a few years, nomadic tribes were forced to siege those cities to survived.

This pattern have exist for thousands of years, the Mongols of the Genghis Khan period are one of the best exemple!!

Answer 10

Its origin lies in Survival of the Fittest.

Answer 11

Wow, that was harsh Big Buddy  ...  :)  but maybe spot on.

War (depending on your religious/political viewpoints) originated simply because one person realized he could whoop another person. The first wars (depending on your religious/political viewpoints) were probably fought simply and entirely because someone did not like someone else. Later wars were fought over resources, like land then came a whole slew of war fought over more esoteric things like, I'm the king! There is one common thread among every country that has initiated a war, this thing can not be overlooked because of the great financial implications of war. Every nation that has initiated war (the old testament Jews aside) has had a central banking system, interesting. That is particularly important because of the economic impact of war. How did war originate? because one person could.

Answer 12

When cicilization started, Or war were fought between tribes. Back 5000 years ago. Bronze age,

Answer 13

war is the natural condition of all species. Especailly large aggressive apes - their very success depends on warfare, comptetion, dissatisfaction with current surroundings, and unhappiness.

Answer 14

I think people are warlike and it is part of our very nature.  It has nothing to do with civilization.  It was a major factor that primed us to take over the world.  We are a species with a very rapid potential for population growth.  We are very territorial and only expand our population with the threat of death.  People do not give up territories without a fight.  Sure, groups will cooperate, but in the span of thousands of years, groups will be displaced by more aggressive groups with superior military force.  There is no reason to assume this hasn't been happening for hundreds of thousands of years.

As evidence, I would point out that virtually all human beings on Earth today have acquired their territory by use of force.  After they aquire it, it is taken away by someone else.  When Hawaiians left Tahitti, it only took a few hundred years for these presumed friends to be engaged in all out warfare.  It gets complicated by the social structures and alliances.  People who are closer related will not as likely annihilate the inhabitants but just take over most of the breading.  

Warfare led to the establishment of much more complex social structures to protect themselves from aggressive neighbors and to allow them conquer territories from weaker neighbors.  That is why tribes formed, and a progression of larger social organization.  Even families fight each other when they have disputes.  It didn't likely begin just because we became civilized.  I never got where that very common notion came from but it doesn't seem logical to me.

<edit to add>  I realize that most anthropologists resist this opinion because they prefer to look at the world in an idealized way and not give an excuse to justify western colonialism or any war.  Scientists should put truth before politics.  I am not naive enough to believe that is likely any time soon.