How Many Wars Have Been Fought

How many wars have been fought on earth?

It all depends on what a war is? Is it a war if no body died? Is it a war if a nation state isn't involved? What is the difference between border skirmishes and raids and war?Then you have a bunch of interesting problems in that we have no documentation of many. For example The Secret History if The Mongols is the only primary text that we have about Ghengjis Khan and by extension the Mongols. How many tribal ware weren't recorded?Do you include civil a wars and rebellions? How do you take account events like the Vikings and the Japanese Pirates in the South China Sea. Is what they do war? If so how do you count it if it is lots of small raids over a couple of centuries?And then tribal warfare - is it war between two small tribes of 50 warriors each?I'm fairly sure that I could get over a thousand wars in Europe in the last Millennia or so.  So I'd say that there have probably been between 10,000 and 250,000 wars in human history. I'd expect a log distribution with very few wars with more than 100 million participants and a great many with fewer than a thousand. You should be able to estimate it from the data points that we have if you put enough time into it.

How many wars were fought for oil?

Almost all. Beginning WW2, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor so they have their way in Southeast Asia and their great oil reserves. Germany wanted the oil fields in Russia, leading up to Operation Barbarossa. Germany invaded Russia for oil. Failing to take Russia’s vast oil fields, they relied on synthetic oil. America’s involvements in Vietnam was about oil. More so than the Domino Theory. And today’s problems in the Middleast are about what? Besides the religious and political dogmas, it’s all about oil. When Hamas in the Gaza Strip shoot rockets into Israel, it could very well be about Iran paying a few criminals to create tension. That will drive up the price of oil. Iran has a big nut each month, and always trying to get our bucks at the gas station. Oil from Canada, oil from Mexico, geese in your mother’s back yard! Haha! Let’s go solar! No wars over sunshine.

Why have so many wars been fought over Jerusalem?

Because religious people believe their religious histories are authored by god and not men.If you accept that the Torah, New Testament and Koran are written by men, then the answer is simple. All three groups of authors saw Jerusalem as a vital city. They wanted control of it. These ancient territorial claims have survived hand-in-hand with the three religions you mention. It's impossible to unpick the historic ambitions from the religious texts, since they are geographically rooted to the territories and mythology of their followers.Then, of course, there are the people who believe a being capable of creating a universe with a septillion suns (thousands of suns for every grain of sand on every beach on our plant), would be as geographically obsessed as various ancient middle eastern peoples. If you believe that, all you need do is decide which Jerusalem-obsessed deity you prefer. And which particular interpretation of your chosen deity you wish to follow. Then whether or not your deity requires you to kill, torture, forcibly convert or ethnically cleanse on its behalf.

Have more wars been fought over the name of religion?

No. In fact relatively few wars have been fought over religion. In their book, Encyclopedia of Wars, authors Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod document the history of recorded warfare. From their list of 1763 wars, only 123 have been classified to involve a religious cause which is less than 7 percent of all wars. Additionally, the number of people killed in religious wars is less than 2 percent of those killed in all wars. When you consider that over 80% of humans consider themselves religious and that the figure was undoubtedly higher in earlier centuries, the number of religious wars is remarkable few. In fact, two 20th century leaders, Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin, account for more murders than all the religiously motivated killings in all of history. Secularism didn’t become a major political force until the 20th century and if you look at the list of the 10 leaders that murdered the most people, you will find that all of them committed murders in the 20th century with all but one committing their murders exclusively within the 20th century. This list is as follows.Mao Zedong, China, 1949 – 1976, 49 – 78 millionJoseph Stalin, Soviet Union, 1922 – 1953, 23 – 25 millionAdolf Hitler, Germany, 1933 – 1945, 17 -- 25 million.King Leopold II, Belgium, 1885 – 1908, 8 -- 15 million (in the Belgian Congo)Hideki Tojo, Japan, 1932 – 1945, 5.2 millionIsmail Enver Pasha, Ottoman Empire, 1915-1922, 2.5 millionPol Pot, Cambodia,1975-1979, – 1.7 millionKim Il Sung, North Korea, 1948-1994, – 1.6 millionMengistu Haile Mariam, Ethiopia, 1974 – 1991, 400 thousand – 1.5 millionYakubu Gowen, Nigeria, 1967-1970, 1 millionNot a one of these committed their killings for any religious reason. If the 20th century is anything at all like what secularism has to offer, then no thanks. I’ll take religion, warts and all, any day of the week.Note: The number of murders committed by these people is so extreme that the numbers can only be estimated and some estimates vary significantly. The figures without a range are for the low end of the common estimates I could find so the real figure may be a little higher but nobody really knows that exact figures. Also, the figures do not include those killed as a result of military actions during a war but it does include the deliberate killing of civilians during a war and the deliberate killing of prisoners of war.