Quote: Originally Posted by darkbeaver
War is the economy of the planet. The last fifty years of growth you mention was a direct result of the second world war. In those same fifty years there was no cessation of war and if we think about it a bit we can with ease remember the millions killed in those wars, Korea and Vietnam would be two that come to mind, non stop carnage in Africa the slaughters of south and central America and on and on no cessation of war not even for one second. That may be hard to understand without you realize what the hidden hand of the markets really is. The bankers have not lost a war for five thousand years, conflict destruction and murder are the economic levers most favoured by the planets ruling elite. War has never been the simple affairs taught to the general public, ever.
David Astle (1916 - 200
The Babylonian Woe Babiloni tok
The Babylonian Woe by David Astle e-book and it's free. A good primer to the history of war.
The fact that wars exist and have existed does not mean that they contribute to economic growth. As I mentioned before war only helps the economy if a nation conquers and plunders another nation. Unfortunately, it is a one way street as the economy of the conquered state is devastated. There are hundreds of examples of how wars have crippled economic growth, but I will list just a few.
World War I so weakened the economies of Western Europe that one of the results was the Great Depression.
It is no accident that one of the greatest periods of economic growth in European history was the 19th century, a time period that was relatively free of war.
The rise of Britain during the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries occurred largely because Britain was not subjected to foreign invasion.
The US Civil war so devastated the Confederate states that it took some of them a hundred years to recover.
The Pax Romana of the Roman Empire was the greatest period of the empire's economic growth.
I could list many more, but this small sample will suffice for now. Perhaps you could give me an example of economic growth stimulated by war. I can't think of any except wars of conquest or those instances where one nation got rich supplying the materials of war to another.
Economic growth that occurs during times of strife is severely limited and what growth occurs happens in spite of the war rather than from it.
BTW the
Babylonian Woe has very little to do with the history of war. It is a history of money, the use of which became more widespread during times of peace.
If you really want to good basic history of warfare try reading Archer Jones'
The Art of War in the Western World.It is one of the best primers on military strategy and tactics I have ever read. It has little to say about the economic value of war, however, probably because there aren't any.
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